“Jesus declares that one’s existence, one’s being before God, is not affected by death.”
Resurrection First
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
Jesus said to them, “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. 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.” Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him another question.
~ the Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 20, verses 27 to 40, from The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. (Revised Common Lectionary, Proper 27, 6 November 2016)
There is no easy interpretation of this passage—let’s get that on the table right now. If the complexity and strangeness of this teaching does not haunt you, then listen to it again. It fractures some of our dearest unspoken assumptions about Christian values.
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard widows and widowers wax emotional about the time when they will be rejoined with their lost spouse in heaven. Jesus’ words here make me wonder if that’s what we should be looking forward to. Similarly, I have heard many seasoned Christians talk about what a joy it will be to enter the afterlife and have a body that is younger, better, or more glorious than the battered weakening shell they feel stuck with now. And I remember John’s vision, in which Jesus appears as “a lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.” The King of Glory will have the appearance of a slaughtered animal? Perhaps those of us who die with thickening lungs and rickety knees will not magically become Olympic athletes at death.
Not because God couldn’t do it, but because the order and structure that we crave as humans is not the point.
The Sadducees (a sect of Judaism in Jesus’ day which happened to be in favor in the Temple leadership, but to which any of us might have belonged had we been alive) had it figured out. There was no afterlife. It didn’t make sense, had too many contradictions, and probably detracted from the motivation to observe the law. So they challenge Jesus on the matter.
Jesus sidesteps the question. He doesn’t tell them how seven husbands are possible in heaven. He says that marriage doesn’t apply. (Is he saying that Christians are not supposed to get married? Most interpreters say not, and yet Jesus’ phrasing is pretty stark.) Jesus declares that one’s existence, one’s being before God, is not affected by death. There is “life after death,” so to speak, because we live now as if we are eternal. To paraphrase the apostle Paul, Christians live as if they have already died. We interpret and act in the world as if we could never be taken from God’s household, even by death.
Jesus does not “prove” resurrection, as the Sadducees’ question really challenged him to do. He takes eternal life as an axiom from which he draws his conclusions. Likewise, Christians do not follow Jesus Christ in order to discover whether there is life after death. We have seen eternal life in him, and follow him to see what the results are.
How does your life change when you take it for granted—literally—that your life is forever? What freedoms fall blessedly in your lap as a result? What responsibilities bring themselves to you as a result?
Giver of Eternity, convict us of your forever. Reveal to our hearts the infinite horizon of life with you. Set our feet on a path that never ends, but winds and climbs with constant grace and challenge. Refresh us with the peace and calm that comes with knowing we are always safe in your care. Strengthen us, too, with that promise. Make it so, by the power of your Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ!
~ emrys tyler