Luke 21:5-19
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify.
So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.
The Forever Kingdom
This is one of the gospel readings that appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels: that is, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and is virtually identical in each of the Gospels. It is interesting to note that less than half of the content of these three Gospels are found in all three, and some of the passages which cover the same material have some striking differences. So passages like this one were at the very core of the tradition of the new Christian church in its very early years. Not only had all three Gospel writers heard this story, but they had heard it told in the same way and likely had a nearly identical written source from which they copied the story.
So, we are forced to ask what it was about this story that made it so important to the early church. What we find out is there is much more to this story than meets the eye at first hearing.
The tale is set in the context of the different parts of the Jewish hierarchy looking for ways to discredit Jesus and his teachings. The particular folks who were questioning Jesus were Sadducees, and one of the essential differences between Pharisees and Sadducees was their attitude toward the idea of resurrection. The Pharisees spoke of a physical resurrection into a new Godly Kingdom, whereas the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection.
Their question was designed as a trick question. The answer Jesus gives does not set well with either group, nor does it sit well with many of today’s Christians.
The members of the Sadducees bring up a hypothetical question which was not absolutely impossible, but not terribly likely. It’s a legal question. The law says if a man dies without leaving his wife a child, his brother must marry her in order to create a child to carry on the family name. Remember only the first born male can carry out this family lineage. Essentially the brother is to act as a surrogate father for the first-born son. A son born to the second brother would be considered by law to be the son of the first brother for purpose of inheritance. Got that?
But in this case, the second brother also dies without leaving a child, and the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers. OK, that’s not very likely, but I suppose it’s possible. Perhaps all the brothers are chain smokers with heart conditions.
In any case, the question put to Jesus is, which one of these would be married to the woman in the resurrection.
Remember, they are asking Jesus about a resurrection they don’t believe in. It’s a “gotcha” question.
Perhaps they expected Jesus to come up with a legalistic answer. Like, perhaps that the first husband would be the spouse of the woman in the resurrection. Since he had married her first.
And here’s an important thing to consider. If Jesus believed, as the Pharisees did, in a physical resurrection, would he not have NEEDED to come up with some sort of answer? If all of the brothers were resurrected, and the woman was resurrected, wouldn’t they need to know who was married to whom?
But that’s not how Jesus responded. He says, “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. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.”
The resurrection he speaks of is clearly spiritual. “They are like the angels and are children of God.”
Many Christians are terribly concerned about what happens when we die. What will our relationships be like? Will we meet Jesus in the flesh? Will our dogs and cats be in heaven. Will we be rejoined with the ones we love?
Those are all interesting questions, but they all ignore the fact that the resurrection Jesus speaks of is a Spiritual one. I don’t think it’s wrong to want to believe we will be rejoined with all those we love, because we will be. What Jesus seems to be saying is that worrying about the physical and legal aspects of the resurrection simply make no sense to him. We will be spiritual beings with no physical boundaries immersed in the loving presence of God. The love we know from our existence in this world is only a small inkling of the love that will surround us.
Jesus makes another dramatic claim which must have shocked his listeners. Did they not realize, he asks, that Abraham and Isaac and Moses are already proof of the resurrection?
Listen to what he tells them. “And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”
What does that mean? If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive, where are they? Why can’t I see them? If our God is the God of the living and not of the dead, why is there still death?
Jesus says it is simply an established fact that, to God, all of the Saints of the Church are just as alive today in Spirit as if they were still with us in body.
The same goes for the Living Christ. For all those still waiting for Jesus to come to earth on a cloud; good luck with that. What is it you are waiting for? Do you not believe Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the Life? If you do, why would you possibly be waiting for a second resurrection? Christ must be resurrected in our hearts and find new voice in our living as the Living Christ leads us.
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living.” The Kingdom of God is a Forever Kingdom without beginning or end, and Christ wants us to be a part of that.
In Jesus’ teachings, God is not a once-in-a-millennium God who comes and goes and then suddenly appears again; and life is not something that starts at birth and ends at death. God is with us from the beginning of creation to the end. Our Spirits were alive before we were born and will carry on when our bodies leave this earth.
We are one in the Spirit. We are reborn, refreshed and renewed in Christ. There is no need to consider who will be married to whom in the next life because we will all be with those we love surrounded by God’s incomprehensible unconditional love. We’ll be alive as we never could be in this temporary physical body we have been given.
We are freed by this new life – this Christly approach to living – to live and love as if there were no end to life and love. We are free to dare to shed the concerns of this world and consider only what will bring God’s Kingdom to life on earth as it is in heaven. We are free to share God’s love and blessing with all God’s creation.
May it be so. AMEN.
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