Third-Last Sunday in the Church Year

TEXT: Luke 20:27-40
YOU ARE SONS OF THE RESURRECTION
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting

Jesus said, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

Dear sons and daughters of the resurrection; in heaven Barbara will not be my wife. Nor will those who celebrate their golden and diamond wedding anniversaries on earth be husband and wife in heaven. In heaven, those who were single all their earthly life will lack nothing. In heaven those who suffered and struggled faithfully in a difficult marriage will lack nothing. In heaven those who were forsaken by a husband or wife on earth will lack nothing.

Marriage is God’s good gift, but it is not His greatest gift. We are to honor marriage and keep the marriage bed pure (Heb. 13:4). Those who continue unrepentant in dishonoring His gift; living together outside of marriage; living in or championing homosexual relationships will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (I Cor. 6:18). Do not be deceived by Satan’s lies in our current culture of decay. God did not give this one-flesh relationship to be despised or perverted. You are to love people by speaking the truth in love concerning God’s gift of marriage.

But neither did God give marriage to be idolized or placed above Christ and His marriage with His bride, the church. There is a reason the marriage vow includes, “until death parts us”. Those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore.

The Sadducees’ question was not asked to receive a valid answer. It was asked with the intention of trapping Jesus and making Him look foolish. They picked a holy number of divine completeness – seven. They picked God’s law concerning levirate marriage. Under this law the brother of a man who died childless must marry his dead brother’s wife to provide a son and keep the family name alive (Gen 38:8; Deut 25:5). From their prison house of unbelief the Sadducees then asked a culminating question. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Gotcha Jesus – they thought! These were the high achievers on the ACT and SAT tests. These were the Magna cum Laud’s of the university. They were socially elite and theologically liberal. They came from wealthy and privileged families. But they were nonetheless quite down to earth in their thinking. They believed in what they could see and feel. They were focused on pragmatic results and statistical success.

They also belonged to the “death-ends-it-all” school. When you’re dead, you’re dead they thought. So they made decisions to be as helpful and as successful and secure and comfortable as possible in this life. They were very much in step with the Hellenistic culture. Yet, for their temple duty and service as chief priests, they also leaned heavily on the Pentateuch, the books of Moses.

Jesus therefore used their trusted canon, the first five books of the Old Testament - to give a life-giving answer to their loaded, life-denying question – whose wife will the woman be? They had tried to use a practice from Moses concerning marriage to disprove the resurrection. Jesus turned the tables on them and used the same source to prove the resurrection.

Jesus said, “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. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

Dear Christians, what a wondrous revelation of trust in God’s written word! Jesus did not view the Old Testament as a collection of sayings to be sifted through and selectively received our discarded. He trusted the Scriptures absolutely! He taught and acted upon them as the one reality that will abide forever in this quickly passing world.

Do you see it? Jesus is saying to these proud Sadducees remember what happened at the burning bush? The angel of the Lord (The Malak Yahweh - who is the pre-incarnate Christ) called to Moses out of the bush. “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had no life after death then what God revealed to Moses at the burning bush was a lie. The great I AM had spoken in the present tense to Moses. Although the patriarchs had died centuries before He said to Moses I AM right now their LORD. Do you see it? Jesus is saying that they were still living in God’s presence at the time of Moses! The Sadducees’ effort to deny the resurrection based on Moses, melted away at the word of Him who spoke to Moses in the burning bush. It was He who caused the Old Testament to be written and who fulfilled all its promises, even giving life after death to the patriarchs.

He comes among us today to speak that same life-giving word. For you see there is a bit of Sadducee in you and in me. We also can be down to earth in our thinking and stop just here. We also like to determine reality from our own intellect and lean on our own understanding. We also like to equate this age with the age to come. There is an epidemic of such conversation in funeral homes and spoken of those deceased.

And perhaps you have heard questions like this? Will I have my favorite pet in heaven? Will I be able to play golf or cards in heaven? Will my family and my favorite friends get together for fun time in heaven like we do now? Please notice the controlling position of “I” and “my” in these questions. These questions center on self. These questions also try to transfer the realities of this age to the next age.

The deepest poverty with such questions lies in what is not being asked about heaven. That is to say, the overwhelming Christ-centered witness that the Bible gives concerning heaven must be overlooked so that questions about self can be advanced. But consider first questions that might flow from God’s revelation concerning heaven.

How is it that you, a sinner, deserving eternal punishment are now counted by God as holy and without blemish, perfectly fit for heaven? How is it that He who shines like the sun and who will replace the sun in heaven is able to be seen by us face to face when we are there? How is it that we will render perfect service and praise to Him and yet enjoy perfect eternal rest from all our labors? How is it that we will live bodily in heaven as those blessed ones invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and yet we will never hunger or thirst? How is it that we will not be married as we are in this life and yet we will have eternal pleasure and fullness of joy at God’s right hand?

God would have our questions about heaven flow from His revelation and not the poverty of our hearts. When they do He further reveals that heaven has to do with “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Cor. 2:9). Not only is the best yet to come, it is a best that surpasses our knowing. The Psalmist’s question simplifies further, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25).

