Year C. Luke 20: 27-38
Heavenly Father thank you, for making us children of the resurrection by our faith in your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
November 11, 2001
Title: “We are children of the resurrection.”
The Sadducees pose a question to Jesus about the resurrection of the dead asking, which, if any, of a woman’s seven earthly husbands would be her husband after the resurrection. Jesus’ answer reveals that the resurrected life is so different from earthly life that there is no marriage at all.
Here we have an example of a mocking question, intended to ridicule the teaching of Jesus. For the first and only time in Luke the Sadducees play a role in the narrative. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. The Pharisees did and so did Jesus. They attempt to ridicule this belief by using a far-fetched example to make nonsense of it: in the resurrection what is the situation of a woman who had seven earthly husbands? Which, if any, would be her real husband? The Mosaic Law forbade polyandry, the condition or practice of having more than one husband at one time.
Thus, all seven could not morally be her husbands and, presumably, there would be no immorality in the resurrected life. Therefore, it does not exist.
In verse twenty-seven, Sadducees: The descendants of Zadok, whose lineage can be traced back to Eleazar, son of Aaron; cf. 1Chr 5: 30-35 were granted the privilege of officiating as priests in the Temple after the return from the Babylonian Exile. These “Zadokites,” from which evolved the word “Sadducees,” formed the nucleus of the priesthood staffing the Jerusalem Temple of first century Palestine. They were like an aristocracy, composed at this time of both priests and rather well to do, laity, and were quite Hellenized. The status quo was good to their wallets. They disappeared from Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
No resurrection: The Sadducees were conservative, limiting their beliefs to what was in the written law. They maintained that the oral law, that is, the scribal, later, rabbinical, interpretation of the written law, extending it to apply to every imaginable circumstance, was not revelation and, therefore, not to be believed. On the other hand, the Pharisees, largely a lay movement sect, bought into the oral law hook, line, and sinker. The Pharisees also engaged in speculative theology and believed in angels and the resurrection of the dead, two doctrines not explicit in the Pentateuch, the first five books Hebrew Scripture. Jesus will appeal to these two implicit doctrines, angels and resurrection, by quoting from the Pentateuch, Exodus 3:6. The belief was not like that of the Greeks, the immortality of the souls, but the resurrection of the body, the whole person, that is, an embodied spirit.
In verse twenty-eight, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. The name for this sort of marriage is “levirate,” from the Latin levir, “husband’s brother, brother-in-law.” The eldest surviving brother was obligated under the law to marry a dead brother’s wife and sire a son if the dead brother had no son. This would continue the man’s name and keep his property “in the family.” The custom was widespread in the ancient Near East, in vogue with the Assyrians, Hittites, and Canaanites. By New Testament times the custom seems to have fallen into disuse among the Israelites. So the question was an academic one.
In verse thirty-one, all seven died childless: Since all seven married the widow and died without siring a child, none could be considered her “real” husband, at least in terms of having begotten an heir.
In verse thirty-three, whose wife will the woman be?: Here was the trick question. The Sadducees thought they had Jesus. All seven could not be her husband, given the prohibition against polyandry. If the question was impossible to answer, so also was the situation provoking it absurd, and so was belief in a resurrection. This proves it, or so they thought.
In verse thirty-four, this age marry and are given in marriage: Jesus speaks first of the condition of this present life. Marriage and procreation are necessary for the continuation of the human race, for “children of this age” to continue in being.
In verse thirty-five, neither marry nor are given in marriage: Jesus says there is a sharp difference between life as we know it here on earth and life in eternity. In the “age to come” people will not die, nor will children be born. Hence, there is no need for marriage and procreation. Life will be different, not a mere continuation of this life in, imaginary, ideal terms. Now, Jesus speaks here only of the saved, not of all departed, those “deemed worthy,” not those who tried to earn their way in by virtue of their merits. He does not speak of the resurrection of the dead, the general resurrection at the End Time, but of resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the righteous who are among the dead. In this new age people are not involved in marriage relationships. Personal relationships will transcend to a new level, making procreation unnecessary. Jesus is not saying earthly husbands and wives will not know each other or continue to love each other or be close, only that “marriage,” as such is a condition quite foreign to the new age.
In verse thirty-six, like angels: These disembodied spirits, really “unembodied” spirits, neither marry nor die. Humans will be like them in these two respects, though to remain human they will retain bodies of some sort. The word used actually means “equal to angels,” its only use in the New Testament.
Children of God: Human parentage and concerns about it will fade in the presence of divine parentage.
In verse thity-seven, that the dead will rise even Moses made known: Now Jesus does to the Sadducees what he always did to the Pharisees when they tried to trap him. He argues with them on their terms and out-argues them. He uses the Passage from Exodus 3:6 and the scene of the burning bush to point out to them that there is, indeed, scriptural basis for belief in the resurrection from the dead. It is significant that he quotes from the Pentateuch because these first five books were the only ones the Sadducees recognized as revelation. Jesus has just pointed out to them that they had wrongly assumed that earthly conditions, such as marriage, would persist into the next world or eternal dimension. He now shows them that the resurrection is implied in Exodus 3:6. Long after the deaths of the patriarchs-Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- God, appearing to and speaking to Moses, could still speak of himself as their God. Thus they must either still be alive in some way or can confidently expect to be raised by him from the dead. The Sadducees did not understand their own scripture wherein Moses himself revealed the fact of the resurrection.
In verse thirty-eight, not God of the dead, but of the living: Everyone and everything has a creator, but only living people can have a God. If God himself said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then they are still alive. Death does not break the covenant relationship. To us, earthlings, they may be dead, but not to God.
In verse thirty-nine, Teacher, you have answered well: Some of the scribes, not all, commend Jesus’ answer. They would be Pharisees themselves, believing in the resurrection and glad to see the Sadducees so publicly refuted and confounded.
In verse forty, they no longer dared to ask him anything: This statement comes from Mark 12: 34b. In Mark it is placed after the scribe’s question about the greatest commandment. Since Luke omits that story he has moved the statement up to this story. The point is the same: Jesus’ opponents were unable to best him in argument.
Sermon
Politics and religion make strange bedfellows. Sometimes people of opposite beliefs and practices will join forces against a common enemy and put aside their differences in order to best that enemy. The Sadducees, who appear in Luke’s gospel for the first and only time, were at odds with the Pharisees, who appear many times as Jesus’ major enemies, both politically and religiously. Politically, the Sadducees were pro-Rome; the Pharisees were anti-Rome. Even though the Pax Romana the “Roman Peace,” brought prosperity to both camps, the Pharisees would be opposed to Rome on the grounds that they were “infidels.” The Sadducees were the upper class, the “upper crust,” while the Pharisees were mostly middle class. Strictly speaking, and the Sadducees were strict about what they accepted as revelation, limiting Scripture to the Pentateuch only, that is, the first five books of the Bible, the Sadducees should have been anti-Rome, but the Romans were too good for their pocketbooks to oppose them openly.
Religiously, the Pharisees were more liberal than the Sadducees in that they believed in angels and in the resurrection of the dead, two doctrines the Sadducees were sure were not revealed in those first five books. Sure, that is, until they encountered Jesus. Jesus quoted from Exodus to demonstrate that the faithful dead were still alive in God. In doing so he publicly embarrassed those who were trying to publicly embarrass and discredit him. Such was the same tactic he used on the Pharisees when they tried to do the same. The Sadducees hooked up with the Pharisees and said, “You had many chances to discredit him on the basis of your theology, let us have a try on the basis of ours.” They tried and failed also. They used a ridiculous example, namely, a woman with seven successive fraternal husbands, all dying, without siring a son. They were so sure they had Jesus when they asked which one would be her husband in the resurrected life. They were surprised to learn that Jesus said, “None.” He maintained that there would be no marriage as such in the coming age because it will be unnecessary. In answering their trick question Jesus did what he typically did with the Pharisees. He used the ruse to teach a more profound truth than the specific issue his opponents were concerned with. The Sadducees had made an erroneous assumption, an assumption based on what the Pharisees taught about the resurrected life, namely, that life in the age to come would be just like life in this age only much, much better. In other words, they were interpreting heaven from the viewpoint of earth. Jesus, on the other hand, was teaching that we must interpret earth from the viewpoint of heaven. They had their perspective backwards. That major error still exists today, even among Christians. Sadducees, Pharisees and many people today erroneously think that this life is the model for life in eternity. While it is true that life-in-time is the metaphor for life-in-eternity, it is not the model. The only way to get into eternity is to be born in time, into time and onto earth. There is no procreation in eternity. Earth is the necessary corridor to heaven; time the introductory experience of eternity. Jesus was much more concerned and much more specific about our interpreting earth life from the vantage of heaven life and living that interpretation than he was about answering theoretical questions. So he gives us precious little detail about heaven, only to say that our entrance into it depends upon our behavior on earth, behavior that cannot qualify for heaven unless one surrenders his or her will and life to Christ.
