Are Marriages Made in Heaven?

Proper 27, Year C
 
Haggai 1:15b-2:9                                   or         Job 19:23-27a
Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21     or Psalm 98     or         Psalm 17:1-9
2 Thess. 2:1-5, 13-17                                         
Luke 20:27-38   
 
The Sadducees were part of a Jewish religious group active during the time of Jesus' ministry.  They were associated with the upper social and economic classes of the time, and managed the Temple activities.  They generally didn't believe in the resurrection of the body, or even that a person had a soul, and therefore sometimes clashed with Jesus.
 
In Luke 20 we encounter another example of this.  They challenged Jesus again, this time pressing him with a somewhat sarcastic question about marriage in the afterlife.  They asked him about a woman who married seven times in her earthly life and, after her earthly death, "Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection?"
 
Jesus squashed their challenge with a simple response stating that marriage was a human institution, and not something that is needed in the time of resurrection.  It's something people do in this life, but not in the next.  Why?  Because in the next life we will all be considered as brothers and sisters – children of the one God – and won't be marrying anyone.  It just won't be necessary.
 
Marriage is indeed a human institution, and took many forms throughout history.  Even today there are many types of marriage.  Some cultures allow polygamous marriage, some allow inter-racial marriages, some allow same-sex marriages.  In some cultures, marriages are arranged by force.  Other marriages are created to simply designate who belongs to whom, as one would hold title to property.  Many cultures prohibit marriages between close relatives for genetic reasons.  Others simply arrange them for political reasons or for succession of property.
 
Jesus was in no way diminishing the value of a good marriage when he answered the Sadducees.  In fact, he knew that good marriages add much to a culture, and serve to strengthen a society, not to mention the value it can have for one's immediate family. 
 
But Jesus was trying to keep things in perspective.  There is a much larger marriage going on, a marriage between God and all His children, bringing them into a much larger family.  This is a marriage of our spirits – our souls – a blessed union that lasts forever.  By pointing this out to the Sadducees, he was also emphasizing that people do, indeed, have souls.  His exclamation point to the Sadducees was, "God is not God of the dead, but of the living; for to Him all of them are alive."
 
It would benefit all of us if we could start viewing ourselves in this life as the brothers and sisters we'll be in the next.  It has always been God's intent to bring His kingdom to earth, and that's what we pray for when we offer the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
 
If a marriage here on earth can bring two people (any two people) closer to God, and helps these two people build a loving relationship with each other (which, in turn, helps them to learn how to love their neighbor), then we are stepping out of bounds if we stand in their way.  It is, after all, a small reflection of a much bigger family reunion that is coming soon!
 
From the inside out, we are all in the same family of God.  We are all interconnected as brothers and sisters. That's why we sometimes call each other "brother" or "sister".  When we call ourselves "Brother" or "Sister" it's a reminder for us to know our place in life – not above anyone else; not beneath anyone else.  It should be a humbling reminder. 
 
How much would this world change if we could greet the stranger as a family member?