23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Dear God, I guess the Sadducees hadn’t learned from the chief priests and Pharisees. They decided to show how “smart” they were.
Jesus’ lesson here about the resurrection is pretty clear, but I want to go back to this idea of raising up offspring. I have a friend who is about as devout a Catholic as I can imagine. He truly loves you and has passion for you. I admire him a lot for his earnestness and faith. One of the unique things about him, when I compare him to my other friends who are Catholic, is that there is seemingly no Catholic doctrine with which he disagrees, or, at least, doesn’t accept due to church and Papal authority. I bring this up because one of the topics he is passionate about and brings up a lot is the abhorrence of contraception. His rationale for defending the church’s position is the idea that you told Adam and Eve in the garden to be fruitful and multiply (even though you didn’t say it there, but in chapter one on the 6th day of creation).
I bring all of this up because, according to the Sadducees, it was important to carry on your brother’s name by marrying his widow and having children with her if he died. Frankly, this seems kind of backwards to me, although Deuteronomy 25:5-10 is a pretty interesting read regarding this topic. But it feels like this is Old Covenant type stuff to me. My friend says that the primary purpose of sex is to possibly conceive. I would say that the primary purpose of sex is to become one with your spouse (Genesis 2:24). I think that these Old Testament rules were developed when 1.)Israelwas trying to build itself as a nation and 2.) men died young and there were a lot of widows to care for so men needed to have multiple wives so that there would be someone to care for the women and their children.
Father, I guess I don’t see too much that is life-changing here, but the idea that the Sadducees were coming to Jesus with the multiple wives scenario is interesting. I like that he neutered the whole argument by saying that it won’t matter in heaven. We won’t have the incompleteness we have here on earth. We will be fulfilled, living like the angels in heaven. So if I am sinning through using contraception with my wife, I am sorry, but this is the best I have to offer you. Perhaps I am too selfish to objectively hear another argument. I don’t know, but I know that I am at peace with this decision.
Emails to God 