All Saints Day (Observed)
November 6, 2005
Matthew 22:23-33

The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman herself died. 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. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living." And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching. (NRS).

Know the Scriptures!

  This week I received an email message from a friend who was in San Antonio, TX for the week. He wrote, "Last night I went to the Cathedral for "All Saints Day" services. I learned in the good father’s homily that we all need to pray and work for our dead relatives so that we can cooperate and walk with them as they intercede for us and we in turn help them to "purge" themselves of all their sins and be made holy so they can go to be with God... It was very interesting. Today is Dia de la muerta, "Day of the Dead" or All Souls day. I see little altars everywhere for dead relatives." (John K.)

  There is one view of the importance and purpose of All Saints Day. It is the belief that the dead can help the living in some way and that the living can help the dead to make up for their sins and get out of purgatory. Sounds interesting; and if it were true, we would surely want to help our dead relatives so that our children would help us later. But it is not true. This cult of the saints has no basis in the Scriptures. There is no purgatory and the dead can’t intercede on behalf of the living.

  Why then do we observe All Saint’s Day? We observe this day to celebrate the faith of those who have gone before us and who now are with God just like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were people who lived in the confidence that Jesus would bring them to the resurrection of the dead. So really, we’re celebrating the resurrection and eternal life! To observe All Saints Day is to confess our confidence that, like them, Christ will raise us from the dead and give us eternal life.

  Our reading from Matthew is one of the three traps that some of the leaders in Jerusalem laid for Jesus hoping to discredit him and charge him with heresy. The first was the Pharisees’ question about paying taxes to Caesar and the third their question about the greatest Commandment. Between those two traps was this one laid by some Sadducees. They concocted a ridiculous story to discredit the doctrine of life after death. By this time Jesus had already raised at least three people from the dead and used stories like the Rich Man and Lazarus to talk about heaven, hell and life after death. If the Sadducees could publicly ridicule the very idea of life after death, then they would take the wind out of Jesus’ sail so to speak.

  Sadducees were very much like many of us today. They were basically materialists. They didn’t think much of the spiritual world. In the book of Acts, Luke tells us that, The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three. (Acts 23:8). Sadducees rejected the idea of life after death. So if Jesus taught it, he couldn’t be their Messiah.

  Another thing about the Sadducees is that they only recognized the five Books of Moses as Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Any doctrine or article of faith had to come from those books. And in their opinion those books didn’t teach the idea of a resurrection. By resurrection they meant both the physical resurrection of the body and life after death. Even if someone came back to life--had a near-death experience as we say today--that was no proof of life after death. Therefore Jesus’ miracles of raising the dead didn’t change their mind.

  The story they concocted was based on a provision in the Law of Moses called levirate marriage. If a man married but died childless, his brother had to marry his widow. The first son born would receive the name of the deceased brother and thus keep his name alive. That this happened to a succession of seven brothers is absurd. Nevertheless it was theoretically possible. At any rate, Jesus doesn’t foil their trap by saying that the scenario is ridiculous. The issue he says, is that they know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

  So Jesus turns to a passage of Scripture from Exodus, one of the books of Moses which they accepted. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.

  Well yes they had read it, but they never understood it. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that they refused to interpret the passage that way. It does say, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, though they had long before died, not I was their God while they were alive. They could see that. But because they denied a priori life after death as well as the existence of spirits and angels--you wonder if they denied even God’s existence since he too is a spirit!--they would never interpret this passage of Scripture in a way that would imply that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were alive with God when God appeared to Moses.

  In other words, they didn’t listen to Scripture. Even if you stick with the five books of Moses, there are clearly angels, spirits, and of course the concept of the resurrection in the passage Jesus quotes. Genesis begins with a word about a spirit. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2 NIV). And many times angels are mentioned. For example, as the people left Egypt, God said, I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. (Exodus 23:20-21 NRS).

  If you add to words of Scripture the miracles Jesus was performing, miracles that they had to try and explain away, then you see the Sadducees’ problem. They had already made up their minds for other reasons that only the physical world was real. There were no spirits and angels and afterlife. Therefore neither what the Scriptures said nor what Jesus said and did made any difference. What mattered was that great crowds of people were believing Jesus and hanging on his words. Jesus was a trouble-maker that they had to remove!

  There are a great number of Sadducees today. Here in the West, perhaps the majority of people accept a priori, i.e., as their starting point, that there is no supernatural world. There are no spirits, angels, miracles and life after death. It all makes great stories and movies, but we don’t really believe it. When they see evidence of these things, they discount it because they have already decided that these things are impossible.

  Just like the Sadducees then, so many of us today know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Although the Old and New Testament Scriptures clearly teach that there is a resurrection of the body and life after death, plus many other important doctrines, people won’t listen. The Word of God is not on their radar screen. Its words are nonsense to them. It doesn’t matter what the Bible says because they already believe that only matter and energy are real! Well, their feelings, desires and theories are also real!

  Because we don’t know the Scriptures, we don’t know the power of God! We have no idea of the great things that God has done and has promised to do. And quite frankly, the greatest thing that God has promised to do is to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life.

  Here is where we have a great advantage over the Sadducees. We have more than the books of Moses to tell us about the resurrection. We have Jesus! First he taught us about eternal life. He taught us that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. We don’t have to worry about questions like whose wife or husband we will be. Or whether or not we’ll recognize each other. Or what kind of body we’ll have. Even the details of which we know nothing, like whether or not there will be animals in heaven, need not bother us. Jesus has taught us that we will shine like the sun in our Father’s kingdom (Matthew 13:43), and that we will sit down at a great banquet with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11). Clearly we will be in a place and state of great joy even if we do not know all the details.

  Second, Jesus himself rose from the dead and then appeared many times over a period of 40 days to his disciples and other people. Paul says that there were over 500 eye-witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection not including the disciples. If that were not true, if there were no eye-witness to Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven, I assure you that there would be no Christian Church today.

  Paul was a Pharisee and very much believed in the resurrection of the dead. But that was really just a theological question to be debated with the Sadducees until he saw the risen Christ. After Jesus appeared to him and blinded him for three days, then Paul traveled the Roman world to announce the Gospel, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and will return to judge the living and the dead.

  The Sadducees had only Moses. We have both Moses and the Christ of whom Moses wrote. Thus Peter says, For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. . . . So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, . . . First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:16,19-21).

  The Sadducees wanted to humiliate Jesus and prove him to be some kind of quack. But they did not. Instead they humiliated themselves and proved Jesus to be a very unique person: the Son of God, the word of God. That is why we trust him and base our hope of the resurrection and eternal life on him. That was the confidence of the saints before us. It is still the confidence of the saints today, of you and me. That is why we observe All Saints Day, to celebrate the resurrection to eternal life.