Luke 20:27-40
This morning, we are looking at nothing less than the resurrection of our souls, and what it means to be called by Jesus the “children of the resurrection.”
Our gospel begins with a question/riddle to Jesus from the Sadducees while he is teaching in the Temple courts. This is part of a long line of escalating questions directed at Jesus by various Jewish leaders and teachers of the law.
Luke tells us earlier, (11:53-54), that the “Pharisees and teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.”
From there on the interactions the Jewish temple leaders and the teachers of the law have with Jesus are acrimonious. The motivation behind the questioning is not to learn from Jesus, but rather to try and catch him out.
It is arrogance and pride, dressed up as sort of banter.
This is the first time in Luke’s gospel that we come across the Sadducees. We don’t know a whole lot about the Sadducees; except they didn’t believe in the resurrection to eternal life.
What we do know is that they were a group of Jewish leaders who were wealthy and particularly associated with the elite.
They were extremely conservative in their interpretation of Scripture, relying heavily upon the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and rejecting the place of tradition, i.e., of rabbinical teachings, in interpreting it.
This was in opposition to the Pharisees who drew heavily upon tradition to aid in their understanding of Scripture.
So, since they don’t believe in the resurrection, but rather that there is only this life and no other, they bring up a question regarding marriage in the afterlife. I think was one of their favourites when arguing with the Pharisees.
It was their ‘go to’ stumper, carefully constructed to make a fool of anyone who tried to answer it. (Just like the teachers of the law and the chief priests tried to stump Jesus by asking him ‘Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’)
Jesus’ answer reveals to the Sadducees, and to us, that they misunderstand the relationship between this life and the next. Whilst there is an important connection between the two there will be distinct differences.
When we read and study the bible, we interpret Scripture in the light of Christ. To take him, his life and his work, as the central starting point and work outwards from there.
So, when we have a question about our own resurrection, we start by looking first at the one who has been resurrected – Jesus – at a very basic level of movement from one life to another.
Well, his body was buried human and fleshy, and rose from the dead in the same condition, but breathing, which suggests a real connection between this life and the next.
With that resurrected body he ate and drank with the disciples, demonstrating that he is mortal flesh and not just Spirit. Like us.
Yet, there is disconnection too. John writes in Revelation (21:1-7) that the great resurrection of our souls, (the unique personal essence that makes you, you), will be on a fully renewed earth under fully renewed heavens. Where God will be our God and we will be his people.
A place where every tear has been wiped away. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more. For they are part of the first things, just like our first lives, and they have passed away.
Paul writes to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:51), “I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
Changed, not into a ghost, or to body-less souls drifting around in space, but we, as Paul writes just a few verses earlier – we shall “bear the image of the heavenly man.” (1 Cor 15:49).
We will be in the same form as the resurrected Jesus, that is, fully and perfectly human – amidst a resurrected creation.
As far as the Sadducees were concerned the only authority was the Torah. That is, the first five books of the Old Testament; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So where did Jesus turn for authority to respond to a question from the Sadducees?
Not to Paul or John as I just did, as they hadn’t been written, but to The Torah, of course! And not just some obscure reference hidden away in a corner of Leviticus that everyone has forgotten.
But one of the biggest and most important moments in the story of Exodus; the calling of Moses at the burning bush. Moses; the one the Sadducees had conveniently named-dropped into their question just moments earlier.
God will always come to us in ways we can understand, and, as the Sadducees understand things in a legal framework, Jesus responds as Christ the Lawyer.
In a scholarly reading of Exodus 3, Christ reveals that the long since dead forefathers, often called the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – are referred to not in the past tense, but the present tense.
And these are the words of God speaking through the burning bush. So, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive!
We see a similar confirmation in the New Testament when Peter, James and John go with Jesus to the top of a mountain, where Jesus is transfigured into a shimmering larger than life figure.
It is not so much that Jesus changes on top of that mountain, but that the disciples see him as he really is; it was the apostle’s earthly eyes that could not yet see clearly. Jesus was talking to Moses and Elijah.
Moses lived around 1500BC and Elijah around 870 BC – yet they were alive when Jesus walked the earth, just as they are alive today with the Lord.
I think one of the most important aspects of Christian belief is the resurrection. This belief impacts every other aspect of Christian belief, from creation to the final glorification of Christ when he returns, and everything else in between.
It completes Jesus’ atonement for sin and perfects his incarnation; that God came to earth in human form. It both fulfils the hope that was and provides the one to come.
It is the source of our joy and the answer to our prayers. Jesus Christ has overcome death, been raised from the dead, and entered into new life for the sole reason of allowing us to do the same.
And we will be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. This is our faith and never let go of it. Let me pray.