I grew up surrounded by puns. Why did the old man fall down the well? He couldn’t see that well! What’s blue and not very heavy? Light blue. What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work? A can’t opener. And then there was this one: “Why did they call themselves the Sadducees?” Because they didn’t believe in the resurrection and that made them sad, you see.
Yes, I know that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, but I’m pretty sure that did not make them sad. In fact, several things suggest that they may have been quite happy with their lives. They were rich and aristocratic. They controlled the temple, and all the high priests were Sadducees. Outside of the religious sphere, they were successful merchants and found that the best way to get ahead is to go along with the Romans. They believed strongly in the status quo and were conservative in almost every regard; and as a result, most of the common people hated them. But they were rich and powerful and people who had status like they did, are generally happy. And while they didn’t believe in the resurrection, you can hardly blame them since most of the Old Testament is silent on the topic (We saw that last week). But even if that was not so, and Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaimed the resurrection again and again, it would have meant nothing to the Sadducees. See, the Sadducees believed that the only rule for faith and practice was the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy); and so, if it wasn’t in the Torah, it wasn’t relevant. And the resurrection is not found in the Torah.
And then, Jesus came along. And Jesus is opposed to almost everything the Sadducees stand for. He is against the misuse of the temple, against wealth, against power and against compromise with Rome. And on top of all of that, Jesus is a firm believer in the resurrection. And this drives the Sadducees to do something. One day, they come to Jesus with a ridiculous case study of a ridiculous woman in a ridiculous situation to prove that any belief in the resurrection is ridiculous. We read about this in Mark 12 (19-23). The Sadducees say to Jesus:
“Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
I am sure you agree, this is as ridiculous as you can get. It is akin to asking if an all-powerful God can make a boulder that is impossible for an all-powerful God to lift. But Jesus takes in all in stride and says (24-27):
“Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Note how Jesus responds (we will skip the “like the angels in heaven” part for the sake of time and because no one knows for sure what that means). He doesn’t quote Daniel, but instead he goes straight to the Torah. Why? Because the Sadducees only believed in the Torah, and he wants to prove the resurrection to them, and not just to the crowd. But to use the burning bush encounter as proof must have surprised everyone because, at first glance, it doesn’t say anything about the resurrection! But in Jesus’ interpretation, it did. He notes that God says that he IS (“I am”) the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and not that he “WAS” their God. “Is” is the language of resurrection. “Was” is the language of the Sadducees. Now, it turns out to be a powerful argument. God is the God of the living, the resurrected, and not the dead. And it must have silenced the Sadducees because we never hear another question from them. And yet, in my opinion, you really can’t blame the Sadducees for missing this nuance in God’s speech to Moses. And I’m sure the Pharisees never saw it either. And although Jesus was absolutely correct in his interpretation, I think we will all admit that Jesus’ point could have been easily overlooked. But now, think about the Pharisees. They believed in the resurrection, but if it is nearly impossible to see it in the Torah (it takes Jesus to see the resurrection there) and it is not in the Psalms and only once in the Prophets, what made them so sure that there was such a thing? In other words, where did they get the idea that there was a resurrection? Surely not from Daniel! But if not there, where?
Surprise! The books of the Second Temple period were filled with resurrection talk! And for good reason. As intense suffering broke out once again upon God’s people, this time from Greek (and later from Roman) tyrants, a profound theological question arose: Do martyrs die for nothing? If they do, God cannot be good. But if they don’t, what possible reward could they receive? The answer was now clear: only resurrection could prove the goodness of God, reward the sacrifice of his martyrs and empower his people to hold fast to the truth in spite of severe opposition.If death was the end of the story, if God offered no reward for his faithful people beyond the grave, then being willing to die for your faith made no sense. But what if death was not the end of the story? What if resurrection awaited? Suddenly, there was a reason that transcended life and death. And it was a powerful reason. Two stories from the Second Temple period show just how powerful the hope of the resurrection is.
Look at 2 Maccabees 7. Here we read about the persecutions of the Greek Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE). Jerusalem is overrun. The temple is desecrated. And laws are instituted that mandate that all people follow Greek culture and forsake their own. And those that refused to eat pork or violate the Sabbath or forgo circumcision would be killed. The choice was clear: Forsake God or be martyred for God. Many people capitulated, but many others chose martyrdom. Chapter 7 tells the story of a mother with seven grown sons. All eight were arrested and brought before the death squad. They were given a choice: Abandon your Jewish God, your Jewish identity and your Jewish rituals and live or hold fast to your beliefs and die. To demonstrate their willingness to relinquish their faith, all they had to do is to eat some pork. But all eight refused. As a result, each son was brought before their mother and brutally murdered in front of her. But it is their response that is incredibly surprising. As he is dying, the second son says (vs. 9):
“You butcher! You may kill us, but the King of the universe will raise us from the dead and give us eternal life, because we have obeyed his laws.”
