Is It Still Possible to Believe in an Afterlife?

Read Luke 20:27-40

Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost (Year C)

Let me have a show of hands. Has anyone ever met a Sadducee? No? Me either And that’s not surprising considering that the last one died 2000 years ago. And even back then, there were never very many of them. It was always a very exclusive group akin to a club for the super wealthy.

If you lived in Jericho, you were much more likely to run into a Pharisee than a Sadducee. They were a very select group with some extraordinary views, and that’s part of what makes this story so interesting. It begins with a peculiar question and culminates in a startling answer. If we just skim the surface of this story, we might assume that it has nothing to say to us in the 21st century But we would be wrong about that. This story presents us with an issue of profound importance.