Wednesday – 9th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Mark 12:18-27

1 Bride for 7 Brothers?

Wedding Chapel, Cana

Hypocrisy – Round 2!  Today it’s the Sadducees turn to try and get under Jesus’ skin by asking a ridiculous question about heaven.  What if a woman ended up marrying 7 men (brothers)?  Then to whom is she married when she gets to heaven?  It reminds me of grade school religion class when we would play ‘stump the teacher’!  If God is all-powerful, can He make so big and heavy that He can’t lift it????

Let’s be clear; the Sadducees don’t even want an answer from Jesus; they just want to make Him look foolish.  They don’t even believe in a resurrection.  And that, I think, is the point.  Their only focus is on this life. They believe there is nothing after death.  They believe that any reward or punishment happens to us in this life, not the next.  So they can only conceive of heaven in human terms, in terms of marriage and human love. 

Jesus sets them in their place.  He simply says there is no marriage or getting married in heaven.  What He means is that heaven is so completely beyond this human existence, so completely beyond anything we can imagine.  It is living so totally in the presence of God that simple human desires are trivial.  We think we know what love is; Jesus says wait until you get to heaven.  Then you will know real love.  We think we know what happiness is; just wait! 

So if the fears and anxiety of these past few months are getting to you, to us all, and there seems to be no end of bad news and hypocrisy and outright bigotry and selfishness, just wait!  Remember – Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.

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