11-9-2025          Luke 20:27-38

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] 28 and 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. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In 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, 35 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. 36 Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And 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. 38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.  (2Thess 2:16a,17)

You know what a riddle is; some of you may be really good at solving riddles, some of us just can’t seem to figure them out. Then we hear the answer and groan because we should have known what was coming.  Like:  How many months have 28 days? All of them!  What is full of holes yet stills can hold water? A sponge.

Riddles have probably been around about as long as people. Today We hear a conversation between Jesus and the Sadducees in the gospel. They used a riddle-like approach with Jesus, to see if he could figure out the answer. We get the definite impression that if he doesn’t give the answer they want to hear, they won’t be laughing. More than likely they want to trick Jesus into giving a response which they can twist into having it sound as if there can’t be a resurrection. In the scenario they create, this poor woman ends up marrying seven brothers, after each one dies she gets passed on to the next and he dies. All seven die before any child is born. So there is no heir, to carry on the family name, to establish an ongoing legacy or to care for the woman. Hebrew tradition did have such a practice for the brother-in-law to take up the husband role for his deceased brother, called levirate marriage. It was an inane situation here, with this seven-brother exaggeration but they were hoping to use it to show how silly the concept of this resurrection was. 

Jesus makes it known that such worldly concerns do not translate when one moves into the life to come. As we think about the resurrection into new life, we also need new language and new imagination to express what it will be. We can appreciate how difficult this can be, if there could be a conversation between my grandchild, born in 2012 and my grandmother, who was born in 1900. If Carmen had to explain her cell phone, its capabilities and value for her, to Grandma Johnson, that exchange would be unreal and disconnected. Neither one would understand the other regarding that or numerous other subjects. All though – the old party line phone and a group chat are similar. In the gospel, Jesus was addressing the challenge to these Sadducees working to expand their thoughts beyond the constraints of their present into a future they had not even tried to imagine. Marriage and families made sense to them but in the age to come those concepts would not be adequate. In this world we are bound and controlled by needs for shelter, money, health care, and even gravity. Here there is anxiety, stress, fear, suffering and death. The resurrection takes us beyond those needs and troubles into an existence where even death is no more. Jesus sought to invite the Sadducees to welcome a new possibility that would alter their futures. That brings up another riddle from this lesson.  Why was everyone in this group called a Sadducee? ‘Since they would not believe in the resurrection, they were: ‘Sad, you see!” 

What really matters is that we are children of God and therefore children of the resurrection. Our God is the support and comfort for the living, time without end. We are to hold to that and not worry about the particulars of that age ahead. There are no brochures sent out regarding the heavenly accommodations, menu options, and scenery tours. There are no descriptions regarding career and employment options. Sick days or health care coverage won’t be needed. A whole new concept for life will be needed. For now, such life is challenge enough for the most creative of imaginations. 

We did hear from Job, in the first reading, that there will be a whole person, a physical being, fully redeemed and restored. “I know that my Redeemer lives.. and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25,26) Job who had known innumerable troubles of loss and personal health issues, demonstrated his trust and confidence in God and became an example of faith for others. St. Paul also wrote about this transformed situation in I Corinthians 15:  we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Last week we celebrated All Saints and the unity that exists between us and those saints who have gone before us. Without our faith in the resurrection and the anticipation of a reuniting, there would be no celebrating, no anticipation. Jesus calls us to imagine what it is to live without the fear of death. He offers us this challenge, so we learn to approach our lives differently now, today. We are to use this news, this promise, as we make our daily choices.  How we spend our time, our energy, even our money, are a reflection of our trust we have in the promise of eternity. The prayers which we offer to God will expose our acceptance of that resurrection life. We are given a glimpse of the community in which all will be welcomed and where there will be enough available for all. Every human being will be valued and acknowledged as having dignity and worth. The message of the angels: “Have no fear” will be acknowledged as true and utilized each day, providing you the strength to face that day’s challenges and make use of its opportunities.

Our God is a God of life, as testified by Moses and by Christ. We are children of God today and forever, an extended family with brothers and sisters from every time and place. We are the ones who recognize that Jesus came that we might have life, given as a gift that has no expiration date. Sadness and pain, trouble and worry will come to an end as heaven’s gates open to welcome us in. Never forget, our Lord “is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them (Abraham, Martin Luther, your very own ancestors, and the saints we named last week) are alive.”