Will this be on the test?

Scripture      Luke 20:27-38    CEB   

27 Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”

34 Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. 36 They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. 37 Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive.”

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There are quite a few teachers and retired teachers in this congregation to whom this question strikes an immediate - and not necessarily harmonious - chord.  There are those students who will ask “Will this be on the test?” after you’ve written your name on the board on the first day of class.  (and you know who you are.)  Likewise, there are enough students in this congregation who have had the most random bits of information show up on exams that this seems like a fair question.  

Dr. David Bundy was my Early Church History professor at Christian Theological Seminary.  He almost never lectured from the book we were using - which was a pre-published copy of his own book.  He was using us for guinea pigs to see where it would need improvement before publication.   Dr. Bundy assumed we would read the book.  We were, after all, in a Master’s program.  Rather, he would lecture on random and obscure bits of history to help us understand things like how the Church changed over the centuries from an “everyone is welcome” mindset to a more exclusionary one.  Women in leadership, for example, abounded in the early church, and in some parts of the world, like Ireland, continued in leadership up until the 10th century.  This history was systematically erased or modified, to the extent that there is a statue of a certain bishop which one can tell has been changed since it was first carved.  The name on the base was changed from the feminine to a masculine form of the name, but more critically for those studying the trend of the erasure of women in church history, one can tell that the statue had originally had breasts, and at some point in time they had been removed.   This was a story Dr. Bundy told us sort of off-handedly one day, and, yes indeed, the name of that female bishop was on the exam.  

Although he was the teacher, Jesus usually had test questions going the other way.  The Sadducees and the Pharisees would come to him with test questions, questions that had no good answer and were intended to trip him up so they could then use those answers against him.  The Pharisees asked, “Should we pay taxes to Rome?”  Now there was a tough one.  If he said yes, he would anger pretty much all of the Jews and everyone would stop listening to him.  If he said no, he could be handed over to Rome for sedition.  They figured it was a win/win.  Silly Pharisees.  For as we know, he said “If it has Caesar’s picture on it, give it to Caesar.  Give to God what belongs to God.”  This sent the Pharisees away scratching their heads.  Their test had backfired on them.   

In today’s story, it was the Sadducees who came to Jesus with a trick question.  The Law of Moses says that if a man dies with no son, his brother was required to do his best to impregnate the widow, and that child would be the heir of the one who had died.  In their test question, this poor widow had been passed, childless, from one brother to the next until all seven brothers had died.  And the question was, on the day of the resurrection, which brother would be her husband, as she had been married to all of them.

One of the many differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees revolved around the question of the end of days.  The Pharisees believed that on that last day, all who had died would be physically resurrected to live eternally in the bodies they had known in life.   The Sadducees were literalists, who believed that only what was written in the Books of Moses was to be considered scripture.   The 1st century historian Josephus wrote that “the Sadducees denied the resurrection, the immortality of the soul, eternal rewards, or the "world to come.”  The Sadducees kept their focus on the status quo of the nation of Israel in this world and not the next.”   (https://bible.org/seriespage/sadducees)  Basically, they believed that this is all there is.  No heaven, no hell, no Sheol, nothing at all after we die.  So their test for Jesus was this - did he or did he not believe that Scripture was to be interpreted literally?  As you may have guessed that question was pretty divisive at that time - as indeed, it still is -  and they could easily turn their backs on him if he answered “incorrectly.”  

His answer stopped them in their tracks, because his answer to them was that the question of the resurrection had already been answered - and by Moses! In the very books they considered the literal Word of God - saying, “[Moses] speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”   

39 Then some of them answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him another question.”  

The question of what comes next remains a human preoccupation. Even those of us who anticipate an eternal life when our physical life ends don’t agree on what that is going to look like.  Some believe we will all become one with God and with each other, no physicality, just pure spirit.  Others believe they will get their wings and harps so they can sing God’s praises eternally.  Some think they will be living in the New Jerusalem as it is described in the 21st Chapter of the Revelation to John, “8 The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel . . . And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.” 

Frances Shaw was a beloved member of Augusta Christian Church in Indianapolis, and quite the character.  She baked pies for every church event, cheerfully shared “her” pew with visitors, and blamed all her orneriness on being a Preacher’s Mom.   I ran into her son at General Assembly in July and told him that I sometimes use his mother as a sermon illustration.  He just shook his head . . .   She believed her husband would be waiting for her at that gate made of pearl, and that she would spend eternity baking him casseroles and pies.  I kind of hope this is what she found when she got there.   

As a student of world religions and an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy I have run across so many different concepts of what awaits us once this life is over, and all that I know for sure is that I don’t know what that life will look like.   What I do believe is that Jesus said our God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  To God, all still live, all who have gone before, all who are yet to be born, and all of us here - all living at one time in God’s heart.   

On this All Saints Sunday we celebrate and remember all of those who have gone before.  And whether they are inhabiting physical bodies and walking streets made of gold, baking casseroles, and singing in the heavenly choir, or simply existing in God’s heart, we know they live.  And we believe this to be true because our Lord Jesus assured us of this.   I do not know what our eternal life will look like, but I am convinced that we will be reunited with all the saints when our time comes, for in Him death is abolished, and all will live with him forever.   

In the hymn we will be singing, lyricist Carolyn Winfrey Gillette says:

O God, we're still trying to understand dying
And many still wonder if heaven is real.
Yet Christ clearly told us that death cannot hold us;
We'll know of a new life your love will reveal.

No more questions.  No more tests.  Simply eternal life and love, in Christ, our Lord.    Amen.