Pentecost 24 Year CA sermon based on Luke 20:27-38
In the name of Jesus; amen.
In Seminary we often had small groups as classes. The idea was to get the information from the lectures in plenary and then have small groups with our professors so we could ask more in depth questions about the material we were learning about.
It was only natural that many of the questions we asked had to do with salvation and resurrection; after all that was the nature of what we studied in just about every class we had.
One professor, more than the others, typically found himself on the receiving end of questions about salvation. He was our Lutheran Confessions and Reformation History Professor and it was from him that I learned the most about Martin Luther.
And more often than not, when one of us would ask a question about salvation he would answer us in this way: “Why do you ask that question?”
It always frustrated us to no end, but we kept asking those questions and he kept answering us the same way, “Why do you ask that question?”
Well, I knew exactly why we asked those questions – because we wanted someone to tell us the answer! We wanted to know about heaven and life after death. We wanted to know what would happen to our loved ones and what would happen to us after we died.
When the Sadducees asked Jesus about the widow with the 7 husbands they were seeking a legitimate answer to what might seem like a ridiculous question. There was a law that said that if a man died and left his wife childless then his brother was to marry her and produce an heir for his dead brother.
The Sadducees, who didn’t believe in an afterlife, believed that immortality came through one’s offspring. Their descendants provided life after death for them. So, if a man died without children his life was truly over. At the same time, this law cared for women who had no status in society without a husband or children because it ensured that a childless widow was cared for.
It was a crazy scenario, but it was a possible scenario that one woman could marry 7 brothers and all of them die without one child being born. It’s also possible that while the Sadducees may have wanted to trick Jesus with their question that they too wanted to understand just what was going to happen after they died.
The first thing I like about Jesus’ answer is that he doesn’t respond by asking them, why they asked that question. The second thing I like about his response is that he doesn’t tell them it’s a stupid question.
Wanting to know what heaven is like and what happens to us and our loved ones after we die is not stupid.
What Jesus tells the Sadducees is that life after death is very different than life before death and can’t be measured by the things of life before death.
“Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
For some people, the idea that marriage is not a part of the kingdom of the after-life is heavenly, but for others this statement can bring about a great deal of sadness. I want to know my husband after death and I know there are others who feel the same way about their spouses.
At funerals we often hear that we will be reunited with those we love; I have said these words myself when I have preached at funerals and I believe it to be a promise. But resurrection is far more than simple reunion with those we know in this life.
Resurrection is a transformation and it transforms us and our relationships with others. It is not a perfection of what we are in the here and now, but a whole new thing because once resurrected we cannot die anymore and we become like angels, children of God and children of the resurrection. We won’t need marriage to love our spouse in the afterlife because even love will be transformed into something greater.
The question that the Sadducees asked was not a stupid question; they were just looking for the wrong answer.
We can question and hypothesize about heaven and death and resurrection all we want. What happens after death is unknown to all but those who have gone before us and God, but the answer we should seek in this life (or age as Jesus referred to it) is how much God loves us and wants us.
God desires us so greatly that there is a promise of something else, something greater and more wonderful than any of us can imagine. We have been promised resurrection because God is a God of the living, not of the dead, or of spirits, or bodiless souls, but of the living.
Whatever might happen to us, we have been promised new life, life we can’t even imagine because it is that wonderful and it is ours.
Amen.
In Seminary we often had small groups as classes. The idea was to get the information from the lectures in plenary and then have small groups with our professors so we could ask more in depth questions about the material we were learning about.
It was only natural that many of the questions we asked had to do with salvation and resurrection; after all that was the nature of what we studied in just about every class we had.
One professor, more than the others, typically found himself on the receiving end of questions about salvation. He was our Lutheran Confessions and Reformation History Professor and it was from him that I learned the most about Martin Luther.
And more often than not, when one of us would ask a question about salvation he would answer us in this way: “Why do you ask that question?”
It always frustrated us to no end, but we kept asking those questions and he kept answering us the same way, “Why do you ask that question?”
Well, I knew exactly why we asked those questions – because we wanted someone to tell us the answer! We wanted to know about heaven and life after death. We wanted to know what would happen to our loved ones and what would happen to us after we died.
When the Sadducees asked Jesus about the widow with the 7 husbands they were seeking a legitimate answer to what might seem like a ridiculous question. There was a law that said that if a man died and left his wife childless then his brother was to marry her and produce an heir for his dead brother.
The Sadducees, who didn’t believe in an afterlife, believed that immortality came through one’s offspring. Their descendants provided life after death for them. So, if a man died without children his life was truly over. At the same time, this law cared for women who had no status in society without a husband or children because it ensured that a childless widow was cared for.
It was a crazy scenario, but it was a possible scenario that one woman could marry 7 brothers and all of them die without one child being born. It’s also possible that while the Sadducees may have wanted to trick Jesus with their question that they too wanted to understand just what was going to happen after they died.
The first thing I like about Jesus’ answer is that he doesn’t respond by asking them, why they asked that question. The second thing I like about his response is that he doesn’t tell them it’s a stupid question.
Wanting to know what heaven is like and what happens to us and our loved ones after we die is not stupid.
What Jesus tells the Sadducees is that life after death is very different than life before death and can’t be measured by the things of life before death.
“Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
For some people, the idea that marriage is not a part of the kingdom of the after-life is heavenly, but for others this statement can bring about a great deal of sadness. I want to know my husband after death and I know there are others who feel the same way about their spouses.
At funerals we often hear that we will be reunited with those we love; I have said these words myself when I have preached at funerals and I believe it to be a promise. But resurrection is far more than simple reunion with those we know in this life.
Resurrection is a transformation and it transforms us and our relationships with others. It is not a perfection of what we are in the here and now, but a whole new thing because once resurrected we cannot die anymore and we become like angels, children of God and children of the resurrection. We won’t need marriage to love our spouse in the afterlife because even love will be transformed into something greater.
The question that the Sadducees asked was not a stupid question; they were just looking for the wrong answer.
We can question and hypothesize about heaven and death and resurrection all we want. What happens after death is unknown to all but those who have gone before us and God, but the answer we should seek in this life (or age as Jesus referred to it) is how much God loves us and wants us.
God desires us so greatly that there is a promise of something else, something greater and more wonderful than any of us can imagine. We have been promised resurrection because God is a God of the living, not of the dead, or of spirits, or bodiless souls, but of the living.
Whatever might happen to us, we have been promised new life, life we can’t even imagine because it is that wonderful and it is ours.
Amen.
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