When Jesus says that there will be no marriage in eternity, he does not mean to say that marriage is bad, only unnecessary. The time and place for procreation is earth, not heaven. Heaven will be a “time,” an eternity really, for recreation, not procreation. As wonderful a privilege as begetting and raising children is, it is still work, hard work at times, and there will be no work to do in heaven. Although we will be equal to angels in heaven and at no disadvantage because we will have bodies of some sort, we will still be embodied spirits, rather than angelic “unembodied” ones. It is simply a mistake to imagine heaven as “perfect earth” and heavenly life as a mere continuation of earthly life, only much better. Love will continue, of course. Indeed, love is what will gain us entrance into heaven, but it will be purified of selfishness and that will put us into an entirely new dimension, a dimension we have only an inkling of while on earth.
Heaven life is the continuation of love, but not of earth life as we know it.
We will continue to love those we loved on earth, as well as everyone else.
One of the purposes of marriage, namely, the procreation and rearing of children, will be unnecessary in heaven.
We will still have bodies in eternity, but bodies equipped to live in that realm, incorruptible.
No one who loves God as God loves him or her will ever really die.
Sex: On earth marriage is the only proper environment for expressing love through sexual behavior. That is not to say that sex has only one function, namely, procreation. Sex also functions as a means of bringing the body into harmony with the heart and expressing in a visible, felt way an otherwise invisible love. When that is the case, sex is sacramental, expressing more than the eye can see, more than itself. Sex expresses God, both God’s creativity and God’s love. The pleasure of sex is God-created, God-given, given to teach humans how profoundly pleasurable love can be. Yet, sex, for all its wonder and goodness, has its limits. At the same time as the ecstasy of sexual behavior reveals the depths of love, it also reveals that one can only know another person in a limited way while still on earth. When the pleasure of sex subsides there is an afterglow, true, one that broadens into an enlarging love. Yet, there is sadness also, for the two lovers realize that the intensity of love is fleeting. One cannot sustain the peaks of mutual love for very long while still here on earth. Thus, Christian spouses long for the day when they will unite in heaven in order to remain in the intensity of that love forever. Moreover, we will all experience that intensity with everyone, whether married to them or not. It is true though, that the intensity of marital love experienced in sex does extend over a lifetime in many non-sexual or more correctly non-genital ways as the lovers, now parents, enjoy the pleasures as well as the pains, might we say “sadness,” of raising the child born of that love. The exquisite, but fleeting, ecstasy of procreation does get stretched out and parents are thrilled, and cannot really explain why, as they watch their children grow, as they see them laugh and play, learn and love. We really cannot limit “sex,” to “genital,” experiences only. Sex permeates every aspect of our being, whether we are genitally active or not. That power or energy can be channeled into love of all kinds and levels. Thus, sex is not just for married couples, even if honest genital sex is reserved for those committed to each other over an entire mutual lifetime in marriage. In so far as sex expresses love, sex will continue into eternity, but on a different level, in a different dimension. After all, we will have bodies of some sort in heaven and so we will be sexual in some way.
Heaven and Sex: When people learn of the teaching of Jesus in this passage, namely, that there will be no marriage in heaven, there are several reactions. Some, who are unhappily married, are glad. Others, who are happily married are sad. Still others, who think sex is the be all and end all of life, do not want to go there. Others, who are afraid of the intimacy committed sex requires, are relieved. Others, for whom sex is all recreation and no procreation, think that heaven must be a dull place. Finally, there are Christians who trust in the Lord. If the Lord created sex and pleasure to be enjoyed on earth, albeit within the confines of his express will, can we not presume that he has something even more intense in heaven? It is when we try to relate to heaven from an earthly perspective that we get into trouble, like the Pharisees and Sadducees. The real issue is interpreting earth from heaven’s perspective, not the other way around. We can let the Lord take care of sex and pleasure in heaven. He wants us to take care that we do not abuse either gift while we remain one earth, for it could keep us out of heaven. Finally, if there is no sex, marriage really, in heaven, neither is there any sex, love really, in hell. Amen.
