The Shaming of the Sadducees.

(Mat. 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40).

After the Pharisees and Herodians were put to shame, the Lord was immediately approached by some Sadducees, who represented a sect that didn’t believe in resurrection of souls and eternal life (see Acts 23:8). They argued continually with the Pharisees, striving to prove that according to the books of Moses, not only is there no indications on the immortality of the soul, but they contain provisions that contradict the teachings on the resurrection of the dead. It was this argument that they presented to the Lord Jesus Christ, for His deliberation. They thought up the story about seven brothers who took the same woman as their wife upon the death of the previous husband. From their point of view, this determination of Moses’ law refutes the teachings on a future life, because “when they rise, whose wife will she be?” Saint Chrysostom rightly notes the improbability of such a story, because the Jews, renowned for their superstition, would never marry a woman whose husbands kept dying one after another. The Lord gave the Sadducees a wise answer, censuring them for not comprehending the future eternal life, where there will be no physical sensation, the people living a different life — spiritual, angelic, “but are like Angels in Heaven.” If people were totally obliterated after death, then God would not have said to Moses at the burning bush: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” because “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” i.e. those forefathers that have died are alive to God, because God cannot be a God to the non-existent. Saint Luke notes that even the Scribes were pleased with the response and were prompted to say: “Teacher, You have spoken well.” The people, seeing the Sadducees put to shame, marveled at the Lord’s wisdom.