“One has to wonder”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Quiet Time – Sunday, November 6, 2022
Luke 20:27-38 (Forward, p. 8) CEV p. 1090
I have read over today’s account of the verbal sparring between Jesus and the Sadducees many times but have never paused to consider two things with regards to them. One is why, when the rest of Judaism chose to accept all of the Hebrew Scriptures, this select and remarkably small group chose to count only the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, as authoritative. Or, in a similar vein, why, when all other Jews believed in angels and demons, and in miracles and in the resurrection, this group stubbornly refused to do so. The other thing I wonder about is why they singled out Jesus on this occasion, when they attempted to embarrass and discredit Him and make Him look silly.
Maybe the answer to both queries is the same, or at least, come from the very same source. Allied with both the Roman establishment and the Temple hierarchy, they were the bluebloods of the day, the wealthy, aristocratic, most deeply privileged class of that society. Probably more than any other ‘organized’ group in first century Judaism they had the most to lose. If God was alive and real and constantly speaking to His people—and challenging the status quo and the established order, as He often did with the prophets--they could be in deep trouble. And if God was performing miracles and doing ‘a new thing’, then who knows what change might come next. Clearly, this prospect was most unsettling.
And if Jesus was really the Messiah—or even presented claims that He was, or the impression that He was—this could ‘upset the entire applecart’. This could destroy the cozy, comfortable relationship they enjoyed both with the Romans and with Jewish high society. It was not at all the kind of thing they wanted to allow or foster in their nation, so it was best to nip it in the bud. So, both with the Scriptures and with Jesus, they allowed their personal preferences and beliefs, the things and values that they held most dear to themselves, their personal comfort zone, even their ‘politics’, to get in the way to truly hearing God’s word and seeing Him at work in the life of Jesus.
So, this sets up for me a rather pointed question, namely, how much do we, you and I, allow our personal preferences and beliefs, the things and values that we hold most dear, our personal comfort zones, or our political allegiances, to get in the way of our hearing—and responding—to what God is saying, and commanding? I suspect that this happens quite a bit, probably much more than we ever suspect or imagine. Here, then, it is most important that we approach both the Scriptures and Jesus with an open mind, and that we allow ourselves to pay attention to voices that might suggest something different or more than we usually assume. As did the prophets of old with their hearers, we must allow Jesus to challenge us in what is often our comfortable, settled, easy ways of life and existence. Amen.
Forward notes: “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive” (verse 38).
“Today’s readings are about preparation and permanence: preparation for the return of Christ and preparation for our eventual resurrection and the resurrection of those we love. But another component of these passages is the discernment of what is truly permanent in our lives. I struggle with anxiety surrounding these passages. What defines me? What makes me who I am? As I evaluate my life, I am forced to the conclusion that what most defines me are the relationships I cultivate in this life. Yet Christ seems to allude to a redefinition of those relationships, and it feels like a loss of self that leaves me uncertain.
“But I have faith that Christ will not erase those relationships. His goal is not to remove those defining connections but to fix and strengthen them. With Christ as the centre of our identity, all the other connections we form in this life are empowered to make us more like who we are intended to be: ourselves.”
Moving Forward: “In a journal, write some answers to the question, what defines you?”