Matthew 24:37–44 ESV – Bible Gateway

³⁷  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.³⁸  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,³⁹  and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰  Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴²  Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.⁴⁴  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

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The suddenness of the Second Coming seems to be implied here. That people will go about their lives performing the range of daily human acts. The suggestion that this will be a surprise to them, the same as it was for the people in the days of Noah. This astonishment results because they were oblivious to any warnings there were.
In Genesis, regarding the story of Noah, we have no sign that he was actively warning others about the coming judgement and their destruction because of their corruption and violence. It would be amazing if he did not do so. We have no exact time line regarding how long he took building the ark, but some indications regarding his children’s ages and when they might have started their families show a fairly long period of perhaps around a 100 years.

St. Peter writes:

if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Pe 2:5)
That Noah was a herald/preacher/proclaimed of righteousness seems clear and his message ignored. Jesus is warning us of complacency. We do not know the day or the hour of or own judgement upon death.

St. Augustine. He said this Watch, not to those only who heard Him speak at the time, but to those who came after them, and to us, and to all who shall be after us, until His second coming, for it touches all in a manner. That day comes to each one of us, when it comes to him to go out of the world, such as he shall be judged, and therefore ought every Christian to watch that the Lord’s coming may not find him unprepared; and he will be unprepared for the day of His coming, whom the last day of his life shall find unprepared.[1]

Dr. John Bergsma provides an excellent summary for today’s readings:

The First Reading and the Psalm present the Christian life as a “pilgrimage” to Zion. The Second Reading and Gospel present the Christian life as “wakefulness” and abstaining from sensual indulgence in this life. The two images can be combined. On a pilgrimage, one doesn’t get caught up in pleasure-seeking. You have to walk long hours on the camino during the day and sleep where you can—sometimes in austere places—during the night. And if you make a habit of stopping and “hanging out,” you’re not going to finish the way. The readings for this Mass call us to renew our commitment to living this present life as a pilgrimage to the heavenly Zion.[2]

In verses 40–41 follow the “scenario follows Jesus’ example of Noah and the flood (24:37). The righteous will be left, just as Noah and his family were spared (Sir 44:17); the wicked will be taken, as Noah’s generation was swept away by the flood.”[3]

Because of the influence, especially here in America, of the novel Rapture theology proposed by some, we culturally assume that those who are “taken” in this Gospel passage are righteous.

This is further pointed out by Dr. Brant Pitre:

If you look at it, you can see that when Jesus says one is taken and one is left, whether one man is taken and one man is left or one woman is taken and one woman is left (again if you think about the imagery of the of the flood as the background to what he is saying), what happened here? Noah’s family was taken. In other words, they were saved from the judgment of the flood, and the rest of people were left, but they weren’t left behind to live on the world and have time to repent or something like that, they were left out of the salvation and exposed to the flood, and they perished in the judgment of God. So what Jesus is essentially getting at here is the separation of the righteous and the wicked that will take place at the final judgment.[4]

As does the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

More likely Jesus speaks in the idiom of the prophets, where those who are taken are those captured or killed in judgment (Isa 8:13; Jer 6:11; Zech 14:2) and those who are left constitute the surviving remnant that is spared (Isa 1:9; 4:3; Jer 40:11; Ezek 14:22).[5]

Regarding Jesus’ knowledge regarding when this will happen:

St. Jerome. Having declared that of that hour knoweth no man, but the Father only, He shews that it was not expedient for the Apostles to know, that being ignorant they might live in perpetual expectation of His coming, and thus concluding the whole, He says, Watch therefore, And He does not say, ‘Because we know not,’ but Because ye know not, shewing that He Himself is not ignorant of the day of judgment.[6]

The Catechism regarding Jesus’ knowledge makes these distinctions:

472 This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, “increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man,” and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience. This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking “the form of a slave.”

473 But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God’s Son expressed the divine life of his person. “The human nature of God’s Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.” Such is first of all the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.

