27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man* shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30then the second 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’ 34 Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but 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. 36Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ 39Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ 40For they no longer dared to ask him another question.        

                                                                                                                    Luke 20:27-40

When our Pastor Nominating Committee arrives at the point when they begin interviewing prospective ministers for the position of Pastor of Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church, perhaps they should include this question that the Sadducees asked Jesus! What a tough question!

I am reminded of the story of a very young minister being interviewed by a PNC.

The Moderator of the Pastor Nominating Committee asked, "Reverend, do you know the Bible pretty well?"

The young minister said, "Yes, quite well actually."

The moderator asked, "Which part do you know best?"

Young minister, "I know the New Testament best."

The moderator said, "Well, why don't you tell us the story of the Prodigal Son."

The young pastor said, "Fine." Here’s the way I remember that story:

 "There was a man of the Pharisees name Nicodemus, who went down to Jericho by night and spent all his inheritance on wild living and then he fell upon stony ground and the thorns choked him half to death.  

The next morning Solomon and his wife, Gomorrah, came by, and carried Nick down to the ark for Noah and his wife, Joan of Arc, to take care of.

But, as he was going through the Eastern Gate into the Ark, he caught his hair in a limb and he hung there forty days and forty nights and he afterwards did hunger. And, the ravens came and fed him.

 "The next day, the three wise men who had been guided by a star, came and carried him down to the boat dock and he caught a ship to Nineveh. And when he got there he found Delilah sitting on a wall next to a fatted calf.

He said, "Throw Delilah down, boys, throw her down." And, they said, "How many times shall we throw her down… seven time seven?"

And he said, "Nay, but seventy times seven." And they threw her down four hundred and ninety times.

 "And, she burst asunder in their midst. And they picked up twelve baskets of the leftovers. So, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be?"

The Moderator suddenly interrupted the young minister and said to the committee, "I think we ought to ask the church to call him as our minister. He is very young,  he sure does know his Bible."

Today we are considering, “Life After Death: The Mystery of the Unknown.”

We are promised eternal life in and through Jesus Christ….but what will that life be like?

R. Alan Culpepper notes that Jesus’ words in Luke 20 are “at once intriguing, reassuring and disturbing,” and sometimes it is best to “recognize the mystery of the unknown and the limitations of our understanding.”

“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

A little background information (or a lot!) will help here:

(Background information adapted from The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volumes 8 & 9.)

The Sadducees were the aristocratic, elite class of rich, landed Jerusalem gentry who operated the Temple and wielded much power.

The Sadducee’s denied the resurrection of the dead. This was not because they were Jewish “liberals,” but rather their denial was evidence of their theological conservatism.

The Sadducees only accepted the first 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy… The Pentateuch…..as canonical.

The Sadducees emphasized that the resurrection of the dead was not found in the first 5 books thus rejecting the “modern” idea of “resurrection” which was advocated by the Pharisees.

And since the Sadducees rejected the doctrine of the resurrection, they were SAD..-U…-CEE!

The Sadducees affirmed the importance of the first 5 books, the Law, because of its assumption that one’s life continues after death only in the lives of one’s descendents, not in a heavenly world following the resurrection.

To die without offspring was thought to be an incomplete life.

They present a case calculated to affirm the Torah but to show the absurdity of the idea of resurrection. (M. E. Boring)

The Mosaic Law (Deut 25:5-6) required that if a man died without children, his brother had to marry his widow. The purpose of the law was to protect the widow and guarantee the continuance of the family line.

With this law in mind, the Sadducees presented a hypothetical case in which one woman married seven brothers in turn, all of whom died childless (vv. 20-22). In the Resurrection whose wife of the seven would she be (v. 23)?

The case is so ludicrous it may have been a well-known Sadducean joke used for poking fun at the Pharisees' doctrine of the Resurrection .

Although they addressed Jesus with the respectful term "Teacher" (v. 19), their purpose was not to learn from him. It was clearly hostile.

 “Jesus does an end-run around the problem of what the resurrection will entail by highlighting the basic principles involved in the whole discussion. The point is not what kind of biological or psychological dynamics are involved – we don’t know.

We do know that resurrected persons belong to that other dimension of reality that we call “heaven.”

Such bodies and relationships have different properties from those we experience on earth.

The point: God is the God of the living and the power of God works to create and sustain life at all times.” (P. Perkins)

In his answer, verse 24ff, Jesus accuses the Sadducees of ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God (v. 24). He then answered their question making two points.

First, in the Resurrection there will be a new order of existence brought about by the power of God (v. 25). They did not see that not only could God give people resurrection life, that life would be radically different from this life.

Marriage will not exist as it does now, but all life will be like that of the angels. This probably means that the basic characteristics of resurrection life will be service for and fellowship with God.

Also, since in heaven there will be no more death, the need for marriage and the propagation of the race will not exist.

The closeness of relationship enjoyed within a marriage will now be available to and from everyone in heaven. This will include receiving the love of God in a way that we only taste a fraction of in this life.

Secondly, Jesus turns to his first-mentioned cause of the Sadducees' erroneous thinking: ignorance of the teaching of the OT, verses 26-27;. He directed them back to the story of Moses and the burning bush (v. 26; Exod 3:6). His use of a text from the Pentateuch was significant because this part of the OT was considered authoritative by the Sadducees.

The quotation may be understood as follows: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had long since died when God made the statement to Moses. Nevertheless God said, I am, not I was, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still alive with God in Moses' time (v. 27); and if they were alive then, we may be sure that in the Resurrection God will raise up their bodies to share in the blessedness of eternal life.

We will also be raised to eternal life.

What can we take from this passage today?

We have a powerful God who will resurrect people. Those who have faith in God will be in God’s presence for eternity.

There is mystery here. Our human words cannot really capture what eternal life will be like, but it will be joyful and full of “heavenly” bliss.

The resurrection life will be very different from our earthly life.

Our resurrection bodies will be spiritual, not subject to the limitations of our physical bodies

 There is the story about the church Sunday School class…the teacher asks her class of little ones, “How many of you would like to go to heaven?”

All the children raise their hands except one little boy. The teacher asks,

“Johnny, you didn’t raise your hand. Don’t you want to go to heaven?

Johnny responds, “Well, it sounds like you’re going to leave this afternoon.”

Well, while we are on this earth, we respond to Christ’s call to love God and love others.

We join in our Affirmation of Faith from The PCUSA Brief Statement of Faith:

“With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.”