“‘In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.’ Jesus answered them, ‘You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.’” (Lk. 22:28-30)
Let me call them Joe and Bill. These two men had fought with each other for more than seventy years.
First, Joe died, and soon after, Bill. Both had decided to be cremated. When their families received their ashes, they brought them to me because there’s no getting into the ground during Maine winters.
I put Joe’s ashes and Bill’s ashes next to each other on a bookshelf. That was as close as they had ever been without fighting.
In today’s scripture, the Sadducees are trying to pick a fight with Jesus. They create a preposterous situation of a woman who had been married to seven brothers and then asks Jesus which brother will be with the woman in the resurrection.
Jesus sidesteps their baiting by saying that all such speculations are meaningless because, in the resurrection, all will be like “angels in heaven.”
I put the urns with Joe’s and Bill’s ashes next to each other because it was simply convenient to do so. One day, though, as I looked at their urns, I realized that putting them next to each other also made theological sense. In the resurrection, all their fighting had stopped. In the resurrection, they both belonged to the Lord.
Because the power of the resurrection isn’t just for the next life but also for this life, I invite us to think about how we could move beyond some of the fuming, fussing, and feuding we indulge in here and now.
When Joe and Bill met in their resurrected life, I imagine they lamented spending so much time fighting with each other in this life.
I encourage us to consider how we can fight less with each other now so that we can lament less later. Someday we as look back at this life from the perspective of our resurrected life, we’ll see that so much of our fuming, fussing, and feuding was so needless, foolish, and harmful.
Reflection Questions:
- Like Joe and Bill, are you needlessly battling with someone else? If you aren’t battling with another person, are you battling against yourself? Is it time to make peace, either with someone else or yourself?
- Are there any changes you could make now so that you could lament less in your resurrected life?
- Are there any changes you could make now so that you could rejoice more in your resurrected life?