Fr. Martin gave us a new perspective in the interpretation of the "resurrection debate". For us Christians, it is unthinkable not to believe in resurrection. Christ' resurrection is the very foundation of our faith. However, there were/are people who deny resurrection.
In the gospel story, the Sadduccees only recognized the Five Books of Moses. This religious party was mainly composed of priestly families and they must have been rich. Paradoxically, these priests did not believe in resurrection! Isn't it mind-boggling? Greeks did not believe in resurrection for philosophical reasons. Greeks believed that in death, the soul was released from the prison of the material body. Therefore, it would be stupid for the soul to re-enter the body after its release. The situation of the Sadduccees was different. They did not have the philosophical burden of the Greeks. Therefore, they rejected resurrection for some other reasons.
Why do/did people believe in resurrection or afterlife in general?
I think it is a matter of justice. When justice is not done or is not attainable in this life, people look forward to remedies in the afterlife. Who see that justice is not attainable? Most likely, it would be the poor, the exploited and the oppressed. The story of the martyrs in the Second Book of Maccabees illustrates this clearly. Such belief was put into the mouths of the second and fourth brothers. In their dying breath, they made the following statements.
And when he (the second brother) was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws." (2 Maccabees 7:9)
And when he (the fourth brother) was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!" (2 Maccabees 7:14)
It was impossible for the martyrs to defeat their conquerers. But the God they/we believe in will see justice done.
Let's return to the Sadducces. Perhaps they were rich enough and did not bother to worry about their life after death. When people are rich, they usually enjoy power as well. They have more access to the resources of the society and rich people support each other to guarantee that their riches are secured. They will never experience "injustice" done to them. Naturally, the idea of an afterlife or the idea of seeing justice done will not be appealing to them.
Not only do they never experience injustice. Instead, they sometimes inflict injustice onto others in order to maintain a "fair/reasonable" share of profit. They gradually become insensitive to the sufferings of the poor. The recent incident of Cafe de Coral in Hong Kong is a case in point.
Gone are the days when traditional employers treated their employees like family members. They dined and whined together. Entered modern business administration when labour is but one of the four factors of production. When there is little room for employers to spend less expenditures in "Land" and "Capital", the entrepreneurs then turn to their employees and squeeze as much as possible from them in order to maintain a "reasonable" level of profit. When the government passes the minimum wage ordinance to protect the employees, the greedy employers would look for loopholes to spend less on wages. For Cafe de Coral, it was a PR disaster. Its stock price slided down for 4 consecutive days since November 1. As of this writing, Cafe de Coral bowed to public pressure and retracted its decision not to count the lunch hour wage of her workers.
Jesus quoted Moses' saying that God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and drew the following conclusion.
Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him (Luke 20:38).
God offers us life in His hand. He will not and cannot force us to accept His generous gift. Some of us choose life. Some don't. We make our choices when we deal with our employees, our fellow men.
Dear Lord, You have the Word of Life to offer us. Where else can we turn? I pray for hearts of the rich. May they maintain their sensitivity and sensibility in making business decisions. Amen.
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