bread and circuses

A new year is good time for taking stock, for assessing the things that surround us and shape our lives. What constantly surrounds me? What shapes my life – often without me realizing it?

In practice it’s extremely difficult to identify the basic factors which radically influence me – that shape the way that I am.

In the final few days before his death by crucifixion (and his rising again) Jesus brought to the attention of those around him all of these major basic factors. One of them is part and parcel of the incident recorded by Luke, his biographer, writing around AD 62. What basic but highly influential factor in people’s lives is identified in this incident?

 

The Sadducees were a wealthy bunch at the top of the Jerusalem hierarchy. They were also the self-assured academics – they had concluded that the only Jewish Scriptures which were reliable were the five books written by Moses. (These are now the first five books in the Christian Bible.) Those books – and those alone - were from God and to be followed to the letter. What’s more, there was no life after death.

At the same time, Jesus was hugely popular as a teacher of (all) the Scriptures. The ordinary people crowded around him to listen. And they loved his compassionate healing and love of sinners and of all the needy.

The Sadducees, given that Jesus was in Jerusalem and daily in the Temple, couldn’t resist a piece of certain entrapment which would also demonstrate their superiority. A woman has seven husbands in succession. If  - if there is a resurrection after death, which of the seven will be her husband? 

Jesus was, as always, truthful. In the age to come men and women will not marry – there will be no need because death will be no more.

But Jesus wanted to make known the whole truth to the Sadducees and the crowds. He added, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” 

In the book of Exodus, one of the five written by Moses, Moses describes how Almighty God, speaking to him from the burning bush, said, “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” God said this to Moses when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all long dead. God did not say, “I was the God of Abraham….” He said, “I am the God of Abraham….”

Jesus added, “Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” All are alive to God. All are alive to God, even after their death. When God spoke to Moses Abraham was alive from the dead.

 

What then is this highly influential factor in people’s lives today? What shapes people’s lives, almost without their conscious awareness of it? It’s the “fact” that there’s no resurrection – no life after death.

What effect does this have on people’s lives in Jersey? A mega effect. Not only am I not accountable (unless caught by another human being in this life) but also I obtain my satisfaction, my happiness, my consolation in pain, sadness and loss – only from bread and circuses.