The Resurrection from the Dead
Luke 20:27-40
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27)
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Luke 20. In our Gospel reading for today we see Jesus arguing with a group of religious leaders known as the Sadducees. What were they talking about? They were talking about the resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees denied that there is a resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees did not believe the day would come when people would rise from the dead and receive glorified bodies.
Jesus taught the exact opposite. Jesus taught that when someone dies, there is still more to come. And He wasn’t just talking about our soul going to be with Him after death, wonderful as that is. No, He was talking about the end of time, the Last Day, that day when our bodies will rise out of our graves. Jesus came into the world and reveled to us that in Him, the God of the living, we have life forever.
Think of it this way. There is life – the life that we live right now, day by day. Then we die, and there is life after death when the souls of those who believe in Jesus go to the with Him, while their bodies are left behind. Then there is resurrection. That is the Last Day resurrection of the body when it’s reunited with the soul. That’s what Jesus was talking about. There is still more. The Sadducees said, “There’s no more.” Jesus said, “There is more.”
The Sadducees denied the resurrection. And so, they came to the Lord to try and prove to Him that there is no resurrection from the dead. They did so by asking him a question about marriage. They set up a scenario where a woman ended up getting married to seven different brothers. It seems like an odd story. Who marries seven different brothers? What kind of law is that? It is indeed part of the Law of Moses. You see, we think of marriage as romantic love, a choice that we make. But back in the ancient world, 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 took this idea and came up with a ridiculous scenario in order to deny the resurrection. In their scenario the woman seven times widowed would end up with seven husbands in the next life.
Jesus tells the Sadducees that they have it all wrong. They don’t understand what the resurrection is all about. Marriage is for this life. We get married for companionship, for having children if God so blesses us, and for restraining sin. In the resurrection on the Last Day, all who are in Christ Jesus will receive perfect glorified bodies. There will be no sin to restrain. In the resurrection, no one dies, so no additional people are needed. In the resurrection, all believers will be a brother and 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 will rejoice in their presence. On the day of resurrection we will see God and be with each other. But it will be different. It will be so much better, so much more to come on that day. It is hard for us to picture what it will be like. It is hard to understand. But we do know that it will be far greater than anything in this life for we will be in the full presence of God. Beyond what we know and love in this life, there is still more. A wonderful more that we can’t even imagine.
Of course Jesus is the one who is right. There will be a final resurrection because of Him. A few days after our Lord had this little discussion with the Sadducees He went to the cross. As you well know He died on that cross. He died on the cross to give to us salvation. Our Lord died and He rose from the dead. We know that we will be part of the resurrection on the Last Day because of Jesus’ resurrection. Our Lord’s resurrection assures us that we will be with God in both body and soul forever. The Sadducees said there is no more. Jesus said there is still more. Praise be to God that Jesus is right.
This group called the Sadducees died out around the year 70, about thirty-five years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. But their teaching that says, “That is all there is, there is no more”. Still lives on. So many in our world today try to take away Jesus’ resurrection and with it our resurrection from the dead. What we are left with is the spirit of the Sadducees that says the only life you are to enjoy is this one, because there is nothing more. We live in a time when many are spiritually apathetic. Many people live as if there is no God. There are many who think that this life is all that there is. There are those who are so caught up in the things of this world that they don’t even take time to consider the reality of heaven or hell. They don’t take the time to consider the resurrection from the dead.
As Christians we do not deny the resurrection from the dead. But we still do have a sinful nature that clings to us in this life and so there are times when doubt creeps into our minds. When someone dies and we see their lifeless body at the visitation we wonder, is this it. Is life all about being born, living, working, and then dying? Is this all there is? How much of the spirit of the Sadducees lives in us? Sometimes we live as if this life is all that matters. We get too busy to think about the things of God. If we are not careful, we can become spiritually apathetic. We get so caught up in TV, movies, social media, and our cell phones that we don’t give much thought to what more there may be. We worry about our bills, our family members and our retirement savings to such an extent that we forget about the glorious plan that God has for us. Do we ever live as if this life is all that there is? Let us repent and turn to the Lord.
The reason that we were created was to have a relationship with God and along with that a relationship with each other. The reason that we are here is to have wonderful and glorious fellowship with our heavenly Father. Jesus makes that possible here and now and throughout all of eternity through His death and resurrection.
We are often told that this life is all that there is. You live and you die and that’s it. That idea is all wrong. Jesus tells us that there is much more. He is right. Praise be to God! Jesus tells us the truth. God gave us this life and He blesses us in this life. Let us count our blessings. But He gives us more. Jesus tells us that He has overcome this world and gives to us so much more. He forgives our sins and gives us strength when we are weak. He gives us a sure and certain hope that His plan for us is greater than anything that we could ever think of. He stands with us making sure that we are never alone. He gives us the assurance of life everlasting for He is the one who defeated death itself. It is our Lord who sits at the right hand of God moving all things for the good of His people. It is the Lord who will visibly return on the Last Day where there will be a resurrection from the dead.
That is especially important to understand because this life that we have right now is hard. We face sorrow, sickness, strife and loneliness. Yet, we know that Jesus will turn our losses into victories. The resurrection is all about Jesus turning our losses into victories, our death into life, our sorrow into joy, our weakness into glory. In the Lord, the God of the living, we have life forever. That, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is reason to hope, to rejoice and to live in gratitude. Because – There is still more. Amen.