474 By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.

Sources

• Catena Aurea Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 1 St. Matthew – Verbum
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A – John Bergsma
• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. S. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, A.D. 396. (Ep. 199, 3.) Thomas Aquinas. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 836).  ↩
2. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A, John Bergsma  ↩
3. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
4. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre  ↩
5. The Gospel of Matthew, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch  ↩
6. St. Jerome, Presbyter and Monk of Bethlehem, A.D. 378. From the Commentary on the Four Gospels, St. Matthew (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 1, p. 836).  ↩

³⁵  And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” ³⁶  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine ³⁷  and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸  There was also an inscription over him,[a] “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹  One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,[b] saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹  And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²  And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

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There seems to be quite the transition from the first reading, where David is now accepted as King of the twelve tribes, to Jesus hanging on the Cross. His kingship is portrayed only as a mockery by the rulers, soldiers, and the people present. The rulers taunt him regarding his apparent powerlessness. The soldiers had costumed him with a crown of thorns and a reed scepter in jest of his kingship. Pontius Pilate had a titulus placed above the Cross with the words, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (Jn 19:19).

From the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for the Gospel of Luke:

The rulers also derisively refer to Jesus as the chosen one (see 9:35), a title pointing to another biblical passage that sheds light on the crucifixion: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, / my chosen one with whom I am pleased” (Isa 42:1 ❲emphasis added❳). Jesus is this †servant foretold by Isaiah (Isa 52:13) who at his crucifixion is “counted among the wicked” (Luke 22:37, quoting Isa 53:12). Moreover, Moses was also called God’s “chosen one” (Ps 106:23). At the transfiguration, Jesus spoke with Moses about his “exodus” to take place “in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), and the voice from heaven referred to him as the “chosen Son” (9:35). This exodus of God’s chosen one is now being accomplished.[1]

We can look at this scene and want to deride those who mocked him as he revealed his kingship. Yet, I can think of all the instances where I have either mocked his kingship or lessened it. The times I have made idols of the things of this world.

“Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Lk 20:25)

I know how often I need to get this balance right. I am rendering too much to Caesar, trusting too much in fixing everything via political processes. Forgetting that Jesus is indeed King and that I should always give glory to him first and strengthened in discerning my Caesar rendering and never forget that I am a subject of Christ the King first and always. Instead, I try to caveat the call to love my enemies, thinking this does not apply to those I disagree with politically. I am dehumanizing those who are also subjects of Christ the King.

Our forgetfulness of Jesus’ kingship and the priority of Christ is nothing new, but perhaps our amnesia has deepened. Dr. Brant Pitre points out Pius XI, Encyclical Quas Primas, On the Feast of Christ the King ❲December 11, 1925❳. This encyclical letter instituted this Feast.

In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord.

Still, we can always move our faces to Jesus. Despite how we have darkened our life in sin, Jesus is always ready to receive us and to restore us to the true human dignity that he has given us. In Matthew and Mark, both thieves on Calvary mocked Jesus. In Luke, we see a point of conversion where one thief repents his mockery and his own life and, as a result, rebukes the other thief. Grace moves him towards Jesus while not diminishing his sinfulness. In his humility, he sees the humanity of Jesus and something more. He recognizes Jesus is indeed King and is desirous of his kingdom, which is not of this world. He asks, only to be remembered as Jesus arrives in his kingdom. Sometimes our eyes are only opened via suffering when we move out of the orbit of our ego and see those around us. The repentant thief looked beyond his pain and suffering and saw Jesus before him.

From Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s classic Life of Christ.

A dying man asked a dying man for eternal life; a man without possessions asked a poor man for a Kingdom; a thief at the door of death asked to die like a thief and steal Paradise. One would have thought a saint would have been the first soul purchased over the counter of Calvary by the red coins of Redemption, but in the Divine plan it was a thief who was the escort of the King of kings into Paradise. If Our Lord had come merely as a teacher, the thief would never have asked for forgiveness. But since the thief’s request touched the reason of His coming to earth, namely, to save souls, the thief heard the immediate answer:

“I promise thee, this day thou shalt be With Me in Paradise.” (LUKE 23:43)

