Have No Fear, the Dead Will Be Raised!

Luke 20:27-40 The Bible says that:  There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection.  Here is the very situation that so many of us dread—confronted in our faith—called upon to confess the truth of what we believe. 

There are many people like the Sadducees in our world today—people who deny some part of what we believe as Christians.  There are people who ridicule our belief in a God who creates.  There are people who reject the idea that all life is precious in God’s sight—even that of the unborn.  And of course there are many, many people who deny that salvation is only found in Jesus.  We know they are out there.

But to be confronted by them—perhaps among our circle of friends or folks at work--to be called upon in that moment to give a defense of our faith and the truths that we have built our life on—that makes us anxious and even afraid. 

Especially when what is being challenged is as fundamental to our faith as the resurrection of the dead.  Eternal life with God is our most cherished hope and what makes this particular question even more of a faith challenge is that often times—truth be told—we have our own struggles to believe in the resurrection. 

To lay a loved one in the grave seems so final.  To conceive of a life other than the one we enjoy right now seems impossible.  But what Jesus wants us to know and believe is that when it comes to the resurrection (whether we are challenged by the world or whether the questions come from our own frail heart) we need have no fear, for the dead will be raised. 

The Bible says that:  There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died.  In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 

            Before we talk about the details of the challenge, I want to point out the tone of the question-how it falls into the absurd—far beyond the scope of anything in these men’s experience. 

I point this out because this is still the way that the world challenges our faith—by distortion and ridicule and scorn.  The men who came to Jesus (like so many in our world today) were not true seekers after the truth but people who:  had already made up their mind—had an agenda—and had given a lot of thought about how to undermine our faith.

Those who challenge our faith on the sanctity of life never mention the fact that the vast, vast majority of abortions in their country are simply birth control after the fact—the murder of innocents on the altar on convenience.  Instead, they come up with questions about very rare cases of having to choose between the life of the mother and the child.  Those who challenge our faith on salvation being found only in Jesus never talk about the billions on earth who have heard the gospel and reject him.  Instead they focus on the relatively few people who sadly have never heard the Gospel.  Those who challenge us on creation never ask us about the words from Genesis that talk about the meaning and purpose of the universe and our own human existence.  Instead, they ridicule the old editorial dates placed in the King Jesus Bible and make them normative for what they think Christians believe about creation.

In other words, many of the faith-challenges we face are not the serious questions of someone who is earnestly seeking the truth about God and their own existence-- but instead are the scorn and derision of those who have already made up their mind and have devoted a lot of time and thought to coming up with ways to ridicule our faith.

That’s what was going on here in the question of the Sadducees.  The situation comes from the Old Testament teaching of levirate marriage—the responsibility of one brother to marry his brother’s widow so that a family could be raised in the dead brother’s name.  That’s all pretty straight forward but a situation where there are seven dead brothers and one wife and no children all standing around in heaven trying to figure out who belongs to who is absurd and these skeptics meant it be absurd so they could ridicule the very idea of a life after this one. 

Now I will confess that when I am asked foolish questions like these I fall into two temptations—to ignore it and walk away because of where it’s coming from --or to say “you’re an idiot.”  But look instead what Jesus says and how he says it:

“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,

            Jesus knew where these guys were coming from—he knew what was motivating them (not a desire for the truth but to undermine the faith)—but he didn’t roll his eyes and walk away—he didn’t say “You’re an idiot”.  Instead, he answered them kindly but authoritatively. 

            There’s a lesson here for us.  We are going to face faith-challenges from the world about what we believe. We are going to face scorn and ridicule.  But the Bible says that we are to always be ready to give a reason for the hope we have.  That’s what Jesus does.

First of all, he corrects their false assumptions.  He says that heaven is not going to be a continuation of our earthly lives.  It IS life—real life—but much of what we identify with our earthly lives will not be a part of our life in heaven.  No sorrows—no sin—no separation.  But neither is there marriage.  Marriage is for this life—not for the life to come.

Now I know that for all of us who are blessed by God with good marriages this is a hard teaching. But Jesus isn’t saying we won’t know our loved ones.  He is not saying we won’t live with them forever.  He is not saying that we won’t love them.  What he is saying is that marriage is for this life and its purpose is to prepare us for the life to come by teaching us how to love. 

After correcting their false assumptions, then he teaches them the truth about the resurrection—that those in heaven:  cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

  We do not know everything there is to know about our life to come in heaven but we do know that there are real differences from our life on earth.  Jesus says that our heavenly life more closely reveals that of the angels who live directly in God’s presence and who see God as he is and whose eternal lives are filled from beginning to end with the worship and service of God and are focused on him alone. 

Jesus wasn’t concerned with answering all their questions or our questions either.  Instead, he was focused on teaching the truth about the resurrection and the reality of heaven AND how to have a part in it and a place there by being members of God’s family. 

It is only those who are God’s sons through faith in God’s only-begotten Son who will go to heaven and have a life in God’s presence.  Jesus Christ has conquered death and the grave for this very purpose—so that we would also rise from our graves just as he did from his grave on that first Easter morning. 

The Bible says that he is the first-fruits of an entire harvest of people who will live forever and that because he lives we will also live.  And Jesus says of himself:  I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. 

That is what Jesus taught the Sadducees that day who thought they were so smart and looked with contempt on those who believed in the resurrection.  But Jesus’ answer went even farther.  They were willing enough to listen to Moses regarding levirate marriage as long as they could use it as a tool to challenge the idea of eternal life.  But were they willing to listen to Moses when he contradicted their false teaching?  Jesus said

That the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

            Like many who challenge our faith, the Sadducees were willing to pick and choose what they did—and didn’t—believe from the Bible.  Still today, people are perfectly willing to quote verses about loving our neighbor and not judging him and caring for the poor but deny those passages from the same Bible about the roles of men and women and the creation of the world and the sanctity of all human life. 

But the authority of God himself stands behind every word—including those that teach a physical resurrection from the dead and eternal life with God.  This is taught throughout the Bible—Old Testament and New.  It is not just taught by Jesus and the apostles, it was taught by Moses as well because he heard it from God. 

When Moses stood before the Lord at the burning bush, God identified himself as the God of the patriarchs—not as the God of dust in the ground—but as their Savior God who would raise them from the dead.  And hearing the words of Jesus and remembering the words of Moses, at least some who doubted were convinced.  The Bible says that:  some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

            Often times we are afraid of having our faith challenged because we think there is not an answer to the questions we are asked or because we will fail to convince the one asking.  But the convincing is not our job—that is the job of the Holy Spirit.  Our job is to simply tell—in a kind way—what the Bible teaches.  All may not be convinced—but some will be.

            That’s what Jesus wants for us today—to be convinced in our heart and mind that the dead will be raised and to be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have when our faith in his promises are challenged.  May God grant us the courage and the clarity and the conviction to do so!  Amen.