And perhaps there is a bit more as well. Jesus’s concluding words, “God is God not of the dead, but of the living,” are tantalizingly evocative. His words suggest that God’s concern is the living and not the dead. To think that Jesus’s message and passion were about what happens to the dead, and to ask questions about the fate of the dead, is to miss the point. For Jesus, the kingdom of God is not primarily about the dead, but about the living, not primarily about life after death, but about life in this world.