Antiochus’ soldiers threaten to cut off the third brother’s hands. He responds (vs.11):
“God gave these to me. But his laws mean more to me than my hands, and I know God will give them back to me again.”
The fourth son also bravely faced his death, saying (vs. 14):
“I am glad to die at your hands, because we have the assurance that God will raise us from death. But there will be no resurrection to life for you, Antiochus!”
But the mother was the most courageous of them all. She said to her last surviving son before his execution (vs.22-23):
“I do not know how your life began in my womb, for I was not the one who gave you life and breath. It was God who did that; the God who created the universe, the human race, and all that exists. He is merciful and he will give you back life and breath again, because you love his laws more than you love yourself.”
Resurrection faith had come to Israel.
What gave these eight martyrs the courage to die for their faith was the promise of the resurrection. They believed God would not forsake them. They believed their life would not end in death. They believed that their God would reward them and that eternal blessings awaited them after death.
One last story, in Psalms of Solomon 15:10-13 (written somewhere around 63 BCE when Rome conquered Jerusalem), we read these words to God’s faithful:
“And the inheritance of sinners [is] destruction and darkness, and their lawless actions will pursue them even below into Hades. Their inheritance will not be found for their children, for lawless actions will make desolate the homes of sinners. And sinners will perish forever in the day of the Lord’s judgment, when God examines the earth at his judgment. But those who fear the Lord will find mercy in this [day] and will live by their God’s pity; but sinners will perish for all time.”
Note the slight difference here. Who will be rewarded here? It is not only those who are martyred, but those “who fear the Lord.” Matthias Henze writes:
“In the Psalms of Solomon, the promise of life after death is a reward for their exemplary conduct and piety, not a reparation for their violent or unjust death.”
All those who faithfully seek to do God’s will and who are righteous receive the gift of new life. Resurrection is promised to the godly, while sinners will receive God’s wrath.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection. Their Bible (and their interpretation of their Bible) clearly sidestepped the whole question. But Jesus would have none of that. Resurrection awaits because God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (he was their God in the past, and he is their God today); and therefore, we can have hope. God will not forget his people. And Jesus confirms this in his resurrection and in his ascension. But it is hard to wrap our head around the fact that prior to the end of the Old Testament, resurrection was rarely discussed. It took the Second Temple period for this idea, and many others that we hold dear, to spring forth, even if they didn’t understand it completely.
Now, I am not devastated by the fact that the resurrection is not found in the Old Testament. There are many things that are “hidden” until they are revealed in the New Testament, the trinity being the prime example. But it is where it is revealed that is surprising. If Jesus was the one who revealed that resurrection, though hidden from the eyes of Old Testament saints, was the certain hope for all who believed, then I would greet this good news with joy. But in our case, the truth of the resurrection was declared in the Second Temple period, far away from the workings of both the Old and the New Testament. And that doesn’t seem quite “biblical” to me—theological yes, but biblical not as much as I would have liked.
But this drives me to ask another question: How did Jesus come to believe in the resurrection? This is an important question for me because I believe in the resurrection because Jesus believed in the resurrection. So, why did Jesus believe there was a resurrection? I can think of five reasons. First, he believed because of what God said to Moses in the burning bush episode. Second, he believed in the two verses of Daniel 12. Third, he believed because of some unknown Jewish theologian in the Second Temple period who deduced from logic and reason and from the goodness and faithfulness of God. Fourth, he believed because of direct divine revelation. Fifth, he believed because he was certain that God would raise him from the dead and “not let his faithful one see decay.” There is one last possibility here: He came to believe in the resurrection because of all of the above. And I think that is the answer that best fits the evidence.
But that leads me to ask one more question: Which of these five reasons came first? I would argue that it was because someone in the Second Temple deduced that the resurrection had to be true because it was the only way God could be faithful to his people and true to himself. And this belief spread throughout Judaism like wildfire because it made theological sense and everyone needed hope that, at the end of the day, they would see God’s goodness and that God would reward them for their sacrifice. And into this culture, Jesus was born and raised. The hope of the resurrection was in the air he breathed. And resurrection comforted God’s people as they witnessed many faithful people die in faith without receiving what they had been promised. And yet, this hope of the resurrection needed to be grounded in Scripture and in Jesus’ own resurrection and ascension. And so, at the end of the New Testament, we have a resurrection hope built on solid ground: on Jesus, the living Word.
Three quick implications as we conclude. First, we must never nap on the gap. It brings so much to light. Second, all truth is God’s truth. It doesn’t matter where it came from or who first said it; all truth is God’s truth because he is the author of truth. And third, while it is not true that the Sadducees were sad because they didn’t believe in the resurrection, the truth is that we need to be a people overflowing with joy because you see, we have the hope of the resurrection.