Beloved because Jesus is in your present, heaven is in your future. He didn’t clothe you with His righteousness in Holy Baptism to leave you out. He doesn’t forgive you with heavenly food to exclude you. In faith, you are right now a son of the resurrection. In Christ, you have already crossed over from death to life (John 5:24). If you were to die this very day, your life in paradise would open up to a splendor beyond everything you have experienced, to delights that you have not yet seen or heard.

Indeed, even the truth that we won’t be taken or given in marriage in heaven can help us anticipate that delight. At first it may sound limiting, but think again. In heaven our love will not be limited. In heaven our first family will not be restricted to those we now called our loved ones. In heaven, as the bride of Christ, we will altogether have perfect love for one another. We will never think badly of another or be thought badly of by another. We will never say an unkind word or be spoken of unkindly. We will never leave anyone out of our close-knit groups or cliques on earth nor will we be left out. We will not compare one to another. We will love our neighbors as ourselves and we will perfectly love ourselves in Christ. We can be no more closely knit together than to be the body of Christ and the very Bride of Christ.

Already now we are part of that end-time community that includes Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. As the liturgy leads us to confess, it also includes the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. For Jesus did not say that we would be angels. They are spirits only, while you will live both body and soul in heaven. Rather, you will be equal to the angels in that you do not die and you do not marry.

Beloved, this teaching of Jesus took place on Tuesday of Holy Week. Soon the foolish questions were replaced with false accusations. Soon the Sadducee who was High Priest tore his robe and charged Jesus with blasphemy. Soon the Lamb of God shed the holy blood by which He takes away the sin of the world!

As the great I AM appeared to Moses in the flaming bush the bush was not consumed. But on Calvary the great I AM Himself was consumed by the fire of God’s wrath. He knew our suffering. He saw our affliction. He came to rescue us from oppression of the taskmasters of sin and death and hell. In the miracle of the ages, Calvary became such holy ground that on it God reconciled the world to Himself not counting our sins against us.

When His dead body was laid in the garden tomb it appeared that the Sadducees were right in their unbelief. But there was more holy ground yet to come! From that holy sepulcher, that unique garden tomb Jesus stepped forth in new life. “Peace be with you” he announced, bestowing the forgiveness of sins.

Sons and daughters of the resurrection, Jesus is still the risen Lord. He is this very day, not the God of the dead, but of the living! He is Your God! He is in your midst announcing “peace be with you” and bestowing His forgiveness. God help us to rejoice in the future He is moving us toward and to invite others to receive the life He gives.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

All Saint's Day

Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Vicar Roy Askins

Beloved in the Lord, grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we celebrate All Saint’s Day. We remember the saints who have entered their eternal dwellings. We remember the saints who are beneath the altar in Revelation, crying out for God to take vengeance for their blood which was shed in persecution. We remember those clothed in white robes (Rev. 7:9), the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev. 7:14) These we remember.

Yet today, our text is the beatitudes. These are often used to describe people in our world today and throughout history. But I have to wonder, is this appropriate?

For instance today, we remember St. Peter and St. Paul who suffered for the Gospel. St. Peter, it has been rumored was crucified upside-down on an X-shaped cross. What greater suffering can one imagine for the sake of the cross? This must count as suffering for righteousness. What a wonderful example of those whom Jesus says will inherit the earth. But on the other hand, we’ve got to wonder, can Peter who denied Jesus Christ three times really inherit the kingdom of heaven? Jesus also says, “but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)

St. Paul was once almost stoned to death. He explained all the suffering he endured on the behalf of the Gospel in second Corinthians saying, “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;” (2 Corinthians 11:25) An heir of the kingdom indeed. Yet, despite all the suffering Paul endured for the Gospel, we must still wonder, does he who persecuted the church, participating in the stoning of Stephen the first martyr, deserve to inherit the kingdom of heaven?

Let’s keep moving through history. Many more saints have lived who purportedly fulfilled the beatitudes. Consider Saint Boniface, the missionary to the barbarians. Taking no consideration for his own life, he went to the barbarians, preaching against their gods of earth and stone and about the God who became man, Christ Jesus. He certainly had mercy on those who don’t deserve mercy. Will not he be shown mercy? Yet a man he remains, a sinful man.

Don’t the beatitudes describe Dr. Martin Luther? Martin Luther certainly qualified for the first beatitude, being poor in spirit. He recognized he had no claim before God in the matter of righteousness. He tortured himself over his sin attempting to make himself worthy before God. Luther mourned for the church as well. Certainly he deserved to be comforted. Well, I suppose Luther only makes it so far. He wasn’t very meek you know. Kind of bold and brash, he certainly doesn’t deserve to inherit the earth on the basis of his meekness.

Amongst us we have the poor in spirit, the mourning and meek, the ones hungering and thirsting for righteousness and so on, do we not? Do you fit into one of those categories? I’ve tried to fit myself into these categories just like you have. I’ve said to myself, “I’m poor in spirit, just look at me.” Then I realize I’m not being meek. I then say, “Oh how I hunger and thirst for righteousness,” only to realize my prideful heart.

