Nothing
Hurts!
November
11, 2007
Scriptures:
Luke 20:27--40 (NRSV)
27Some
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.”
34Jesus
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 anymore, 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.
Opening Comments and Introduction:
Susan tells the insurance agent, "We had
that barn insured for fifty thousand and I want my money."
The agent responds, "Whoa there just a
minute, Susan, it doesn't work quite like that. We will ascertain the value of
the old barn and provide you with a new one of comparable worth."
There was a long pause and Susan said, “If
that is the case, I'd like to cancel the policy on my husband."
I think many
of us misunderstand Jesus’ teaching on the realities of eternal life as Susan
misunderstood insurance.
Sermon:
The earliest
indications are that human beings have been aware, by what means we are not
altogether sure, that this life is not all there is for us. That we transcend this mortal life in some
way or the other seems to be one of those universal understandings of human
existence. However, the questions
concerning the nature of our transcendence—the “how,” “why,” “where,” “when,”
and “therefore”—bother us greatly and have been long and hotly debated.
We often speak about that which
transcends this life as the soul.
However, what is a soul? Where do
souls come from? When do we get one? Is it a preexisting, divinely created entity
that becomes trapped in human flesh as the result of the sins of Eve and Adam?
Is it what we might call an immortal soul—always has been and always will
exist? Is the soul the inherited eternal
“soul stuff” or “divine breath” that God originally breathed into Adam that is
passed on through all humans? On the
other hand, does God create each soul anew and at some point between conception
and birth infuses it into our bodies. Moreover, could it be, as the ancient
Hebrews believed, we are a unified whole—no soul stuff joined to the body—just
a person who once created is eternal with the task of soul making? In this case, life after death is the
resurrection of the physical being with its glorified physical, mental, and
spiritual dimensions. Alternatively,
could it be that the word soul may be just the word we use to speak of the
intrinsic value of the human individual?
Our forbearers of faith, the ancient
Hebrews, originally believed that there was no personal life after death. One simply lived on through one’s influences
and contributions to the tribe, and the family.
There was no concept of rewards and punishments associated with death
for these ancient Hebrews. God blessed and took care of the tribe because the
tribe obeyed God. The tribe suffered because they disobeyed God. One’s identity and one’s relationship with God
was always within the context of being a member of the tribe or family. Living history in the form of the tribe’s
memory and one’s descendants either caused one to be remembered well or with
ignominy. Therefore, one strove to do
well and to leave good memories and good children.
It was not until the time of the
prophet Jeremiah, that we see the emergence of a sense of the individual soul
as a morally responsible agent distinguished from the corporate body of the
tribe, or family.
Later, during the Babylonian Exile,
the Hebrews began to develop an understanding of their relationship to YAHWEH
in terms of a personal life after death. These understandings were refined
during the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament, although
there was no consensus on the details about “how,” “when’”, “where” and
“therefore” in Judaism concerning life after death, just as there isn’t
today.
It just seems that we humans know
from deep within the recesses of our consciousness that this isn’t all there is
to life and in particular to our life.
We accept this innate awareness beyond the fact that we want it to be
true because it is an awareness that is
as intrinsic to our consciousness as our self-awareness. It is as much a part of us as our ability to
ask questions about our selves, our environment, and others—who are we, what
are we, what is that? Is that a threat
or not, is it good for life or not, etc.? As we seek answers to our questions
concerning life and death, we must do so in the context of our culture and its
metaphors and paradigms of reality.
Therefore, Jesus in our passages
today responds in terms of his culture to a taunting question from the
Sadducees concerning life after death.
In general, the Sadducees were a group of Jews that
represented the views and practices of the Temple cult in Jerusalem. Their religious authority was found in the
Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. Typically, the Sadducees championed the political,
social, and economic interest of the aristocracy. Their major concerns lay in Jewish political
life, of which they were the chief rulers. Instead of sharing the Messianic
hopes of the Pharisees, who committed the future into the hand of God, they took
the people's destiny into their own hands, fighting or negotiating with the
heathen nations just as they thought best, while having as their aim their own
temporary welfare and worldly success. [1]
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of
the dead, demons or angels--ideas that the Hebrew people had picked up during
the Babylonian Exile. For the Sadducees,
one’s immortality was still fixed in the memory of one’s people and one’s
family and that was it.
After
the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., the Sadducees pass off the stage of
history. It is believed, by some biblical scholars that the most significant
surviving piece of literature from the Sadducees may be the Book of
Ecclesiastes. The book was meant as a
moral and ethical counter point to the belief in a personal continuance after
death in some state of punishment or reward.
