SUNDAY’S
SERMON
A Glimpse of Heaven
Luke
20:27-38
Pastor
Susan
Rice of
At a friend’s
wedding, her four-year-old daughter was sitting next to her when the minister
asked, “Do you take this man for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in
sickness and in health?”
At that point she
said her daughter turned to her and whispered loudly, “You chose poorer, didn’t
you Mommy?”
It’s not easy being
married.
There are worse
things than choosing “poorer.” In our scripture for today a group of religious
figures ask a tough question about marriage. It’s a little unique but that’s
what makes it interesting.
The question is posed
to Jesus by a religious group called the Sadducees. The Sadducees accepted only
what was written in the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch, the first five
books of the Bible. For the Sadducees, if it was not in the first five books of
the Bible, then it was not crucial to the faith. For example, the first five
books of the Bible say nothing about eternal life or resurrection or immortality;
therefore, such things should not be taught as part of the faith, according to
the Sadducees. Accordingly, they did not believe in Heaven or Hell.
Because their faith
was restricted to the first five books of the Bible, they did not have the
benefit of such writings as the book of Job which contains this witness: “I
know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself
will see Him . . .” (Job 19:26-27) According to the Sadducees, there was no
such thing as life beyond the grave.
So the question they
posed to Jesus is quite surprising. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us
that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry
the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven
brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then
the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children.
Finally, the woman died too. Now then,” they asked, “at the resurrection whose
wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
Now, that’s a pretty
grim story in fact it could be a Grimm’s fairy tale. We could call it “A Bride
for Seven Brothers.” Forgetting for a moment the absurdity of the Sadducees who
did not even believe in the resurrection posing this question about “whose wife
she will be at the resurrection?” it was, of course, a trick question. They
wanted to get Jesus in trouble with the people. Jesus was accustomed to
scholars attempting to trip Him up. Jesus, however, knew the Scriptures better
than they did. Even more important, He saw beyond the Scriptures to the heart
of the One who inspired the Scriptures, so He was never trapped by those who
would discredit Him. Let’s take a look at His answer here. Jesus replied, “The people of
this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy
of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will
neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they
are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the
resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that
the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to
Him all are alive.”
Jesus does several
things here: He met the Sadducees where they were. He spoke to an uncertainty
that many good people have about marriage. And He answered the most pressing
question of all, is there life beyond the grave? Let’s consider each of these
for just a few moments.
He met the
Sadducees where they were.
The Sadducees were people of the Torah, as we have already noted. If something
wasn’t in the Torah, it could not be part of their faith. So Jesus answered
them from within the Torah.
He turns to the third
chapter of Exodus, the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was tending
the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. Moses led the flock to the far side of
the wilderness and came to Horeb, the
God called to Moses
by name from within the bush and said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your
sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then God said, “I
am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob.”
It is a wonderful
story of faith. However, notice that God does not say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Remember, when Moses wrote
these words the three patriarchs had been dead for centuries, yet God refers to
them in the present tense. This, says Jesus to the Sadducees, is evidence right
within the Torah that life after death exists. God says, “I am . . . the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob.” “God is not the God of the dead,” Jesus insists, “but
of the living.”
Jesus answered the
Sadducees in a way that they could understand. Jesus always meets people where
they are. Alright now, stay with me on this, because this is to say that none
of us has an excuse when it comes to things of faith. If we are unsophisticated
in our understandings, Jesus will come to us with simplicity and patience. If
we come from another faith, Jesus will show us how the teachings that we prize
most in our old faith point the way to Him. If we come from a background of
dysfunction, Jesus will wrap His arms around us and gently bring us to a
wholesome relationship with Him. Jesus always comes to us where we are if we
will but open our hearts to Him.
That is the first
thing He did for the Sadducees, He came to them where they were.
Jesus also answered
an uncertainty that many good people have about marriage. This poor woman outlived seven husbands. The
Sadducees asked, “Whose wife would she be in the afterlife?”
I don’t know if many
of us are awake at night wondering about whether we will still be married in
heaven. We’re modern people. We understand that Heaven is not a physical place,
but a spiritual one. We don’t know what our spiritual bodies will be like, but
evidently they will not require us to live as husbands and wives.
I learned some things this
week when I read about a 2010 international survey of married couples. The
countries surveyed included
There are many good
people who outlive their spouses. In fact, if we are married, half of us will
outlive our spouses. We know death is a part of life. Half of spouses will one
day be left behind. For most of us it will be a day of deep grief.
Eventually, however,
the question may arise, “Should I take a new partner? Would that be a betrayal
of the great love my spouse and I shared?” It is an emotional question. For
some of you who have already dealt with this question, you may have discovered
it was more emotional for other family members than it was for you. Sometimes
children, particularly, can make their parents feel very guilty for all the
wrong reasons.
The biblical answer
to this question would be, by all means re-marry if that is where your heart
leads you. Your beloved former spouse who is now with God lives in a different
kind of world that knows no marriage, only pure fulfillment in the presence of
God. You need feel no guilt, no sense of betrayal if someone else fills the
loneliness you now find in your heart. Remember those vows, “till death do us
part.”
And this brings us to
another of Jesus’ important teaching. In this scripture Jesus answered
unequivocally the most pressing question in life is there life beyond the
grave? And the answer He gave is, “Yes, there definitely is life
beyond the grave.” He not only gave us that answer with His lips, He also gave
it with His own life. “He is alive!” reported the women on their return from
the empty tomb, and He was alive and He still lives this Jesus our Lord. To
some of us this seems too good to be true.
The great preacher of
yesteryear, Charles Spurgeon, once addressed our natural skepticism about such
things. He pointed to one of the most common technologies of his time. The
reference he made is dated, but the principle is still relevant: “The electric
telegraph,” he said, “would have been as hard to believe a thousand years ago
as the resurrection of the dead is now. Who in the days of pack horses would
have believed in flashing a message from
Everything is full of
wonder till we are used to it, and resurrection owes the incredible portion of
its marvel to our never having come across it in our observation, that is all.
After the resurrection we shall regard it as a divine display of power as
familiar to us as the telegraph is to us now.”
Spurgeon’s illustration
is dated, but his rationale is right on target. Of course living more than a
hundred years ago he definitely would be amazed by some of the marvels we take
for granted today. Life calls for intellectual humility. Just because we have
not experienced a physical resurrection, do not assume that it is impossible. The
most honest advice I can give is to wait and see.
Of course, some of us
have experienced a resurrection already in our spiritual lives. As the old
Gospel song testified, “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my
heart.” That’s the best evidence of the risen Christ.
Are the Sadducees convinced by Jesus’ interpretation of scripture? Do
they change their minds about the resurrection? Luke does not tell us. But the
more pressing question is: Do some of us
have concepts of the resurrection life which need clarifying by Jesus’
interpretation of scripture? What is heaven like? Who will be there? Who will
not? How do we get there? How do we know for sure?
Jesus’ word that God is the God of the living does not satisfy our
curiosity about such, but it does give us strong assurance that God does not
abandon us at death. It may not make entirely clear what our relationship will
be to those whom we loved dearly on earth but who have gone before us into the
new age. But it does confirm that our relationship with God is forever.
No matter what the Sadducees think about it,
from Jesus’ point of view the question of whose wife she is will never come up.
The one bride and the seven brothers are all
content in the presence of God.