Holy Week – Monday 30 March 2026
Call to Worship:
It is Monday
and the Saviour has chosen to face Jerusalem
and the might of empire.
He has chosen his way and we will follow.
Reading: Luke 20:27-40 – The Question about the Resurrection
27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him another question.
Reflection:
Look at them, those Sadducees who look so smug,
like the cat who got the milk, so pleased with themselves,
they keep looking at each other, egging each other on,
oh, wait, Jesus has spotted them.
What was that?
A question about resurrection, I got that much,
but they started to lose me with a story about a poor widow
losing one, two, three, all the way to seven husbands,
brothers all of them, of course, as is our way,
and something about who would be her husband.
Everyone turning to each other asking what it all meant.
Now we have been talking about resurrection,
and I’ve heard this Jesus mention it before,
but I suppose I had not thought through the ramifications,
maybe they have a point.
They certainly look like they have Jesus trapped.
I’ve been listening to him a while now,
if they get one over him I’ll be impressed,
he’s a great speaker, but he is from Nazareth.
Hold on, he’s speaking back,
and he sounds confident, he looks confident,
talking about the new life with God not being like our life here,
well, that’s a relief.
God is God not of the dead … woah, is that what he said?
No, there is more … God is God of the living and the dead, because to him all are alive.
That sounds more like it.
Oh look at those poor Sadducees, staring back and forth at each other,
trying to find a way back from this humiliation, from their folly.
You can see it in their faces, they dare not ask him another question.
That Jesus, he’s gone up in my estimation another notch,
I cannot see how they will ever find anything on him.
He’s just too good.
Prayer:
Dear Jesus,
what did you think when the Sadducees approached you?
Here we go again? What have they got for me this time?
We wonder, Jesus, how you had the patience
with the games they played.
Dear Jesus,
what do we think when we see people
trying to trick others from living faithfully,
putting their beliefs and resources into what does harm to others?
Jesus, save us from ourselves.
May it be so.
Amen.
Blessing:
We worship the God of the Living,
the God of Jacob, Isaac, Abraham and Jesus.
Let us continue the journey
to the cross this week
with the realisation of what is yet to come,
while knowing that God holds us in the journey.