God of the Living

Luke 20: 27-38

November 10, 2019

            “I’ll be waiting on the far side banks of Jordan. I’ll be waiting drawing pictures in the sand. And when I see you coming, I will rise up with a shout, and come running through the shallow waters, reaching for your hand.”

            This is a favorite gospel song of mine. I first heard it – well I’ve only heard it – on Alison Krauss’s and The Cox Family record, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow. But they do a magnificent job of it, so if you’re interested I highly recommend you checking them out.

            This is a song of reassurance from an aging husband to his also aging wife as they prepare for the journey from this world to the next. He tells her that the lures of this world no longer make him want to stay, but his one regret will be leaving her behind. So if he goes first, he will be waiting for her on the far side banks of Jordan. He will wait there until she makes the journey as well.

            The sentiments of this song are more than just comforting and reassuring. They reflect what so many of us believe about dying. When we die, we believe we will be met by the people we love who have gone before. We will be met by the saints we lifted up last Sunday in our worship service. They will be waiting for us on the far side banks of the river Jordan.

            I’ll be honest, this passage and this belief about the next life hits me on a deeply personal level right now. Tomorrow is the 71^st anniversary of my parents’ first date. 71 years as sweethearts and almost 69 years of marriage. As my family tries to emotionally and intellectually prepare for my dad’s transition from this life to the next one, I take great comfort and find even greater hope in the thought that he and my mom will be reunited in heaven; 71 years here, an eternity there.

            It is because of this hope that I find Jesus’ response to the Sadducees in today’s passage from Luke’s gospel unsettling. It is a disconcerting story to say the least, and we need to try and understand what is happening in it. It begins with a confrontation, but for once it is the Sadducees who are questioning Jesus, not the Pharisees. The Sadducees, according to the text, come to Jesus with the firm belief that there is no resurrection. Yet with this belief in mind, they questioned Jesus about that very topic – that same concept they firmly did not believe in. Their motives were to put Jesus on the spot, to find another reason for discounting him and his claims about God and the kingdom. As was so often the case, they hoped to make Jesus look foolish.

            The Sadducees were of one faction in Jewish society. They heralded from the priestly class and believed solely in the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. If resurrection did not appear in those five books, then it wasn’t going to be found anywhere.

            Unlike the Sadducees, the Pharisees did believe in the resurrection after death. They had been debating and arguing about the resurrection or the lack thereof with the Sadducees for a long, long time. I suspect that the Sadducees point in bringing Jesus into that discourse seemed to be a perfect way to stir things up – again.

            They question they ask was based on a law found in Deuteronomy about the perpetuation of family line. It is known as the levirate law – if a man dies and leaves his wife childless, then it is the husband’s brother’s responsibility and duty to marry the wife. That way they can have children and the family name, which always came through the man, would continue. The first husband will not be forgotten in Israel, because through his brother, he had children. This is not a law that I would agree to, but that perpetuation of the line, of the name, was an essential part of that culture.

            So the Sadducees’ question to Jesus was based on that law. But the Sadducees use an example that pushes the law to the level of ridiculousness. Seven brothers marry the same woman. The brothers are fulfilling their duty to the law and to the first brother. But all of them die without a child. Then the woman also dies. Here is the  sticking point; in this so-called resurrection of which you speak, Jesus, who will the woman be married to?

            This is not the first time that Jesus has been baited. In Luke’s gospel, this is the third and final question asked of Jesus that ultimately sets the powers that be against him. But with each one, Jesus modeled how to answer the true intent of the question without giving way to frustration and even anger over the questioner’s methods or reason for asking.

            Jesus knows they are trying to set him up, but he does not evade the question or dismiss it as ridiculous. He says,

            “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.”

            It’s apples to oranges, Jesus tells them. In this age, in this life, on this earth, marriage is a part of life. At that time, marriage was an absolute necessity, not only for continuing the family name and for remembrance of that name in Israel, but also for the protection of the woman. But in the age to come, marriage will not be a part of that life. So their question about which brother is the true husband to the woman will not be an issue. It will not matter in the age to come.

            With their question, the Sadducees imply that if resurrection is real than it is merely a continuation of life as usual. One commentator said that their question really means that they saw resurrection as “an eternity of more of the same.” But Jesus discounts that understanding. This age, this reality that we live in now, is nothing like the age to come. There won’t be marriage. More importantly, there won’t be death. The people of that age will be like the angels. They will be children of God. Death will no longer be a consequence of living.

            Death will no longer be a consequence of living.

            But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He turns the law of Moses back on them. You can look to Moses for proof of the resurrection. You can look to the very Pentateuch that you hold onto so tightly. Moses himself said that God was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We know that these three patriarchs died long ago, but God is the God of the living. These patriarchs live on through God, the God of the living.

            Jesus answered their question by pointing out their error in thinking about the resurrection. And he answered it by appealing to the very scripture they thought proved resurrection false. But where does that leave us?

            Where does it leave us when we wonder about who will be waiting for us in heaven? Will husbands be waiting for their wives, and wives for their husbands? Will I be reunited with the people I have loved and lost, my saints? Will my friends and family hear the voices of their loved ones calling to them? Will someone be waiting for us on the far side banks of the Jordan?

            It seems to me that Jesus does not deny this about the resurrection, but he will not make resurrection sound like an eternity of more of the same either. What I do think Jesus makes pointedly clear is that resurrected life will not just be a continuation of what we have now. It will be fundamentally different. It will be fundamentally better.

            But does better mean no relationship? It is hard from this passage alone to know how to answer that. But here’s the thing, what do we know about Jesus? What do we know about God the Father through the Son?

            We know that God cared and cares about relationship. God has been trying to get us back into right relationship with God since Adam and Eve said,

“Did that snake just talk to us?”

Jesus came to restore right relationship with God and with one another. No, none of our earthly relationships are perfect. They are all flawed because we are all flawed. But we believe that our God is a God of love and justice and mercy. God cares about souls, but Jesus came because God also cares about our bodies, our lives here and now. Jesus said that the kingdom of God was not some far off place, but right here in our midst. So I think, no I believe, that the love we have here, the relationships we have here, will be with us in the kingdom. They will be perfected and better and changed, but that love won’t be gone. It will just be complete. God is the God of the living. In that we place our hope, our trust, our relationship, our future, our past, our present. God is the God of the living.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.