As Jesus comes to the end of his public life, his authority is constantly challenged by the establishment. Today it is the turn of the Sadducees, a Jewish sect which only accepted the authority of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. So they did not accept beliefs which occur in later books, such as the resurrection of the dead. With this in mind, they propose a situation where a woman married seven brothers in succession - all of whom died leaving her childless. They then put what they think is an unanswerable question to Jesus, presuming he accepted life after death. In the next life, which brother will be the woman's husband? For them there is no problem because they held there was no life after death. Jesus answers them in two ways. First, in the next life there will be a whole new set of relationships - all will be children of the one God, brothers and sisters of the Risen Jesus and of each other. Secondly, as to references to life after death in the Pentateuch, Jesus quotes from the scene where Moses speaks with Yahweh at the burning bush (Ex. 3:6) and where God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. Concludes Jesus: "God is a God of the living and not of those who no longer exist." As Christians, our calling in this life is already to transcend narrow family relationships and reach out to every other person as a brother or sister.