It was the thief’s last prayer, perhaps even his first. He knocked once, sought once, asked once, dared everything, and found everything. When even the disciples were doubting and only one was present at the Cross, the thief owned and acknowledged Him as Savior. If Barabbas came to the execution, how he must have wished that he never had been released, and that he could have heard the words of the compassionate High Priest. Practically everything about the Body of Christ was fastened by nails, or tortured by whips and thorns, except His Heart and His tongue—and these declared forgiveness that very day. But who can forgive sins, but God? And who can promise Paradise except Him Who by nature is eternal to Paradise?[2]

The two thieves, on each side of Jesus, were at a cross-road, and I intentionally mean the pun of cross-road. Suffering can turn us inward or outward. If we have been prudent in following the narrow road that leads to Christ, we can still narrow in on him and others. To open ourselves to the grace that is constantly given to us.

CCC §1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul—a destiny which can be different for some and for others.[3]

Sources

• The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
• Life of Christ
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
2. Sheen, Fulton J.. Life of Christ (p. 545). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.  ↩
3. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩

Luke 21:5–19

Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple

⁵  And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, ⁶  “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” ⁷  And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸  And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. ⁹  And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

Jesus Foretells Wars and Persecution

¹⁰  Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹  There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. ¹²  But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. ¹³  This will be your opportunity to bear witness. ¹⁴  Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, ¹⁵  for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶  You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. ¹⁷  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. ¹⁸  But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹  By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Luke 215–19 ESV – Jesus Foretells Destruction of the – Bible Gateway

The two other synoptic Gospels give us more context as to where this happened and that of the group questioning him; Peter, James, John, and Andrew are explicitly mentioned. Peter Kreeft points out that this is “Jesus’ longest discourse about the world’s last day and what will happen before it.”[1]

Dr. Brant Pitre gives us more context:

This is the famous account of Jesus, once He’s arrived in Jerusalem but not yet begun His Passion. He and the disciples leave the city, they go out to the Mount of Olives, which is east of the city, and from there you can see the temple. And the disciples have all remarked about how amazing the temple is, and this leads Jesus to give them His famous oracle, His prophetic oracle about the coming destruction of the temple and the time of tribulation that the disciples are going to face in the midst of that, or in the lead-up to the temple’s destruction.[2]

Herod the Great’s expansion project of the Jerusalem Temple began in 19 b.c. “The structure was immense, with many of its stones measuring nearly 40 feet in length.”[3] The disciples would have been intimately familiar with the Temple as they would have gone on pilgrimages to Jerusalem throughout their lifetime. Earlier in Luke we are told that Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Feast of Passover. In Luke 2:41–43 we have the story where Jesus, when twelve, sat and conversed and listened to the teachers at the Temple. There were three major feasts where pilgrimages were made to Jerusalem. So this is not a case of the disciples just being overwhelmed with a new experience. The Temple was still astonishing even with familiarity.

It is hard to imagine the shock to the disciples when they heard Jesus tell them that the Temple would be destroyed. Especially if you also consider that the earthly temple was viewed as being a pattern, a visible symbol, of the heavenly temple. The temple was the center of their liturgical worship. This would have been shocking to them, even with them knowing that the Temple had been destroyed before amidst suffering and exile. What I find interesting about their reaction, is that there is no doubt from them in regards to this. They do not take it symbolically or abstractly, but ask “When will this happen” along with what are the signs anticipating this event? There is still much that they will have to grow to understand, but here they are showing their trust in Jesus first.

Jesus answers their question with several warnings. What he has to say was not only applicable to the disciples hearing him directly, but for all his disciples for all ages to come. This is a case where prophesy has multiple fulfillments. Within a generation of Jesus’ words here, the Jerusalem Temple will be destroyed in the AD 70.

Everything will be thrown down. Josephus details the total destruction of the temple during the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus in AD 70. The temple and its surrounding courts were consumed by fire, and indeed on the same day and month—the ninth of Av—as when the Babylonians destroyed the first temple.[4]

First Jesus warns against false prophets coming in his name. History certainly bears this out regarding those who declared themselves the Messiah, and those who used his name to pronounce the immediate end of the world. Not surprisingly we have survived multiple immediate end-of-the-world prediction, whether it is eschatological or secular. It seems to me to be a human propensity to somewhat desire the end of the world. Whether as a result as a insight into our own sinfulness and that we do not deserve all that God has created for us, perhaps that others need to be punished, or an admixture of various motives.

