23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 20:27-38
Job 19:23-27a
Job 14:14
"Life After Death"
23 ¶ “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for ever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. RSV
27* ¶ There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection,
28* 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 wife and raise up children for his brother.
29* Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children;
30 and the second
31* and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.
32 Afterward the woman also died.
33* In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
34* And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage;
35* but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,
36* for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
37* But 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.
38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him.”RSV
I added the Job 14:14 verse to go along with the Job 19 as they both speak about live after death.
Job asks a question that has been asked from the beginning of time and still is being asked today. In Job. 14:14 he asks, "If a man die, shall he live again?" "If a man dies, if you die, if I die will we life again’? That question has been part of the human predicament of sin since the fall of Adam and Eve in the third chapter of Genesis. It is a question the even in our modern scientific world begs to be answered. If a man dies, will he life again? Is there anything after death? If there life after death?
These questions, the discussion concerning death is a difficult subject for us in this country to deal with. We have so shut ourselves off from death by having people die in hospitals, by having funeral homes be in charge of the dead body, by having the dead person look like they are alive by the modern means of burial, that death no longer seems real, nor part of the human experience of life. Death is a subject we reserve for funerals, but not for every day living.
But in Jesus day, death and the questions concerning life after death were very much part of their every day experience. The Sadducees believed that there was no life after death. They could not find in the books of the law any reference to life after death. But the Pharisees, the highly religious people, believed that there was life after death. These two groups were in constant struggle over this subject. Almost where ever these two groups met, this subject of death and life came up. Each group trying to persuade the listeners their side was right
So a group of Sadducees came to Jesus trying to see how he would react to their questions concerning life after death. The had been able to use this argument many times to defeat the Pharisees, so they decided to test this country preacher, to see if they could trick him. Now in the laws of the Penteuch, or the first 5 books of the Bible it is stated that if a woman’s husband dies and they have no children, the husband’s brother would marry the woman so the family line would go on. The Sadducees take this problem to the absurd by saying this woman outlived 7 husbands and had no children with any of them. Then they ask their trick question, if heaven or after life is like this one, whose wife will she be, since all of these 7 men were her husband? The Sadducees came from the perspective that heaven or the after life is going to be like this one, so which husband would this lady live with for the rest of eternity
Notice Jesus’ response: He knows what they are trying to do. He knows they are trying to trick him so he answers them from a completely different point of view.
Jesus said to them,"The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." Notice what Jesus is saying, life after this one will be different. Since there is no death, there is no need for marriage to make life, so don’t worry about whose wife she will be. That age is different. Jesus comes from a very different point of view. He shows these people that life after this one is different, the human qualities of this life are not what matters in heaven.
Paul in I Corinthians 15 48-58 echoes Jesus words about the new life in heaven. He says:
" As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, hut we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For the perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal life put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written,
"Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who gives us the glory through our lord Jesus Christ."
A poem by Frederick Knowles says it this way in The Tenant
"This body is my house--- it is not I;
Here in I sojourn till, in some fair sky,
I lease a fairer dwelling , built to last
Till all the carpentry of time is past,
When from my high place viewing this lone star;
What shall I care where these poor timber are?
What though the crumbling walls turn dust and loam,
I shall have left them for a larger home.
That though the rafters break, the stanchions rot,
When earth has dwindled to a glimmering spot!!
When thou, clay cottage, fallest, I’ll immerse
My long-cramped spirit in the universe.
Through uncorrupted silences of space
I shall yearn upward to the leaning face.
The ancient heavens will roll aside for me,
As Moses monarched the dividing seas.
This body is my house-it is not I.
Triumphant in this faith I live and I die".
Notice a key word in Paul’s writing, Lo, I tell you a mystery . He doesn’t try to explain how God will do all these things. He doesn’t try to explain what heaven will be like, what life after death will be, he just believes that it is so.
Jesus comes from that same view point. He says it will he different from this life, but he doesn’t go into any details. He leaves that up to his father in heaven. Yes, there are some things that are better left to the wonder, mystery and awe of God And one of those things is a description of heaven. Let us not be so concerned about what it will be like, but have the faith to trust in that promise of heaven for those who believe in Christ Jesus as the son of God.
Notice, after Jesus tells the Sadducees that heaven will be different, then he goes on to show them that indeed in the books of the law, the first 5 books of the Bible, which were the only scripture the Sadducees believed in, life after death is seen.
