The Sadducees ask Jesus a question about a reality they do not believe.* So do we. We pray for our next calling, a new community, our purpose in life, but doubt they even exist for us. We ask for more faith, more trust, more hope—yet we don’t believe they are possible. At least not possible for us.
Generally speaking, we believe in God’s mercy and love, but in the particulars of our own lives, we act out disbelief. We say we believe in resurrection but we live half dead, afraid of the consequences of being truly alive, not only in the life to come but right now.
Notice that Jesus seriously listens and responds. He knows our need. He hears all our questions this way, and the questions beneath the questions. God is God—not of the dead, but of the living. Resurrection is simply the nature of who God is, and will never be understood with anti-resurrection minds.
We can keep scratching the perpetual itch of uncertainty and doubt, waiting for more proof to be given, or we can start seeing life, right now, through resurrection eyes. The proof will be in the living.
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As always, Wendell Berry sees heaven here and now in this poem.
