32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle
C
November
6, 2016
Saint Matthew Parish, Baltimore
A Strange Regulation
In the
Book of Deuteronomy, one of the first five books of the Bible, there is a
rather strange regulation.
The
rule is about what is to happen if a husband dies, leaving his wife widowed and
with no children. The rule says that the
deceased husband’s brother is to marry this woman.
Hopefully
they will have a child and this will be a way for the name of the deceased
husband to continue. It is the only way
they could imagine that he would be able to live on after death.
Dispute over Resurrection
Now to
us that ancient rule sounds very strange and, in fact, the Jewish people seldom
observed it.
But, it
forms the background to today’s gospel.
A group of the Jewish religious leaders are bothered by Jesus’ talk
about resurrection.
They
cannot accept this because it is not in the first five books of the Bible. So they concoct an extreme example of a man who
dies and, in succession, each of his six brothers marries his widow and each of
them also dies.
All of
the brothers die childless. So these
religious leaders ask Jesus who will be this woman’s husband in the
resurrection.
They
feel certain that this extreme scenario will discredit Jesus’ teaching. Well,
Jesus doesn’t comment about the Old Testament rule but he does teach some things
about resurrection.
1. Resurrection as Transformation
Most importantly,
Jesus says that resurrected life will not be just a continuation of this life.
For example, he
says that in resurrected life people do not marry. Now let’s be clear Jesus is not putting down
marriage.
He actually lifts
up the dignity of marriage. Here Jesus
is simply saying that resurrected life is very different from this life.
We will be
transformed. We will have a transformed
life in and with God and we can’t think about this just in terms of our human
life experience.
2. Resurrection through Relationship
And then, Jesus
makes it clear that resurrection happens through our relationship with God –
our relationship with God.
Jesus says the
Lord is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. These great religious figures are dead but
Jesus uses the present tense in speaking of them – the Lord is their God
right now.
So Jesus is saying
that God’s relationship with them continues on.
The idea is that God’s love for us and God’s relationship with us has no
end.
This means that we
are to do whatever we can to live in this relationship – by coming to know
Jesus more and more in the Gospels and by praying and by following his
way. So, this relationship with God that
we have right now leads to resurrected life in the future.
3. Resurrection through Respect
And then the last
thing that Jesus teaches here is a bit hidden but it is still present.
Notice that Jesus completely ignores that
ancient rule of a brother marrying his deceased brother’s widow. Jesus just ignores this and in doing that, he
teaches something.
That ancient rule
was very male-centered. It was focused
only on the husband and his being able to live on in some way through
offspring.
The rule showed no
respect for the woman, the wife. It
treated her as an object.
In not even
acknowledging this rule, Jesus is sending a message. We are to be respectful, to have relationships
of respect – in words and in actions – respect especially for women, and in
truth for everyone.
This is a living
out of our relationship with God who respects each person equally and this is
something we still need to be reminded of – even right now in this election here
in America. Living with respect for
women and for all persons nourishes our relationship with God right now
and opens us to resurrection in the future.
Conclusion
So that’s my take
on this passage of Scripture.
I hope it is helpful
for all of you. Amen!