Every time you try to fit your name into one of the beatitudes you find that is the one you fail the most in being. The moment you say, “I am poor in spirit,” you are the least poor in spirit on earth. Arrogance has taken its place. The moment you claim to be a peacemaker, at that moment you realize the horrifying gorge between you and God. The moment you take pride in being persecuted, you realize the persecution you are enduring is not persecution, but the worst kind of self-chosen suffering so that you don’t have to endure God-sent suffering. The moment you say, “I am being reviled for the Lord,” you look closely into the mirror of the law and realize that you are not reviled falsely on account of the Gospel, but suffering rightly on account of your own sin.

The glaring law throws back at us every attempt to claim the beatitudes as our own, as descriptions of ourselves and our loved ones. These beautiful sayings darken our lives with the truth of the law. The beatitudes have often been used for decorative purposes on mirror or cross-stitch patterns and so forth. But seen through the light of the law, they don’t appear all that beautiful anymore. What once was beautiful becomes frightening and ugly without Christ.
After seeing them in this light, we often end up standing with Luther, whipping ourselves and crying out, “Why can these describe the saints, but not me?” We whip ourselves saying, why can everyone else be pure but me, as St. John writes. “Why can’t these describe us the way they describe the saints?” we ask.

But, even though we think the beatitudes describe the saints, we see that the saints end up missing the boat also. Even though Peter and Paul suffered for the Gospel, they do not truly deserve the title of blessed. Through Martin Luther, God revealed the Gospel once again, but Martin Luther does not deserve to be called blessed. Saint Boniface, though he took the Gospel to the barbarian nations does not deserve to be called a son of God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) writes St. Paul.

When we look at the beatitudes, we realize they cannot describe any human being born naturally of Adam’s seed. The beatitudes cannot describe a sinful human being. Yet, when the beatitudes are given to whom they belong, to the one born out of the Holy Spirit through the womb of the virgin Mary, then the beatitudes begin to make sense.

The beatitudes belong to Christ. What does this mean? This means two things: first the beatitudes describe who Christ is, secondly they are His to give to whom He desires. First off, the beatitudes describe Christ. Christ was poor in spirit. What does it mean to be poor in spirit. It means to claim no standing before God, especially in terms of righteousness. It means that no matter what, we do not make any claim to have done any work which in any way contributes to our salvation. Christ was poor in spirit because He was the one “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself be becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8) The kingdom of heaven belongs to Christ.

Who is it who mourns? Christ mourns for Jerusalem and her apostasy from the faith when He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matthew 23:37) He is the one who mourns. What about the meek? Christ. The merciful? Only one is capable of truly having mercy, Christ. Christ hungered and thirsted for righteousness so greatly, He gave His body to be eaten and His blood to be drunk. Only the pure in heart shall see God, and so St. John testifies of Christ in his Gospel when he writes, “the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14b) Jesus is the one who has seen the Father face to face. Christ is the only peacemaker the world has known, for only in the blood of Christ can peace be made for sins.

Unless the beatitudes are seen as descriptions of Jesus, they hold no hope. They depress us, unless they describe Christ to us. While they describe Christ, they belong to Christ. And when they belong to Christ, then He can to give them out to whomever He desires.

What does this mean? Christ gives out the beatitudes as His gifts to His saints. So the beatitudes describe the saints, since they have been born of water and the Spirit. The beatitudes describe you. You have been shown mercy through Christ. You have been comforted, though you mourn for your sins. You have been filled with the body and blood of Christ in order to assuage your hunger and thirst for righteousness. You have received mercy and have become a son of God.

Christ gives these beatitudes as descriptions of you, beloved saints. These beautiful descriptions of you occur only because of Christ’s work on the cross. There on the cross with blood pouring from His side He redeemed you. When the waters of Baptism were sprinkled over your head, He made you into the saints described in the beatitudes. Certainly you still live with sin; you are not perfect within yourself. In heaven, these beatitudes will perfectly describe you forever. In heaven, you will be one of “the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” (Rev. 7:14) You belong to Jesus; you are saints. In heaven, you will be perfected by the blood of Christ.

And how does the rest of the world react to this description of you? They “revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on [Christ’s] account.” (Matthew 5:11) When this happens, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:12) These also become descriptions of you, persecuted and rejected. Rejoice when this is the description of you, because you are blessed in that persecution. Though you shed tears of sorrow now, “God will wipe away every tear” from your eyes.” (Rev. 7:17) Though your loved ones at times wept because of their suffering, God has already wiped away every tear from their eyes. They have been freed from every form of suffering. No longer do they hunger or thirst for “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.” (Rev. 7:16) These are they who have gone through the tribulation of suffering and death, of existence in this world. And you also have been promised this same comfort from God. You will be freed from all pain and suffering, to live forever before the Lamb in His kingdom.

Beloved Saints of the Lord, “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” (Matthew 5:12). Amen.