Eternal Questions

A Reflection on the Gospel for November 10th, 2019:
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

LUKE 20

27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; 30 and the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." 34 And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."

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When I was growing up, I often had many questions and thoughts about what it would mean to have eternal life and what the resurrection was really all about. To be completely honest, it even scared me a little bit. It was a major unknown for me. Various questions ran through my head when I would think about this: What will it look like up there? Will I get bored? Will my family still be my family in heaven? Will I actually be happy?


It was a daunting thing for me to think about. In fact, I didn't even really know if it was okay to think about those questions. I didn't want to disrespect God by being apprehensive about what eternal life would be like. "Living" forever really did scare me.


But, eventually, I came to realize that Jesus actually wants us to ask these questions. He wants us to be honest with Him if we are confused or frightened. He wants those opportunities to answer our questions. It's completely normal to have these questions, and even more normal for us to not completely grasp what the resurrection will be like. I have come to terms with the unknowns, and I trust in God that they will be in all of our best interests because of His great love for us.


Although it is important to inquire about these hard questions, this is not exactly what the Sadducees are doing in this gospel. In their questioning, they are trying to compromise His authority with the goal of entrapping Him in the teachings. However, this interaction provides Jesus with a way to explain more about the resurrection. He takes this opportunity to describe the discontinuity between earthly life, which He refers to as “this age” and resurrection life, which He refers to as “that age”. Lack of death in the resurrection life accounts for different ways of being. The issues that the Sadducees express are of this age and cannot be related to a time of eternal life, where there is no need for procreation between man and wife as there is no death.


In John Chapter 11, Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” The focus is not on death and possessions after death, it is on living forever in the joy and peace of God. This is the life that Jesus desires for us. Knowing that, my fears dissipate in the trust that the Lord has great plans. ​


Megan Noye

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