Seven men and a woman

At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"(12:23)

The Sadducees’ story is continued. It was their question, “If seven brothers married the widow and died, whose wife would the woman is?” It was so wicked question. They wanted to confirm the fact that there would be no resurrection through this difficult question to answer. More basically, they intended to put Jesus into trouble through this question. Whatever their motivation is it also can be a curious question for us.

At the resurrection what will be our family relationship especially the relationship of husband and wife? We console the bereaved family in funeral ceremony by saying, “The deceased is waiting for you nesting in God. You also soon can meet the deceased in the kingdom of heaven so till that time you can endure a temporal sorrow of separation by expecting the day of joyous moment.” Mostly console the bereaved family in this way. Here is an expectation to remember the things of this world even in Heaven. If there is no such memory meeting again in Heaven has no meaning.

Husband and wife relationship is very unique among many relationships in this world. Commonly this relationship is called oneness of body and mind. Occasionally I can see the meeting of the dispersed family in a TV program. One year after their marriage in North Korea they had to be separated due to the Korean War. A husband came to South but a wife remained in North. The husband remarried within a year but a wife didn’t marry. They have lived in that way and meet again after 50 years. Twenty’s young couple meets again at the age of seventy. Despite getting old age still they have kept charity of youth in their mind.

We don’t know the future of marriage system but till it is very important system to make our life affluent. A couple is living as the closest friend in this world. If they accord with their philosophy and belief then it is wonderful but it still good though it doesn’t accord with each other.