Luke 20:27-40Jesus’ usual opponents were the Pharisees. They were the legalistic party of the Jewish Sanhedron, or ruling council. They were really the conservatives. Hyporcrites, to be sure. Arrogant show-offs, greedy for gain, who balked at Jesus’ teachings and incurred his most firey rhetoric. It is the Pharisees who are the forefathers, really, of modern-day Judaism.
Not as often, we hear Jesus contend with that other party – the Saducees. They were mostly of very high social class. Though they were more concerned with politics than religion, they were the religious liberals among the Jewish leadership. They denied heaven and hell, did not believe in the existance of angels, and cried foul at the promise of the resurrection of the dead. That’s a big part of what is behind their questioning today. Their false teachings put them at odds with both the Pharisees, but also with Jesus. And so their question about the details of marriage in the day of the resurrection really illustrates their lack of faith in this important promise of God.
Isn’t it strange, then, that Jesus ends up agreeing with the Pharisees on this one. There really are angels. There is a heaven and a hell. And there is a resurrection of the dead. But more than just another argument that Jesus wins, more than just him defeating his opponents on the field of rhetoric – here Jesus is also teaching us about our own future as his people, and that our God is God of the living.
We are in November, and the church year is drawing to a close. Advent is at hand, starting the first week of December. So these last few weeks of the church calendar, as every year, focus our attention on the end times, the judgment day, the second coming of Christ. The study of these matters is called “eschatology” from the Greek “eschatos” meaning, “the last things”.
We don’t know all that much about eschatology, quite frankly, but what precious little Scripture tells us is actually very comforting. We know that Christ will come at a day and hour that no one knows – but that all eyes will see him. We know that this world, corrupted by sin, will be destroyed and God will make a new heaven and new earth for us. God’s people there will live with him forever, and as we heard of All Saints’ Day, last week – God himself will wipe every tear from our eyes.
We confess some of this, also, in our creeds, “he will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead” and that we believe in the “resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come”.
Today, we hear from Jesus a few more details about all this. He specifically focuses on the resurrection. He affirms it as a fact. He dispels their silly question about marriage – by stating plainly that we who attain to that age, and to the resurrection, will be like the angels. There will be no marriage in heaven.
But the dead are raised, and even Moses showed it. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Well by the time Moses was around, those patriarchs had been dead and gone for hundreds of years. But, not quite true! Though they were did, yet did they live! Though their bodies were buried, their spirits lived on, and still live on with the Lord. But even more than that, they will be raised in the resurrection – body and soul – to live with all the saints in glory. This is the argument Jesus is making.
Death, to be sure, is a great enemy. Death comes to each of us, the just wages of sin. Most of us know the sorrow of the death of a loved one – perhaps even the bitter sorrow of losing a parent, sibling, spouse or a child. Part of what makes death so grievous is that it is so final. You never get to see the person again, talk with them, embrace them. That is, unless you have a hope for something beyond the grave. A hope of life beyond death, and we Christians have just that.
Jesus says God is a God of the living, not the dead. The dead have no place with him. That is, those who are dead in sin. But those who have died in the faith are not truly dead. See, for Jesus life and death are far more than whether you have a pulse and brain activity, or even whether your body is currently breathing and moving around. Sure the body is important, and it will be raised. But life is more than that.
Consider Jesus words to Martha in John 11:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask Him.”
“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.
It almost seems as if he is speaking double-talk here. Do I live or do I die? Even though I die, I live, but really I never die? Huh?
What he means is this: There is no life outside of him. But whoever believes in him, Jesus, doesn’t need to worry about death. Because even though our bodies die, we, ourselves never do. Our spirits live with Christ – just as the thief on the cross went to paradise that very day – and they rest in peace, and await there for the final promise to be fulfilled – the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. “Though he dies, yet shall he live.” Though the body dies, the body will rise again, and body and spirit together will live, glorified with him.
For he is God of the living. And Jesus has destroyed death. And Jesus is the first born of the dead. And the dead in Christ will rise.
This promise – the resurrection of the body – is one that is sadly missing in action from many Christian sermons, especially at funerals these days. Sure it’s nice and comforting to think of our loved ones being with the Lord, that their spirits are at peace in the arms of Jesus. And a good funeral sermon will remind us at least of this. They rest in peace. They’re in God’s presence in heaven. But that’s only part of the story. And it’s not even the best part.
The final hope of Christians is not a purely spiritual heaven, a disembodied eternity, but a restoration of the entire person in a resurrection of the body. Just as Jesus rose from the dead and lives, even now, lives – so too we will rise in our bodies. After he rose, Jesus went to some trouble to prove his resurrection to his disciples – he touched them, ate with them, even showed them his wounded hands and side.
Paul gives us the most to go on in 1 Corinthians 15, where he lays forth the hope of the resurrection – that we will be changed, and that the dead will be raised incorruptible. No longer under the dark cloud of death – because the sinful flesh has been put to death. No longer subject to pain and suffering, troubles and sorrows. We will live, and live in a glorified body. We will be in perfect communion with God, and see a joyful reunion with all those we love who have also died in the faith.
Death only comes because of sin. And sin is forgiven in Christ. That means death has lost its sting. Though we die, yet we live. And we see in death the gate to eternal life. We stand at the grave of a loved one and say, “Where oh death is your victory?!” For the Christian, death It is temporary. Life is eternal.
Today we have people who, like the Saducees, would deny the afterlife – either heaven or hell. We also have people who would make up all sorts of other beliefs about it – apart from what God reveals. Reincarnation, purgatory, or merging with the energy of the universe – all human ideas about the afterlife which deny the promises of God.
Don’t fall for any of that, Christian. For we have a blessed, joyous hope. We have a glorious future in a resurrected and restored body. God will once again make all things the way they are meant to be. Jesus Christ has died to win this promise for us! Let us hold to his cross tightly, by faith, and in the hope of eternal life.
And it’s already begun, in Christ. New life is already yours, in baptism. You’ve already died to sin and been raised with Christ to new life. So even if and when death comes to you – your eternal life is already secure, and it will continue – resting in peace with Christ until the day of resurrection – and then in a glorified body forever. Believe it, for the sake of Jesus Christ who died, Jesus Christ who rose, Jesus Christ who lives, and Jesus Christ who will come again. In his name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment