Marriage On The Edge Of Eternity Series

Marriage on the Edge of Eternity

Series: Encountering Jesus (through the Gospel of Luke)

February 9, 2020 – Brad Bailey

Series #57 / Luke 20:27-40

Intro:

When you know the end it puts the present in perspective.

I was thinking about this in relationship to the Super Bowl last Sunday.

Football is my favorite sport… great game… but like any game it came to an end. As they brought out the legends….and we could see these lives across the longer stages of life… it made me think about the longevity of their lives… their time with these teammates playing football is usually just 10 or 15 years… they only play for so many years…then their

relationship continues in something larger than football.

Keep that in mind….as we listen to Jesus.

Luke 20:27-40

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 "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 have children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" 34 Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the 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.' 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." 39 Some of the teachers of the law responded, "Well said, teacher!" 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Wow… (I love that last line… I can picture it…. they dare to ask a question because they thought they were so smart…only to realize they should stop.)

In the midst of this exchange…Jesus says something about marriage …that may be surprising… .

Any of those married who go pick out a Valentines card this week… probably won’t find it used in those cards.

As we engage this exchange a little more what we will hear is that Jesus is actually speaking to something much more fundamental….and I believe he has good news for life itself… and what is actually a helpful understanding for marriage.

[Context]

It is now the final week of Christ’s earthly life and ministry… two or three days before Jesus was crucified. Jesus has come to Jerusalem for the final time. Pilgrims crowd the city in anticipation of Passover. Because of his rising popularity with the people, the Jewish leaders have already decided to find a way to put Jesus to death. Knowing that his time is short, Jesus allows the leaders to confront him… and they have come with questions to entrap him and turn the people away…. But he is piercing their vanity.

Mostly he deals with the Pharisees who were the largest religious group in Judea. But on this occasion … it is the Sadducees. They were the aristocratic group. In essence, they were those who just used religion to hold political prominence.

Luke helps us to understand who the Sadducees were by saying, they are those “who deny that there is a resurrection.” Furthermore Acts 23:8, states that the Sadducees did not believe in angels or spirits either. They were they were those who had become secular…. who looked down on those they deemed less sophisticated. And this is what they thought they could do with Jesus.

[The nature of their question]

They believed that only the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) were binding on the Jewish people. At the heart of the trick question was the custom of “levirate marriage.”

In the book of Deuteronomy, a provision is made for the perpetuation of the family. [1]

When a husband dies without having born a son… his family line would be lost and his wife would not be cared for. (You may recall that daughters would join their husband’s family when they were married.)

SO in such cases… the man's brother must marry the woman. If a son is born he is to carry on the family line of the deceased brother ... so, as the law puts it, ... the deceased man's ... "name may not be blotted out ... of Israel" (Deuteronomy 25:6). He would also provide care for the his widowed mother.