Questions That Bother Us So: Sermon Luke 20:27-38

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

Life is full of questions. For example, if a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages? Would a fly without wings be called a walk? Can you be a closet claustrophobic? If the funeral procession is at night, do you drive with your lights off? If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound? When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in? Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"? Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food? And finally why do they report power outages on TV? These are, as Jimmy Buffett would say, the questions that bother us so.

There are, however, more serious questions that plague our minds. What will happen tomorrow? How will I change in 5 years? But probably the most important and most puzzling question of them all is what happens when we die? Humans are unique because we are aware of our own mortality and it is something that we become more aware of as we grow older and when our friends and family pass on before us. This is a question that thinkers, theologians, scientists, and philosophers have debated and discussed for thousands of years. The Bible does provide us with hope. As Christians, we trust in the hope that through Christ we will live again. Through his resurrection we will have our own. However, the specifics are often vague and confusing. We see glimpses of the afterlife in Daniel and the Revelation of John, but they are mostly symbolic and they still leave us with questions, what will heaven be like? Will I get to see those that have gone before me? These are the questions that are still in our minds.

It is ok to question. It is in our nature as humans to question the things around us and to question what people tell us. We are inquisitive creatures. It is even ok to question our faith. Sometimes we go through times of trial and turmoil that cause us to question what we believe. God understands this I believe. God knows that sometimes the reason things happen seem unclear and the future may even seem uncertain. God also understands we question his essence and his presence in our lives. Sometimes we just can’t help to ask the questions. However, when we ask questions of God we should make sure that they are questions worth answering.

Unlike the Sadducees, their question in our reading from Luke is not one of curiosity and wonder, but of deceit and trickery. To understand this we need a little background on this Jewish group. The Sadducees were descended from nobility and the priestly groups and they believed in a strict adherence to the Torah or Law of Moses. This is the first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible that is also known as the Pentateuch. They believed that this and ONLY this was the true word of God. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection after death because there is no mention of it in the Torah, only in the later writings in the Hebrew Bible do we see mention of the resurrection. They came into disagreement with the Pharisees who did believe in a resurrection.

So as the Sadducees were questioning trying to bring Jesus into their controversy by asking him a trick question. Their question was about the Levite law that said if a woman is widowed without a child the brother of her husband would take her as a wife. In the example they give Jesus this happens seven times so the widow had seven husbands. In the resurrection whose wife would she be? This is a trick question obviously because they didn’t believe in the resurrection to begin with.

In this version from Luke, Jesus does not rebuke this Sadducees for asking the trick question like he does in Mark’s gospel. Instead Jesus goes right to work answering this trick question. Jesus speaks about two ages, the present age and the age to come. The problem with the Sadducees is that they only see the present age. Their focus was on this age with all its laws, regulations, and traditions. They had no belief in and no concern for the age to come. Jesus on the other hand focused his entire ministry and preaching on the age to come which he called the Kingdom of God. Jesus focus was not in this age, with its war, violence, oppression, and injustice. Instead he chose to focus on the bright beautiful future in the age to come. The Kingdom of God is a post-resurrection age meaning that in order to enter it one must go through a transition which is death. This age is one of peace and love. The Kingdom of God is all about justice and equality and this is where Jesus focused his mind and ministry. Jesus’ purpose was to open the gates to this new age so that all of God’s people could enter into it.

So what is the answer to the question? Jesus told them, in the age to come people will not marry or be given in marriage. What does this mean? Will we not be reunited with the loved ones from this age? Will we not recognize those we knew in this life? In the time of Jesus marriage was different than it is today. Marriages were often arranged, sometimes when the people were only children. Marriages sometimes meant peace between two tribes. Almost always, it meant the exchange of money and property between the families. Most importantly marriage meant the continuation of a bloodline. Marriage meant procreation and the survival of the family, often more than it meant two people who had fallen in love.

Jesus equates the lack of marriage with the fact that in the next age death is not a reality. Death has been conquered and eliminated. Therefore there is no need for new generations and in the eyes of the first century Jew there is no need for marriage. If marriage meant procreation and procreation is not needed in the kingdom of God then marriage is necessary.

This only answers part of the question. What about the relationships we have here on earth? I do not believe that God, who is a God of relationships, would dissolve the relationships we have created here on earth. However, the relationships we have will change. In the next kingdom, we will all be children of God, our relationship with God and with each other will change dramatically. We will have the same closeness we have now with our spouses with everyone. The love that we have for our loved ones here will be commonplace in the age to come. Marriage is not needed because we will love one another deeply as God loves us now.

Jesus goes on to say the God is God of the living not of the dead. God is about life not death and God is of the present and future not of the past. As I said before God is a God of relationships and we can trust that the relationships we have here in this age will only grow and deepen in the age to come.

Some time ago, there was a comic strip in Peanuts that showed Lucy in her psychiatrist booth. She is trying to analyze Charlie Brown. She says, "Charlie Brown, life is like a deck chair." "Like what?" "Charlie, have you ever been on a ship when the passengers try to open up one of those chairs so they can sit in the sun? Some of them place their chairs facing the rear so they can see where they have been. Some of them face their chairs forward so they can see where they are going." "On the cruise ship of life, Charlie Brown, which way is your deck chair facing?" Here is a great question for all of us this morning. Which way is our deck chair facing? Are we looking to the future or holding on to the past? As Christians our hope is in the future, in the age to come.

What is heaven like? What will the kingdom of God look like? How will we dress and what will we look like? These are all questions we all have thought about. We don’t have all the answers. The writers of the Bible use symbolic language and metaphors to describe what they saw heaven to be. Perhaps that is because our feeble minds cannot begin to comprehend the fullness of heaven. We write hymns about heaven and we even put our imaginations into art and film. One day the fullness of God will be known to us. One day we will see the heavenly gates open up and those who have gone before us will be there to greet us. One day we will have the victory in Jesus. Amen.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.