The Book of Ecclesiastes was heavily edited before making it into the
Jewish cannon.
Returning
to the Sadducees and their taunting question to Jesus. The taunt comes in the form of a question
concerning Levirate marriages. The Law
of the Levirate Marriage had to do with the brother of a deceased man having a
male child with the deceased brother’s widow if there had been no male heir at
the time of the man’s death. The intent
of this law was in part to provide an heir to receive the deceased brother’s
property, thereby keeping his property within the family, as well as to provide
security for his widow.
Jesus’
response to the question would have been a typical response—the next life isn’t
like this one, so give up your earthly analogies and metaphors, they will not
work. Life with God beyond this life will be glorious and indescribable
according to our earthly paradigms. However, Jesus goes on to address the
underlying issue of disbelief in personal immortality using scriptures from the
Pentateuch—the books of Moses, the Sadducees’ scriptures if you will. Jesus recalls Moses encounter with God on Mt.
Sinai, wherein God declares that God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, making the point that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are with
God in the present tense; therefore, they must be alive.
This
silences the Sadducees, they were hoisted on their own petards as it were, and
they shut up and leave.
If only
Jesus’ teaching would have silenced the rest of Judaism and Christianity. Under
the influences of Greek philosophy, Judaism, Jewish-Christianity, and later
Hellenistic Christianity there arose metaphysical speculations about the soul
and life after death ad nausem. Across
the world from ancient to modern times with all our scientific, philosophical
and theological sophistication, we have still not reached a consensus on the
questions of “how,” “when,” “where” or “therefore” of life after death.
Today, we
have all these people with their quasi-scientific instruments investigating the
paranormal and haunted houses looking for proofs of life beyond. Some are even
saying that string theory will account for the physics of eternal life. We have these anecdotal accounts of near
death experiences that enthrall us with secondhand hope that this isn’t all
there is to life.
It is
obvious in these passages of scriptures and from others that Jesus believed in
the bodily resurrection not some metaphysical soul stuff—immortal, infused,
diffused, or Adamaic. The stories of the
resurrected Jesus show him to be a physical being with unique qualities and
attributes, but nonetheless recognizable as Jesus in confirmation of his
beliefs.
Nevertheless,
how, are the dead resurrected? Where do
they go and what is their state until the resurrection? To such questions,
nothing seems to give answers that still the anxious heart like the Apostle
Paul’s words:
The Resurrection Body
35But someone will ask, “How are the
dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36Fool! What you
sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And as for what you sow,
you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of
some other grain. 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to
each kind of seed its own body. 39Not all flesh is alike, but there
is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and
another for fish. 40There are both heavenly bodies and earthly
bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is
another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.
42So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is
sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43It is sown in
dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
44It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If
there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45Thus it
is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became
a life-giving spirit. 46But it is not the spiritual that is first,
but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was from
the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was
the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven,
so are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of
the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
50What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this:
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We
will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52in 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. 53For this
perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on
immortality. 54When this perishable body puts on imperishability,
and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will
be fulfilled:
“Death
has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where,
O death, is your sting?”
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is
the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable,
always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:12 --15:58 (NRSV)
In all of our scriptures
none of those who were resuscitated or resurrected from the dead, the widows’
sons in the Old and New Testament, Jarius’ daughter, Lazarus, or even Jesus
every go on record with the answers to our questions about the details of life
after death. Therefore, we are left with
what we started with—stuck with just an inner knowledge, a faith if you will,
that this isn’t all there is for us. In
addition, we must as the Apostle Paul points we must trust that God is in
charge of all life—life here and life there.
In truth, what choice do we have?
I guess we could take the anxiety of death and its uncertainty into
ourselves and worry ourselves crazy or become obsessive about our health, our
security, and our diets in hopes of forestalling death. We could also become overly preoccupied with
the Second Coming of Christ in hopes off escaping death. However, I believe with some historical
support that in the final analysis we each must live and die as Christ did on
Calvary--by our faith in God. The
substance of my faith is that of the Apostle Paul:
38…I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans
8:38--:39 (KJV)
And, as the writer of 2
Timothy says:
12b… But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I
have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I
have entrusted to him. 13Hold
to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and
love that are in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good treasure entrusted
to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. 2 Timothy 1:12--14
(NRSV)
All that having been said,
there may be another way we can understand life beyond this earthly realm.