It isn’t really about levirate marriage,
mocked in the Sadducee story
of the woman married to seven brothers,
the early welfare meant to care
for destitute widows.
All wealthy men, Sadducees,
they tell it like the poverty of women
is half stand-up comedy joke,
half trap for the out-of-town prophet.
Under the facade
Jesus answers the question we all have –
how will I be resurrected?
Will I be the child playing,
or the child fearful,
the restless teen, the lover,
a parent, a profession,
one disappointed by life,
one living through dementia or cancer?
Many more than seven are
the people I have been,
so who will I be,
when I meet –
the bush, rock, wind,
mother hen, spirit, parent, fire?
Always there will be someone
joking about human lives,
but the true punchline is love.
As for traps,
the resurrection is have-a-heart.
“For to God all of them are alive.” (Luke 20:38b)
Hamilton, Anton Ignaz. White hen with chickens, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55391 [retrieved November 2, 2022]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamilton_White_hen_with_chickens.jpg.
Gifts in Open Hands 
We could use a little more caring for poor widows and young mothers now 😢
Sent from my iPhone
>
We sure could …
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Thank you so much.
Maren, this has given me so much food for thought – or direction for thought – or space for thought. My mixed-up metaphors aside, you’ve captured something very deep in this story. Thank you.
Thank you — I mixed in a number of thoughts there and, honestly, it has been a text I avoided before this … and i am not, in fact, preaching next week.
I agree with Eric. You have made profound sense of several aspects of this story for me, as well as naming the joking and trapping that stirs my anger towards Sadducees and their ilk.
Thank you so much. and I actually had a recognition that I really do dislike the Sadducees. I understand the Pharisees and that they care, misguided as their “testing” is but the Sadducees are just jeering from their position and wealth.
Maren – this just grabbed me and it was all I could to hold on. ‘Many more than seven are
the people I have been, so who will I be ….’ Thoughts that are crossing my mind more and more frequently. The jokers – you helped me to remember to not waste a minute of my time on them. 🙏🏼❤️
I am so glad. I was somewhat worried that the different thoughts weren’t clear coming together, but this helps a lot!
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Thank you so very much.