Jesus here is preparing us for tribulations primarily by trusting in him. To focus on him and his love for us to bring us through trials and to finally rest in him.

He does not answer their question by giving them an eschatological timetable. He is reminding us that the coming of the Messiah did not entail instant peace and a cure for all of our woes. The evils committed by men, such as wars and persecutions, along with the natural evils, such as earthquakes, would continue. Jesus never downplays that the life of his disciples would require embracing the cross. “A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”[5] In Luke 12:52–53[6] he also warned us about divisions even within our own household.

“This will be your opportunity to bear witness.”

We bear witness by trusting in him. Ultimately when we persevere and endure the trials of life we truly gain our lives. That we have to be open to the Holy Spirit and not rely on our own merits and skills. We will be given what we actually need to withstand our adversaries, even if it ends in martyrdom.

What does it mean that not a hair on our heads will be destroyed? Dr. John Bergsma comments:

Since Jesus acknowledges that some will be put to death, his statement “not a hair on your head will be destroyed” cannot be taken in a simple sense, to the effect that no physical harm will come to those persecuted for their faith in Christ. Rather, “not a hair on your head will be destroyed” must be understood as an eschatological statement, that no ultimate damage will be sustained by the Christian because his entire body will be restored at the resurrection.[7]

CCC 675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.[8]

Sources

• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible꞉ The New Testament
• The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time  ↩
2. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, Year C, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time  ↩
3. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament  ↩
4. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
5. English Standard Version Catholic Edition (Jn 15:20). (2019). Augustine Institute.  ↩
6. Luke 12:52–53, ESV, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+12%3A52–53&version=ESV  ↩
7. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C, John Bergsma, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time  ↩
8. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩

Luke 2027–38 ESV – Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection – Bible Gateway

²⁷ There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a 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^[a] must take the widow and raise up offspring 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 considered 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 anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons^[b] 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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This passage presents an interesting interaction with Jesus. For one, we have a few examples of the Sadducees dialoguing directly with Jesus. In this instance, some Sadducees present him with what is essentially a Reductio ad absurdum. Their rejection of the resurrection of the dead leads them to challenge Jesus on this. According to the testimony of the New Testament, it seems that the Pharisees accepted this doctrine, and we also have evidence from Josephus, himself a Pharisee, in this belief.

It is generally understood that the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. They would have discounted more explicit references to this doctrine in the rest of the Old Testament books.

John Bergsma makes an interesting comment regarding this:

Belief in the resurrection of the dead has always been a threat to the power of the wealthy elite who run society, as the Sadducees were. If there is a resurrection from the dead, then this life is not all that there is, and there may be something worth dying for. People who are willing to die for truth are hard to manipulate over long periods of time. People whose only hope is for this life are easier for the elite to control because making their lives miserable right now is usually enough to dissuade them from rebellion. So the elite of our age are similarly against the populace entertaining notions of eternal life and Final Judgment.[1]

When St. Paul preached on the resurrection of the dead to the Greeks in Athens, many mocked him over this. Only some were willing to hear more.

One of the aspects of Jesus’ reply to them that I find interesting is not only how he answered them. There are many cases where Jesus is asked questions in an adversarial manner. Where a question is more a form of trolling than a seeking of truth, in some of these cases, Jesus would counter them with a question of his own or would refuse to answer their question since it was done in bad faith. Still, Jesus does answer them, and perhaps his reply was meant for the Sadducees and other people there. The verse following what is in the Lectionary for this Sunday says:

³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” (ESV-CE)[2]

The always insightful Peter Kreeft points out that “Today’s Gospel is about the resurrection and heaven, but it is also about interpreting Scripture.”[3] He goes on to write that “Jesus was a master at midrash, the Jewish tradition of spiritual interpretation of Scripture.”[4]

