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.
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.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
11/13/2007
