Written by Elina Vath, Virtual Assistant for Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ohio 
Each week across city, region, country, and hemisphere, we commemorate together the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, through the Lord’s Supper. Redemption and salvation through Jesus were foretold in the garden of Eden, fulfilled in Jerusalem, and will continue until He returns.
Before His death, Jesus entered Jerusalem as King, just as the prophet Zechariah said He would. And although it was the last week of Jesus’ human life, He did not receive any relief from those who were determined to see Him fail. Time after time, Jesus looked straight into the hearts of the teachers of the law and completely annihilated their arguments. In a single day, Jesus sent the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees home with their tails between their legs.
Chapter 22 of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life tells us that the Sadducees attempted to trap Him with a question meant to disprove the resurrection. Jesus knew the scheming intention behind the Sadducees’ question for exactly what it was: a weak attempt to show His ignorance of Moses’ teachings, as if Jesus Himself hadn’t been there when Moses floated in a basket on the Nile, murdered the Egyptian, met his wife, removed his sandals, spread his arms over the Red Sea, and breathed his last.
I picture Jesus shaking His head, sighing a heavy sigh, and then effectively bulldozing the Sadducees' trap with these words, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29 ESV). No signs of intimidation or hesitation; rather, Jesus spoke with authority. “You are WRONG,” He told the richest, most powerful Jews of the time. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He then accused the Sadducees of not having done their homework, bringing the conversation to a full stop.
And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. (Matt. 22:31-32)
You see, Jesus knew Moses personally. And when God said to Moses in the book of Exodus, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” Jesus watched as Moses was overcome by the sheer power of those words. Matthew tells us that Jesus’ wisdom and power in repeating these words had the same impact on the Sadducees and everyone who heard Him speak—they were all astonished.
Everything about God is alive. His words are alive, His Spirit is alive, His Son is alive, His kingdom is alive, and we are part of this living kingdom. Abraham, who looked at the stars in the night sky, as God made a promise, is alive. Isaac, the one through whom God began fulfilling that promise, is alive. Jacob, the forefather of Moses and someone used by God to preserve Jesus’ bloodline, is alive. Those who have gone before us are alive. Generation to generation, here we stand today, thousands of years later, as followers of the God of (the living) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Because of Jesus, who is the Life, you and I are counted among the stars in heaven. Generation upon generation of God’s people will live even after our bodies die.
May we all rejoice together at the history of our faith family, and that our names are written in the heavens as part of a promise that continues to be fulfilled.