Jesus schools the smarty-pants crowd – July 4

Today’s Readings:  AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144; PM Psalm 104; Num. 24:12-25; Rom. 8:18-25; Matt. 22:23-40

 

In this reading from the gospel according to Matthew today, the Sadducees publicly propose a test of heavenly logic, framed in an earthly context: Who will a woman be married to in heaven if she has been married seven times – once to each of seven brothers - because her husbands keep dying? The argument is couched in the law delivered by Moses: “If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow…” The Sadducees are not concerned about the “black widow” quality of this woman who apparently runs through husbands like toilet paper. They want to know, when the apocalypse comes, to whom will she be hitched.

Jesus shuts them down swiftly. “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” Jesus goes to the heart of the prolonged attempts to trick him. His retort begins with a direct strike: You are wrong. Period.

And then, he supports his declaration of the Sadducees’ flawed essence with a two-point foundation: you don’t know the written Word of God – Torah. The law passed down through the generations of our people. The 600+ commandments. The divine revelation of the Lord God through the prophets. And secondly, you don’t understand the spiritual power of God. You cannot conceive of the overarching nature of what God is. You have not been stirred in your heart by the hope and promise extended to God’s people.

Jesus names that what is awry here in this group of people within the Jewish faith is a deficiency in both head and heart. There is a disconnect…a chasm. Because there is a chasm in our world between what occupies our earthly existence, and that which lies beyond the veil of what we see and understand – that divine gift of the broad expanse of God’s realm. The Sadducees trip themselves up with superimposing an earthly construct (human customs of marriage and social infrastructure) upon the divine paradigm that we humans keep trying to put into a box.

Do you ever do this? Put God in a box, stuck in your head? I do. When we do this, we miss the point of God’s love, God’s grace, and the holy joy that is available to us in the invitation to so much more than we can conceive in our own heads. We also miss feeling the glory of that love which passes all understanding. So, let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. Heart first. Let’s receive the invitation to feel God’s gift of love.

-- Katherine+

 

Questions for Reflection

  • What questions do you pose to God?

  • What questions does God offer to you?

 

Daily Challenge

What vexes you about God? Journal about what frustrations you have...and invite God's love for you into that space.

Katherine Harper