Jesus quotes from Exodus 3: 6 He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."’ Notice what Jesus is saying. If God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, these men must be living, because God is God of the living , not the dead. Notice, the verb tense, God says, "I am the God of of Abraham...." I am which means now in the present tense, in this moment. These men are alive in and through me. Jesus turns the tables on the Sadducees, and uses their own scripture to prove to them that there is indeed a life after after this one. God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God is still the God of the living. Our text as printed doesn’t include the response of the Sadducees, but if you would read on, you would find they congratulated Jesus on his logic and his use of scripture. They were amazed that he could do what the Pharisees could not do, prove from scripture there was some reference to life after death.
Now, we can ask ourselves a question, what does all of this have to do with us, with the kind of life you and I live? As we read scripture, as we study scripture, we find that it has truths in it that are universal, for all ages, what is the universal truth for us in this passage.?
As we wrestle with that question, we come to the point that lives can be lived with a certain amount of hope, a certain amount of daring, a certain amount of adventure, a certain amount of confidence. These qualities are in our life because we know that this life in the scope of God’s grander is but a fleeting moment. We don’t have to invest everything here but we know that there is something more, something beyond but at the same time the promise of heaven lets us invest our all in loving God and our neighbor.
A writer in the first century church but it this way: "Christians are not marked out from the rest of mankind by their country or their speech or their customs. They dwell in cities, each has his lot cast, following the practices of the regions in clothing and in food and in the outward things of life generally yet, they manifest a wonderful and openly paradoxical character of their own spiritual state. They inhabit the lands of their birth, but as temporary residents thereof; they take their share of all responsibilities as citizens and endure all disabilities as aliens. They pass their days upon earth, but their citizenship is in Heaven."
Through Baptism, our citizenship has been made for us is heaven and because of that there is indeed a paradox to our living on this earth. We can sort out our value system far better than the non-Christian because we know the things that are of value in this life are not of value in the life after. So that gives our live a certain freedom to be concerned not with materialism, but with the spiritual value of life,to be concerned about dying to self and living with, for and in Jesus and my neighbor. There lies my investment.
"A husband and wife were about to divorce; for a month they had been gathering all the damaging facts against each other that they could. Their infrequent meetings were acidic. Then he received a summons to the hospital. She had been in an accident. She was hovering between life and death. With no word about the past they began life together again, starting from the highest plateau of their love."
It is this kind of meaning to live that Jesus is speaking of when Jesus told the Sadducees, "the dead are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection," which means that one lives with a different set of evaluations, a different set of eternal values.
A husband and wife on the verge of divorce can see when face with death life clearer because they now see things from an eternal view. They can make a huge investment in life, in their relationship, because they see in the long run, it is in those relationships that life does have its ultimate meaning.
Comments are made that Jesus spoke little of the life beyond and wasn’t interested in arguments for immortality. But with deepest faith he everywhere assumed it. His belief in God was life-consuming, and God was the God of the living.
Do you see what I am trying to say? Our promise of life beyond this one gives to life a certain dimension that makes for a paradox in living. On the hand, the trivia of this life looses its importance, but the values, the important things take on added meaning. I am assured of heaven, and because of that assurance, I live differently, I live for God, I respond to God my entire being. I rejoice in life as as a celebration to the new life for eternity.
So, as you and I face the question that Job posed at the beginning of this sermon, "If a man dies, shall he live again?" We can answer that question with a loud and clear yes. At the same time we can see that our shout of yes, is saying shout of no to all the trivia, all the mundane, all the values of this life which when really looked at doesn’t mean a thing against our relationship to God and the response I make to God’s promise of life in love for my neighbor.
The promise of heaven is not just reserved for use at funerals. But that promise does affect the way I live my day to day existence. I live in that promise, I make decisions in that promise, I sort out my values in that promise. I live with others in that promise. I live with myself in that promise. The promise of heaven is not just some pie in the sky hope for us as our lives grow old, but that promise was given to us at our Baptism.
Jesus says, "Now he is not God of the dead, but of the for all live to him."
(A sermon preached by Rev Tim Zingale) The poem The Tenant is a poem I would liked used at my funeral because it says how I feel about my disability and myself. I am more than my body, much more.