Midrash is not some private, original, subjective, “creative” interpretation. It is not an exegesis, or “reading into the text” of one’s own thoughts, but it is an attempt at exegesis, or “reading out of the text” what is there already; an “unpacking” of the gift of many-layered spiritual riches that lie there. Midrash is not scientific scholarship, or the historical-critical method of understanding a text by what we know of its history and the culture that produced it, although it does not contradict that method. Nor is midrash a reductionistic, debunking “deconstruction.” It is faithful, not skeptical; it assumes that God knew exactly what he was doing when he inspired each part of it, and it lingers lovingly over each word out of respect for the divine economy of words. It assumes that there is always more, not less, in the text than we see. It is neither a fundamentalistic literalism nor a “liberal” or “modernist” allegorizing-away of the literal meaning, but a kind of probing or deep-sea diving. It assumes that Scripture, like the sea, is vast and deep and rewarding on many levels. One of its methods is to interpret Scripture by Scripture, to shed light on one passage by using others. It also respects and uses the traditional wisdom of past saints and mystics.[5]

Many have commented on how Jesus replies to people. In this case, knowing that they only accepted a portion of the scriptures, he directed his reply restricting to what they already accepted. This a valuable lesson for us to learn. To generally listen to people and not just fire back from our Apologetics canon of common replies. Jesus points out to them that they had started with a false assumption in understanding the nature of marriage in this life. Also that even their more limited canon supported this doctrine:

The Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture for The Gospel of Luke provides this two-part answer:

First, he rebuts their argument by pointing out that life in the coming age is not the same as life now, as they are assuming. It does not involve marriage. The purpose of the levirate law, besides providing for the widow, was that “the name of the deceased” would continue through a descendant (Deut 25:6). However, in the resurrection of the dead, people are like angels in that they can no longer die, so there is no need for marriage to perpetuate one’s name. So, whereas the children of this age marry (Luke 17:27), those in “eternal life” (18:30) are characterized above all by their relationship with God: they are children of God. The further description that they are the ones who will rise is more literally translated “they are children of the resurrection” (NIV). Jesus’ words also imply that not all attain to this blessing, so people, including the Sadducees questioning him, should focus on doing what is necessary to be deemed worthy by God to receive it.

and

Second, Jesus shows that the resurrection of the dead is indeed taught by the law of Moses, thus arguing on the basis of the authority the Sadducees accepted. At the burning bush, the Lord revealed himself to Moses as the God of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exod 3:6, 15–16). Though they died centuries before Moses, to God they are living. He is not God of the dead, which means that belief in the resurrection is actually necessary for having a proper understanding of God.[6]

In a parallel passage in Matthew 22:29:

But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.[7]

I know partly how many times I have been wrong because I neither understood Scripture nor especially underestimated the power of God. Acting as if a situation was hopeless because it was not resolving quickly in the way I wanted.

It is amazing how we can close ourselves off from scripture and the power of God.

As a result of Jesus’ skill in fending off three questions (Luke 20:2, 21–22, 28–33), his opponents no longer dared to ask him anything. From now on they will simply seek how “to put him to death” (22:2).[8]

From St. Bede regarding this passage:

And since they had been defeated in argument, they ask Him no further questions, but seize Him, and deliver Him up to the Roman power. From which we may learn, that the poison of envy may indeed be subdued, but it is a hard thing to keep it at rest.[9]

Sources

• The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C – John Bergsma
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
• Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, Volume 3: St. Luke – Verbum
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year C, John Bergsma, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.  ↩
2. English Standard Version Catholic Edition (Lk 20:39). (2019). Augustine Institute.  ↩
3. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C, Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.  ↩
4. ibid  ↩
5. ibid  ↩
6. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
7. English Standard Version Catholic Edition (Mt 22:29). (2019). Augustine Institute.  ↩
8. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
9. Bede, Venerable, Presbyter and Monk of Yarrow, A.D. 700. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Luke (J. H. Newman, Ed.; Vol. 3, p. 668). John Henry Parker.  ↩