22nd Sunday after Pentecost Luke 20:27-38

Ancient Lens

What can we learn from the historical context?

Worldviews Collide

In this passage, we have a clash of worldviews similar to some that we find today.  While the Sadducees were not materialists in the modern sense of the term, they rejected the resurrection and were adamant about the Torah being God’s sole revelation.  As such, they were a mash-up of materialist and legalist viewpoints of the day.  They took their confidence and assuredness based on what could be seen in this world and what had been confirmed in the law.  

To the Sadducees, the question before Jesus was simply pointing out an absurdity of a commonly held view, i.e., the resurrection.  Paul would later use this disagreement…

1. What do we want to know that we cannot know?

2. What might the world expect us to know that we do not know?

3. How are we prone to placing our own categories and expectations on God?

4. What is comforting about this passage?  What is discomforting?

5. What do we do when we are unsatisfied with an answer that God gives?

6. What kinds of groups might…