This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran, Karoonda (11 am).
“Never throw
anything away”. That's not what my grandfather said; it's just
what he did. You never know when something will end up being useful
(empty box? Amiright?). And even though it's rare, most people can
think of a time when something they threw out would have been useful
if they'd kept it. But think of the Sadducees in today's reading:
they threw out something they should have known is always useful –
God's holy Word, the Holy Scriptures. So Jesus preaches to you,
Hang
on to that empty tomb.
There are plenty of reasons to abandon the resurrection. I didn't
say there are any good reasons, in fact they're reasons that disagree
with God's Word. The Hellenistic culture didn't like the sound of a
backwards resurrection of the body, and surprise, neither did the
Hellenistic thinking Sadducees. Greek culture wasn't down to earth
that way; in the end it looked down on the physical things of the
world. And when you listen to the argument for undefining marriage
as an institution that recognizes the union of different genders,
isn't that the same thing? There's nothing new – it's just an old
argument dressed up in today's notions of radical equality and
individualism and political correctness. And the Sadducees had
bought into the wider culture of their day. And much of the church
has unfortunately bought into the wider culture of our day.
So
that's why the Sadducees asked the question that they did, to attack
Jesus. The Sadducees had let go of the resurrection but in doing so
they were letting go of the kingdom of God. That's why Jesus
answers, “those
who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the
resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,
36
for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are
sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
First, those who are worthy of that age, the age to come, heaven,
are those whom God deems worthy. They are saved by grace alone, as a
free gift. They are faithful hearers of the Word who receive Jesus'
kingdom by faith. In cutting themselves off from God's Word the
Sadducees had cut themselves off from Jesus and his kingdom, for it
is a kingdom that is preached. So it is as Jesus says, sons of God
are sons of the resurrection. They go together. In fact, the
Sadducees were basically saying “death is the last word for your
body” and Jesus was saying “wait a week and see what my disciples
will be eyewitnesses to”.
The
Sadducees also had their favorite books of the Old Testament, just
the books of Moses, because they had the instructions for the temple,
and the Sadducees were the priestly class, and their wealth and
status came from the temple, but the actual high priesthood was
something that could be bought for them. Not good. The rest of the
Old Testament they then threw out, just like they threw out the
resurrection. So Jesus quotes to them from Exodus, from Moses'
account of seeing the burning bush: “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. 38
Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to
him.”
But in the verses following, he turns around and does the examining,
and quotes from the psalms.
Jesus pushes the issue that way, not content that any part of Holy
Scripture should be abandoned. He even mentions the angels, which,
surprise, the Sadducees didn't believe existed either. And he pushes
that the one who is the God of the living, the one in whom all the
saints do now live – is he himself. That's Jesus, and that's the
community he joins you to: the living (on earth and in heaven).
But
at least the Sadducees knew that if they became Christians that they
then believed in Jesus' resurrection and their own, and so they knew
they weren't Sadducees anymore. The same couldn't be said for the
Pharisees, and they were the main audience for Jesus' words here,
because Jesus examines the scribes (from the party of the Pharisees)
concerning the psalms in the hearing of the Sadducees. The Pharisees
did believe in the resurrection, didn't throw out any of the
Scriptures, and believed in angels. But some of the Pharisees who
later became Christians thought they could keep their doctrines of
salvation by works. This later led to St. Paul's angriest letter,
the letter to the Galatians. You know, the one where he writes, “But
even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel
contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
This stands as a word to all: you can't believe in Jesus yet fear,
love, and trust in yourself above all things. So Jesus defends the
resurrection of the dead because he alone gives it. And because he
alone gives it, the resurrection is a comfort, and it is true because
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. So even though the Pharisees
and Sadducees believed different things, they are treated the same at
the end of the Gospels because they had in common that they rejected
Jesus and wanted him dead.
And Christ did die, but his tomb is now empty. Christ rose from the
dead and doesn't abandon his Church at the resurrection of the dead
(as he doesn't abandon her now either). Jesus has to defend the
resurrection (and every biblical doctrine) because he is the cause of
your resurrection to life eternal. He couldn't let it go, because
his resurrection isn't optional to believe. It's tied to his death.
It's tied to who he is and what he does. Therefore it's tied to what
the creation is, what sin is, what heaven is, what his Church is.
It's tied to all these things. To take it out would make a different
religion, and surprise, it's a religion that the surrounding culture
would say is no different to itself, and a religion that in the end
leads to fear, love, and trust in yourself above all things. That's
how serious this is. For,
The resurrection says something about his death and your death. It
says that his death is indeed the sacrifice that pays for all your
sins, the death that he died in your place. It displays the victory
that he won for you at his cross. And it displays his promise to
you, that where he is you will be. He is risen from the dead and
lives and reigns with the Father. And by his blood shed for you, you
will also physically rise, live, and reign with him in heaven
forever. And if that promise is true, then that means he will never
abandon his Church now. And so,
The
resurrection is a greater comfort than an embarrassment. See, for
the Sadducees, this woman who had seven husbands who died, and who
herself died childless, was just a hypothetical. But Jesus knows
that if such a thing should happen, if someone should go through this
much grief in life or more, that is a for sure a person who needs the
true hope of the teaching of the resurrection. She needs to know
that “There’s still more.” She needs to know that life after
life after death will be wonderful beyond compare, because this life
was not.
[Aside: Now the example Jesus and the Sadducees used in their
argument was that of marriage. We surely find the
story the Sadducees tell strange. Who marries seven different
brothers? What kind of law is that? But it was certainly on the
books. You see, we think of marriage as romantic love, a choice we
make. Think of a Valentine candy heart. On it, it says, “Soul
Mate.” But back then, marriages were often arranged, and it was
important to carry on the family line, the family name. So if one
brother didn’t carry it on, the next in line took up the
responsibility. The Sadducees used this example to show how ludicrous
the resurrection would be because the woman seven times widowed would
end up with seven husbands.
But Jesus answers with a remark we might find just as strange. He
tells the Sadducees that they have it wrong. They don’t understand
what the resurrection is all about. Marriage is for this life, for
companionship, for having children to repopulate the earth. In the
resurrection, no one dies, so no additional people are needed. In the
resurrection, everyone will be a brother or sister in Christ, so the
companionship of a spouse won’t be needed. What Jesus is saying is
that life after death will be so different that marriage won’t be
needed anymore. Oh, loved ones will be there, and we’ll rejoice in
each other’s presence. On the day of resurrection we’ll hug and
hold hands and touch and talk once again. But it’ll be different.
It’ll be so much better, so much more to come on that day. Now, we
can’t say just exactly how that will be, but Jesus says it will, so
that’s what we believe.]
And
that's how the Church hangs on to the resurrection. When you confess
the catechism you do that, because the resurrection is all over the
place there. “On the last day he will raise me and all the dead,
and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.” We pray
that by God's grace “we may believe his holy Word and lead godly
lives here in time and there in eternity.” The new man should
daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity
forever.
Conclusion: Again, hang on to that empty tomb. Because Jesus is
risen, there is a resurrection of the dead. Because Jesus is risen,
there is no salvation outside of him, for the Father deems you worthy
of that age for Jesus' sake. Because Jesus is risen, the Church on
earth always has a bottomless well of comfort, and confesses the
same, by the forgiveness of all your sins. Because Jesus is risen,
heaven is for you, is all doors and windows for you. Amen.
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