‘‘Owning’’ Jesus (39)
Lectionary, Year C, Proper 27
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 20:27-38
Sometimes, we may be more interested in controlling Jesus than hearing what he has to say. We get wrapped up in directing the narrative as we know or like it, as we find comfortable, when God might want to take us down a path we’ve never been before. After all, we’ve spent a lifetime figuring life out, and we really don’t want to find ourselves back at the starting point. What do we do when Jesus refuses to play by our rules? Are we too invested in controlling the narrative, or are we focused on following wherever Jesus happens to lead us? Perhaps the question we need to be asking is who belongs to whom?
It was a question about ownership, power, and control. They were not concerned with forcing Jesus to take a public stance on a thorny cultural issue. Not only were they looking for Jesus to answer whose property the widow in their story of Levirate marriage would become in the resurrection, they were setting a trap for Jesus. They wanted him under their control. The question was not sincere. That this was a group of Sadducees asking it rather much made that clear to everyone. It was a bad-faith question. It was designed to be a gotcha moment. It was a trap devised to catch Jesus in an impossible situation. They knew it. Jesus knew it. Everyone knew it. They took a page out of their established arguments against the Pharisees as a whole. Jesus just did not take the bait. Instead, he redirected, much as he had redirected others questioning him in the earlier section of this chapter from Luke.
We should clarify that they were not talking about eternity in heaven. That was not a Jewish concept at all. There were only three stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that approximated one passing into the heavenly realm-the stories of Enoch, of Moses, and of Elijah. These three were understood to have somehow been taken from earth in bodily form and transported into the heavenly r ...
Lectionary, Year C, Proper 27
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 20:27-38
Sometimes, we may be more interested in controlling Jesus than hearing what he has to say. We get wrapped up in directing the narrative as we know or like it, as we find comfortable, when God might want to take us down a path we’ve never been before. After all, we’ve spent a lifetime figuring life out, and we really don’t want to find ourselves back at the starting point. What do we do when Jesus refuses to play by our rules? Are we too invested in controlling the narrative, or are we focused on following wherever Jesus happens to lead us? Perhaps the question we need to be asking is who belongs to whom?
It was a question about ownership, power, and control. They were not concerned with forcing Jesus to take a public stance on a thorny cultural issue. Not only were they looking for Jesus to answer whose property the widow in their story of Levirate marriage would become in the resurrection, they were setting a trap for Jesus. They wanted him under their control. The question was not sincere. That this was a group of Sadducees asking it rather much made that clear to everyone. It was a bad-faith question. It was designed to be a gotcha moment. It was a trap devised to catch Jesus in an impossible situation. They knew it. Jesus knew it. Everyone knew it. They took a page out of their established arguments against the Pharisees as a whole. Jesus just did not take the bait. Instead, he redirected, much as he had redirected others questioning him in the earlier section of this chapter from Luke.
We should clarify that they were not talking about eternity in heaven. That was not a Jewish concept at all. There were only three stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that approximated one passing into the heavenly realm-the stories of Enoch, of Moses, and of Elijah. These three were understood to have somehow been taken from earth in bodily form and transported into the heavenly r ...
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