Sadducees deny that there is a resurrection. In the time of Jesus there were several “sects or philosophical schools” (so called by the early historian Josephus) within Judaism. The Sadducees were the conservatives, the ones who had the power and the money. They could not find in the scriptures a belief in eternal life and looked on Jews who believed in such mistaken. Other Jews disagreed with them. Jesus, of course, preached eternal life and, thus, drew their ire. One of the catalysts for the development of Jewish thinking on life after death was martyrdom at the time of the Maccabees. Reflection on that experience led many of the Jewish faithful to understand that God’s plans for us are not limited to this world only. Both in life and in death we are the Lord’s, as St. Paul puts it. Both for us as Church and as individuals we must do similar reflection on the experiences of our life to find the hand of God in them.
