God of the Living

[A reflection on the Gospel for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, November 9, 2025. This and the other readings for the day may be found at https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/proper-27c/]

It was no secret that Jesus and the Establishment did not get along, or that the Establishment wanted nothing more than either to destroy or to discredit Our Lord on some technicality which nevertheless would resonate with all Israel. The Sadducees (the Establishment party) took especial delight in coming up with convoluted tests such as this one. A woman, subject to the dictates of levirate marriage, was required according to that legal tradition marry her departed's next brother in line to raise up heirs to the deceased brother. So they concoct this story of a woman who works her way through seven brothers before herself dying childless.

Now, instead of asking a question about the law, that is, what do we do about the fact that NONE of these men left heirs, or instead of questioning after husband number two just why these men were kicking off (I have watched way too many true crime shows), the Sadducees ask Jesus, "In the Resurrection, whose wife will she be?" never mind the fact that the Sadducees did not even believe that there would be a resurrection in the first place.

Our Lord, rather than stringing them along (which is what I would have done, but that is beside the point as well) decided to cut to the core heart of the matter, not the actual legal issue of inheritance, nor the speculation of who gets to be the husband in the afterlife, nor did they have "help" in their demise, but whether there was a resurrection from the dead in the first place. Rather than getting all philosophical on the nature of the soul or the mechanics of resurrection, Our Lord turns simply to a statement that God is the God of their ancestors, present tense. Then Jesus tells them that God is God of the Living, not the Dead.

As we ponder this simple yet profound statement, it begs us consider the very nature of God, the nature of Humanity, and the role played by Death. It is obvious that God is not only the source of life but is Life itself. The implication is that God will breathe new life into everyone, good or evil or in between as He has no interest in being God of creatures no longer in existence. Furthermore, Jesus tells them that because Death will be no more the phenomenon of reproduction, created to counteract Death in the current age and to bring to being all the humans God plans and desires, will no longer at the end of time be needed. At least, that is the implication.

This is definitely food for thought. Here Our Lord has stated that people will not be married in the life of the age to come. Women who in this age were defined by marriage and/or family are members of the Kingdom of God in their own right, having no governor or husband or guardian or keeper. Children have no parents or foster parents or governesses or conservators. People of all sorts have no masters or owners or rulers save God Most High, to Whom all things belong, in Whom all things have their being, and with Whom all things have their joy and fulfilment. No one is responsible for begetting heirs, no bloodlines have to be guarded, none of the sorriest of human practices and institutions will exist because God is not God of the Dead but of the Living. In the Resurrection, relationships are no longer defined against death but in the Light of the Everlasting God.

Whose wife will she be? No one's. Whose husband will they be? No one's. Whose children will all of them be? God's alone. Who will those who have gone before us be? Living co-citizens of the Kingdom of God. Does that mean past loving relationships will be no more? Our Lord did not say that, but He did imply that they will change, that inequalities and ties will be no more, and that all will find their relationships with each other being defined as children of God. This both simplifies our relationships and opens us to even greater relationships within the Love of God, Who has not abandoned us to the Darkness.