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WHO ARE THE SADDUCEES? --What do we know about the Sadducees? The Saddoukaioi
(from the root, "Saddok,") refers to descendents of Zadok and were granted the
privilege of officiating as priests in the Temple after the return from the Babylonian
Captivity. They were well-to-do and influential collaborators with Rome. We also know that
they were Hellenized Jews—Graecophiles, lovers of things Greek. [1]
People who hear this story read on Sunday will wonder about death and dying and what
comes next. How might this text speak to our deepest questions about survival after death?
Jesus’ words on the nature of life after
death are at once intriguing, reassuring, and disturbing. The question is as old and as
timeless as the struggles of Job, who asked, "If mortals die, will they live
again?" (Job 14:14 NRSV).
. . . Jesus’ words can thus be approached from a positive side. The God who
created human life, including the institution of marriage, has also provided for life
after death for those who have cultivated the capacity to respond to God’s love. The
biblical teaching is that life comes from God. There is nothing in or of the human being
that is naturally or inherently immortal. If there is life beyond death, it is God’s
gift to those who have accepted God’s love and entered into relationship with God in
this life; They "are children of God, being children of the resurrection"
(20:36). [2]
connections
In Luke 20, the religious authorities ask Jesus three questions
designed to trip him up or expose him; Jesus responds with twice as many questions and
tells them a parable. Listen again to the three sets of questions and then ask yourself,
"Do I respond to people’s problems with my answers or do I listen to them and
ask them helpful questions?"
gambits
I think a homily that helps listeners to understand something
about the religious group that approaches Jesus with the test question as well as
explaining the implication of their question would fill in some blanks that might be
missing in some of our stories.
The Sadducees come to Jesus not for pastoral or even theological advice, but with a
stock answer for their position, yet couched in a seemingly innocent hypothetical story.
Behind the story, however, Luke gives us enough clues so that the readers are not duped by
their duplicity! We know that these guys are out to harangue, embarrass, and force Jesus
into acknowledging the superiority of their position. Perhaps they want to split the
audience. This is a "baiting Jesus" episode through the use of "what
if," or "imagine with me," kind of approach.
Do you ever wonder how anyone could listen to this ridiculous story without wondering
how a spouse could go through SEVEN partners?!!! I wonder how much arsenic the woman was
injecting into the meatloaf. Suspicion would cause me to miss the whole point about
resurrection; I would be in convolutions and conundrums until I could solve what I suspect
to be a murder mystery of the first order.
Why would these well-to-doers find Jesus’ teaching on resurrection troubling or
disdainful? Again deferring to higher authorities, Fitzmyer suggests that this caste of
religious clerics might more resemble those who prefer a strict interpretation of the
Torah vis-à-vis the oral law of the Pharisees. [3]
Share Jesus’ response and the hope of the good news that God is the God of Life
and sees our lives and death from that perspective.
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[1] Josephus in Antiquities 13.10,6 par. 298, cited in Anchor Bible, page 1303.
[2] The New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), pp.
389-390.
[3] Ibid., 1301.
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