Letters from St Paul’s - God of the Living: Jesus, the Sadducees, and the Hope of the Resurrection

God of the Living

Have you ever had someone—maybe a proclaimed atheist, or someone who otherwise doesn’t care about Christianity or God—ask you a question regarding Christianity or something the Bible says? Not out of honest inquiry, but because they’d like to trap you?

Or have you had someone who doesn’t follow Christ or believe in Jesus in the slightest say something like:

• “If you’re a Christian, why did you say that bad word?”

• “The Bible says ‘judge not lest ye be judged,’ but you’re awfully judgmental.”

—all while having absolutely no intention of placing their trust in Jesus or following Him?

Or maybe you’ve had Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door trying to find common ground, when really they are probing for holes in your theology to persuade you to adopt theirs.

The atheist, the heathen, and the heretic often share a common goal: to make you question your faith, ridicule your faith, or prove you wrong so they can feel correct. People love to be right—even when they’re wrong.

This is exactly what happens in today’s Gospel lesson.

The Sadducees’ Trap

The Sadducees were a group of Jewish leaders who believed only the first five books of the Bible—the Torah or Pentateuch—were authoritative. The Pharisees believed in the prophetic books, the psalms, the histories, and so on.

The Pharisees believed in the afterlife and the bodily resurrection. The Sadducees did not.

That is why they are sad, you see.

They believed the Law was written for life on earth only—live as best you can according to Moses, then die and return to dust. That’s it.

So they approach Jesus with a question meant not for theology, but for mockery:

A woman marries seven brothers in succession, each dying childless.

“In the resurrection,” they ask, “whose wife will she be?”

They believe they’ve made the resurrection look absurd.

But our Lord will not be drawn into their cynicism. Instead, He uses their own Scriptures to reveal a truth far deeper than they can comprehend.

Marriage and the Age to Come

Jesus begins by teaching that the life to come is not a continuation of this life, but a transformation of it.

“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,"

“but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

Marriage—holy, sacramental, and God-ordained—belongs to this age, where life renews generation after generation. It is given for sanctification, union, and the raising of children.

But in the resurrection, there is no death, and therefore no need for propagation. There, love will be purified from possessiveness and exclusivity. All human love will be caught up into the infinite love of God Himself.

We will not cease to love—we will love perfectly, freed from sin, fear, and loss. We shall be “like the angels,” not in substance, but in immortality and perfect communion with the divine will.

Jesus Uses Moses Against the Sadducees

Then Jesus drives home His point using the one authority the Sadducees accept—Moses.

He quotes the burning bush:

God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

These patriarchs had been dead for centuries.

Yet God is (present tense) their God.

If He is their God, they must still live.

For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.

A simple argument—yet infinitely profound.

When God declares, “I AM WHO I AM,” He reveals Himself as the eternal present, the source of all life.

To be in covenant with the living God is to be drawn into His eternal life.

What Jesus Reveals: Two Great Truths

1. The Nature of God

God is not a distant deity presiding over the dust of forgotten men. He is:

• the God of the living

• ever faithful

• ever present

• the One who brings life from death

• being from nothing

• hope from despair

2. The Destiny of Humanity

We are made not for death, but for life.

The resurrection is not a theological footnote—it is the heart of the Christian faith. It vindicates the goodness of creation and ensures that nothing truly good is ever lost in God.

In the resurrection, our bodies will rise—glorified, incorruptible, fit for the Kingdom.

Jesus Himself is the firstfruits of this promise.

I’ve sometimes wondered if this is why mankind imagines characters like Superman and other superheroes. The Bible says eternity is set in the human heart. Deep down, we sense that one day, in Christ, we will be changed—like the angels, even like Jesus Himself: walking through walls, traveling instantly, transformed in glory. Just my theory.

The Eucharist: A Foretaste of the Resurrection

In the Holy Eucharist, we receive a foretaste of resurrection life.

Though it may appear like a simple ceremony of bread and wine, in reality:

• the veil between heaven and earth is lifted

• we join angels and archangels

• we join the saints in glory

• we unite with all the company of heaven

The same Christ who died and rose is present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—feeding us with eternal life.

Each time we kneel at the altar, we stand at the edge of both worlds:

• the world of the living

• the world of the resurrected

The saints, the faithful departed—all live to Him and are not far from us.

In the Eucharist, time folds toward eternity. Heaven and earth meet. The Church militant and the Church triumphant worship as one.

This is why the worship scenes of Revelation—chapters 4, 5, 7, 11, and 19—describe what we join every time we worship.

Heaven Is Not the Final Destination

Heaven is an intermediate state between our death and the resurrection.

Many Christians imagine floating as spirits forever. But Scripture teaches:

• there will be a bodily resurrection

• we will be reunited with our bodies

• we will live in a new Heaven and new Earth

• the physical home of the redeemed

This is the Christian hope.

Living as People of the Resurrection

Therefore, let us live as people of the resurrection now:

• loving without fear

• serving without despair

• trusting God’s promise of eternal life

To belong to Christ is to belong to the living God, who in Christ Jesus has conquered death forever.

If you do not have Jesus Christ as your Savior, I pray today that you ask Him to save your life and your soul.

Make Him the King of your life.

There is nothing more important.