Breaking the Word

 He said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Lk 17:1-6)

There is evil in the world. Evil and negative things are inevitable. They are bound to occur. Evil will be there till the end of times. Man should not cooperate with evil and in no way cause the evil to happen. Any one who causes evil should be thrown into the deep sea with a milestone around his neck. This is only to say that he will not have a tomb. He cannot hope for resurrection.

Forgiveness is another factor for a disciple. A disciple should forgive the one who offends seven times. Seven in the biblical understanding is completeness, total. The disciple should forgive the offender totally and completely. He should forgive him always. This would only imply that the disciple is forgiveness personified.

Faith is not something which is needed in a big quantity. The disciples are asking to increase the faith. But Jesus tells them not to be worried about increasing faith. Even the size (be it in the size of a mustard seed) cannot be reduced lower than the mustard seed (smallest of all seeds) is sufficient. Faith of this type can do wonders beyond compare. 

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers;…

Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise…(Lk 20: 27-38)

Jesus has raised the dead. At least three of them were raised to life: The only daughter of Jairus; the only son of the widow from Nain; and the only brother of Mary and Martha. Surely the Sadducees would have heard of these events. People have witnessed these events. How could the Sadducees ask such a question. However these are not the resurrection in the full sense. Today’s story is only to present Jesus’ view on resurrection.

The Jews believed in the resurrection with the idea that God would create a new heaven and a new earth and the people of Israel (even the whole of creation) would be raised. This was nothing to do with the idea of the ‘life after death’ ( a no-bodily state in which people existed in some form or another).

To argue on this the Sadducees invented stories of the sort we have read. Jesus, in trying to answer this question, makes two basic points. First, the resurrection life will not be like the present one. Relations will be irrelevant. After resurrection the people will living a deathless, immortal state of life (like angels). God is described as God of the living (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). The Patriarchs are alive to God.