In Sunday’s gospel a Sadducee poses a question to Jesus regarding the law of Moses. The law states a man is to marry his brother’s widow if she is childless. The Sadducee presents a case in which a widow has married seven brothers but never had children. Who will be her husband in the afterlife?
Jesus’ statement recognizes the Sadducee’s real issue has nothing to do with the hypothetical case of a woman with seven husbands but focuses on the denial of resurrection. He dismisses the Sadducee’s assumption that life in the resurrection will be identical to life on earth. Jesus argues from the book of Exodus that the God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush claimed to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived long before Moses. Thus God is God of the living.
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