In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.
Glory to God. I love riddles. Riddles are puzzles
with words. They challenge us to think outside
the box. I think the first time I realized how
much I enjoyed riddles was reading The Hobbit.
by J .R .R. Tolkien, where Bilbo Baggins enters
into a contest of riddles with Gollum. And Bilbo,
of course, Bilbo wins the contest and escapes
Gollum's wrath and takes with him the One Ring.
Well, in today's daily Gospel reading, there
are two riddles presented. One is given to Jesus
by the Sadducees, and the second is given by
Jesus back to them. And let us explore these
two riddles and their answers. The first riddle
is presented to Jesus by the Sadducees, who were
a class of Jewish priests who claimed there was
no resurrection from the dead. The Pharisees
believed in the resurrection of the dead, and
thus the Sadducees and the Pharisees quite frequently
debated and argued over this issue. So the Sadducees
approached Jesus with this main intention to
demonstrate how ridiculous it was to believe
in the resurrection. And so they asked Jesus
this question. They gave him this riddle. Teacher,
Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies
having a wife and he dies without children, his
brother should take his wife and raise up offspring
for his brother. Now there were seven brothers
and the first took a wife and died without children.
And the second took her as wife and he died childless.
Then the third took her and in like manner, The
seven also, and they left no children and died.
And last of all, the woman died also. And here
is their riddle. Therefore, in the resurrection,
whose wife does she become? For all seven had
her as wife. And at this point, can't you see
the smiles, the little snickers? We've got him
trapped. This prophet can't answer this question,
and we will demonstrate that there is no resurrection
very clearly. He will have to admit that it's
ridiculous to have seven husbands. Can you sense
their smugness? Can you see their little smiles?
Then Jesus answers with these words. The sons
of this age marry and are given in marriage,
but those who are counted worthy to attain that
age and the resurrection from the dead neither
marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they
die anymore, for they are equal to the angels
and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
I can see their jaws dropping. Their smiles disappearing
as the Sadducees realize their plan has totally
failed and that Jesus instead has given proof
for the resurrection. He has established it as
fact. And then Jesus gives them a riddle as well.
He asks them, how can they say that the Christ
is the son of David? Now David himself said in
the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord,
sit at my right hand till I make your enemies
your footstool. Therefore, David calls him Lord.
How is he then his son? And of course, they could
not answer. They did not have eyes to see. But
God has given us the answer, the church, the
answer to this riddle. the Christ, the Messiah,
have been Lord to David when he was alive, and
yet also have been born as a son of David? And
the answer has been given to us and revealed
to us from God. Because the Messiah is fully
human and fully divine, Jesus is David's son
in his Yet David calls him Lord in his eternal
deity. Today we honor the venerable seraphim,
wonder worker of Sarov, who after living ascetically
in solitude for many years, was given a vision
of the mother of God and two saints. of that
day being commemorated the holy high martyr clement
of rome and saint peter archbishop of alexandria
and the mother of god told him to end his seclusion
and devote himself to others so saint seraphim
did that and he blessed countless others with
the wisdom that god had imparted unto him And
no matter what time of year it was, St. Seraphim
would greet everyone with the words, Christ is
risen, my joy. The resurrection was first in
his mind. He knew the answer to that riddle.
He knew the answer to many riddles because of
God's revelation to him. Because St. Seraphim
knew the answer to both of the riddles from today's
gospel, he is a great example for all of us.
Perhaps you are struggling with one or several
of the riddles of life. Perhaps there's some
struggle that you're going through now. Well,
just as St. Seraphim went to the Lord, so we
need to. All the answers can be found in our
Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. There
is no riddle that he does not know the answer
to. So let us follow the example of St. Seraphim,
drawing close to God, looking to him for all
the answers. Glory to Jesus Christ.