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“There came to [Jesus] some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked Him a question …” (Luke 20:27-28a).
Just as the Sadducees asked Jesus a question, I would like to ask you all a question: What is the leading cause of death? Ponder that one a moment. Is it heart disease? Could it be a stroke? What about cancer or diabetes? What is the leading cause of death? It’s actually conception. The leading cause of death is being conceived. You see, as soon as God formed you and began knitting you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), you are on the way to death. Is this the point in life? Is this it?!
For the Sadducees who came to Jesus to ask Him this question about the resurrection, they believed that was it. They believed the thought of any bodily resurrection was utterly ridiculous. They could not fathom the idea that people would rise out of their graves and their bodies would live again.
One play on words that I have heard and taught about these Sadducees is that they were sad, you see, because they didn’t have anything more to look forward to than what happened before death. For the Sadducees, when death came, they had no joy and they had no hope, since that’s all she wrote. Again, they were sad, you see.
So, these Sadducees ask Jesus an elaborate question as to prove to Jesus that the resurrection was preposterous:
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife”(Luke 20:28b-33).
My first thoughts when preparing this sermon was: what a mess! This sounds more like a daytime talk show. Instead of asking, “Are you the father?” It’s like Maury asking, “Who is the true husband?” This is a perfect script for a daytime talk show. And all too often, those daytime talk shows aren’t exactly truthful. This is also the case here.
But I will say this, there is some truth to this question of the Sadducees. You see, they are bringing up what is known as the levirate marriage law from Deuteronomy 25, which states: “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel”(Deuteronomy 25:5-6).
Now, clearly, these Sadducees realize how outlandish their question is, even with the levirate marriage law. They are asking this question only as a gotcha question. And this question is not about marriage. It is centered on the resurrection. They are trying to show how ludicrous the resurrection is if such a scenario could result in the life to come. So, “at the resurrection,” they ask, “whose wife will she be?”
They think they have trapped Jesus between a rock and a hard place.
But then Jesus says to them essentially, “Your question isn’t going to matter, since there will be no more need for marriage at the resurrection.”
You see, Jesus solves this question by distinguishing between two ages: the present age and the age to come.
The key purposes for marriage in the present age are for procreation, the raising up of children in the fear and knowledge of God, and, of course, companionship. None of these will be needed in the resurrection because we will not die, and we will be in perfect communion with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the age to come, there will be neither birth nor death. And there will be no marriage. We will simply be sons and daughters of God, sons and daughters of the resurrection.
But Jesus is never content in just answering questions. He digs deeper to the root cause of their question: unbelief. Jesus digs deeper as He brings up Moses at the burning bush – today’s Old Testament lesson. He recalls that day when He spoke to Moses as He told him to take off his sandals for where Moses stood was holy ground. He said to Moses: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). To the Sadducees, Jesus adds: “Now He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him” (Luke 20:38).
Keep in mind, as God spoke those words to Moses, these three patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – had been long dead. But how does God speak of them? Jesus speaks of His relationship to them as being present. This means that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still living!
So, what the triune God is proving to Moses and the Sadducees is that human relationships certainly end with death, but the relationship a person has with God lives on forever. Or to put it another way: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God endures forever (Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:23-24).
What Jesus is saying is that there is still more, much more, than what we may realize. We weren’t created by God just to die. We were created by God to live.
The Sadducees rejected the resurrection, which is maybe why there were two Sadducees – Annas and Caiaphas – who ended up orchestrating Jesus’ arrest and ultimate execution. They thought by simply eliminating Jesus would fix the “Jesus problem.”
Now, you may not be denying the bodily resurrection, but the spirit of those Sadducees of yesteryear still lives on among us. Have you ever thought that this life is all that there is? Sometimes, those doubts are there. The grave looks so final. How could I bodily resurrect through a casket, a vault, and all while being six feet underground? Could this life be it? Am I just to ultimately become worm food? That is the Sadducee spirit swirling around in our hearts and minds.
And if you’ve thought that, you are in good company. Remember what Christ’s apostles were doing that first Easter? They were hiding behind locked doors out of fear of the Jewish authorities. They were like the Sadducees then. They were denying all those times Jesus taught them that He would rise again the third day.
Then suddenly, Jesus appeared to them, and He calms their fears. He said, “Peace be with you”(John 20:19) and then showed them His hands and His side. He let them touch Him. The apostles went from there was no more, to there is so much more!
Like the apostles, we need to believe our God is the God of the living and not of the dead. The resurrection is all about Jesus turning our losses into victories, our death into life, our sorrow into joy, our weaknesses into strength, our futility into glory.
That day, the living God was standing before those Sadducees. Soon they will kill Him. But even though from eternity, the Second Person of the Trinity had no physical body, this God would not even now shed His physical body, but He would take it up again. Christ’s death would restore the day when we “cannot die anymore, … being sons [and daughters] of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36).
Today, the living God is here, although to the naked eye, He is hidden in His Word and Sacraments. Jesus says to us this day that there is more to come, a lot more to come! Today, He comes to give us the medicine that forgives our sins, known as the Medicine of Immortality. He says to us, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56).
In Christ, there is life – eternal life, after death!
So, repent and believe and receive the fruits of His cross and of His resurrection: forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation for there is so much more to come – yours and my resurrection! For if you are in Christ, you will live forever! Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
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