Proper 27C 2007 Luke 20:20-38

One of the really interesting things about diving into the rich deep waters of Scripture, particularly the Gospels, is deciding which question or questions to ask of the text. There are only about five basic interpretive questions to ask, really, and one of them is this one: “What’s going on inside of what’s happening?”

Take the Sadducees, for example. This group first came into historical awareness in the 2nd century BC. They appear to be aristocrats of the temple cult in Jerusalem before and during their emergence as one of the three religious parties, along with the Essenes – the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls -- and the Pharisees, often thought of as the founders of modern rabbinical Judaism. After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD the Sadducees disappeared from the historical record and are heard of no more. With no Temple, their main purpose and function in ancient Hebrew society disappeared.

The contemporary historical record posits that “the Sadducees are said to reject the immortality of the soul, to attribute all human activity to free will and none to fate (or providence), and to reject other traditions, especially those of the Pharisees."

The Sadducees seemed to have been influential with only a few wealthy families and not with the people, who preferred the Pharisees' interpretation of the law. They were not particularly likeable people. They encouraged conflict with rather than respect for their teachers, were more harsh than the Pharisees in seeking punishments for crimes, and fell afoul of King Herod because they supported his opposition. It is likely that the Sadducees were mostly priests and wealthy, powerful community leaders who sat in the Sanhedrin, were greatly influenced by Greek culture, and cultivated good relationships with the Romans. (1)

So, what’s really going on here. Why were they asking Jesus about something -- resurrection – that they didn’t believe any way? The answer is complex.

The Pharisees had emerged as an influence in Palestinian society about the same time as the Sadducees and were in competition with them. The Pharisees functioned as a political and religious interest group with its own goals for society and constantly engaged in political activity to achieve them, even though it did not always succeed. As a group they generally did not have direct power and were not members of the governing class. They were members of a literate, corporate, voluntary association which constantly sought influence with the governing class.

The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the body and in future rewards and punishments. They had their own traditions about how to be faithful to Judaism. Their internal rules stressed ritual purity, food tithes, and Sabbath observances. They were admired by the people and served as a political and social counter to foreign and hellenized Jewish leaders. Many were learned in the law and some individual Pharisees had political power.

Specific beliefs in the resurrection of the body and purity and tithing rules separated the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes from one another and from the followers of Jesus as well as from numerous other messianic, apocalyptic, political, and reformist groups who populated the Palestinian scene. (2) The Sadducees appear only once in Luke and only three times in Acts. Pharisees about ten times more frequently.

The strong possibility is that the Sadducees weren’t really debating resurrection with Jesus as much as they were with the much more numerous and popular Pharisees. In any case Jesus’ answer shocked Sadducee and Pharisee alike. Such questions about resurrection are irrelevant and unimportant, he said. They betray your ignorance and demonstrate your narrow small minds. You are trying to make heaven conform to the earth. The rules of earth do not and cannot define heaven because they do not and cannot define or restrict God.

A tourist once paid a famous rabbi a visit. Astonished to see that the rabbi's home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, "Rabbi, where is your furniture?"
"Where is yours?" replied the rabbi.
"Mine?" asked the puzzled tourist. "But I'm only a visitor here. I'm only passing through."
"So am I," said the rabbi. (3)

AMEN

1. Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p.891; The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol 5, pp 892-894; HISTORICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SADDUCEES, Exegetical Notes, by Brian Stoffregen, eSermons Illustrations for 11 Nov 2007
2. Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol 5, pp 301-302; Harper’s Bible Dictionary, p.783, Oxford Companion to the Bible, p. 589
3. eSermons Illustrations for 11 Nov 2007