Jill Minnich                                                                          11/11/2001

“Alive in God”
Haggai 2:1-9
Luke 20:27-38

 

“A certain minister has made it a policy for many years to refer “six-year-old theology questions” to his wife.  Since she has taught very young children for many years, he says, she has a much better grasp than he does of how to address the questions which little kids ask. The other day, a first-grader brought a drawing of a skeleton into class where she teaches English as a Second Language.  The title across the top of the drawing read “Inside of Me.” It was designed to teach children that everyone has a skeleton inside of them.  He unfolded it proudly and showed it to the class.  One little girl from India was astounded at the thought that she and others had this scary-looking skeleton inside them, so she pressed the issue a bit farther.  “Even you got one of these inside you, Mrs. K.?”  The teacher replied, “Yes, I have one too.”  The next question was the theological one.  “Even god got one inside him?”  Now in a class made up of children from many different countries, cultures, and religious backgrounds (most of them not Christians), you can imagine that this question had the potential for major theological debate.  I doubt if I’d have had the presence of mind to give the answer the teacher did; but as usual her expertise in six-year-old theology saved the day. “If God needs a skeleton, I’m sure He has one,” she replied.  “God has everything He needs.”  This apparently satisfied the theological curiosity of the class, and they got on with the lesson.”[1]

My mother used to say, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question as long as the person asking it sincerely wants to learn from the answer.”  However, she also made it quite clear to me on a number of occasions that some questions definitely shouldn’t be asked.  I have no doubt that my mother would say that the Sadducees’ question to Jesus fell into that second category.

We hear a lot more about the Pharisees in the New Testament than we do about the Sadducees.  Sadducees tended to come from the leading priestly families and the aristocracy.  They were political and theological conservatives.  They only recognized the first five books of the Old Testament as scripture, since only these could be ascribed to Moses.  Unlike the Pharisees, who accepted the idea of resurrection from the dead, the Sadducees considered such beliefs to be wild speculation and were prepared to ridicule those who supported those ideas.  This is probably not the first time that they used this argument in public.  Rabbinic teaching consisted, in part, of presenting such arguments to students and having them memorize the questions and answers to the Rabbi’s argument.

I am constantly amazed at Jesus’ patience with these people who seem to follow him around trying to trip him up theologically. They seem content to argue about the minor details of Law, while ignoring the heart and soul of it.  What is even more annoying about this scene is that we all know from the start that it is a setup:  the Sadducees don’t even believe in the resurrection, so what difference would Jesus’ answer make to them?  And it is just as obvious that Jesus sees right through their nit-picking behavior. He responds to the Sadducees in his typically direct and enigmatic way. He answers their question about resurrection and marriage, but his answer is really no answer at all.  “The men and women of this age marry, but the men and women who are worthy to rise from death to life in the age to come will not then marry.”[2]  In other words, the age to come is so different from this age that the roles and relationships from this age will not even apply.  But clearly, Jesus is anxious to make it clear that there is indeed a resurrection from the dead and he even provides evidence from one of the first five books of the Law:  “And Moses clearly proves that the dead are raised to life. In the passage about the burning bush he speaks of the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is the God of the living, not the dead, for to him all are alive.”[3]

Now, what do we learn from this argument?  After all, we will never have to deal with Sadducees, or will we?  I rather suspect that you know some Sadducees quite well. There are quite a few of our friends and neighbors who have some pretty strange ideas about what happens after we die.  Some of our neighbors believe, for example, that we are immortal spirits by nature.  These human bodies and our earthly life are just preparation for the immortality that is restored to us at death as we escape our earthly limitations to achieve our true destiny.  Immortality is a right that belongs to everyone.  Some of our neighbors are pessimists and believe that we are simply highly evolved animals and nothing more.  When we die, that is the end and there is nothing beyond death. 

Orthodox Christians take issue with both these beliefs.  The pessimists, Jesus says, are wrong.  There is life after death for men and women who are worthy of it and that life after death is a gift of God.  Death is not an end, but for those who follow Christ, it is a new beginning—the next chapter is eternity with God.  To the optimists, Jesus says that resurrection is not a natural right that belongs to everyone.  It is the remarkable gift of God and it is a free gift, no strings attached. The body is not a crude cage and the soul is not immortal.  Death is real and it comes to everyone, but death is not the last word on life.  God gives us the gift of life after death, just as God gave that gift to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Because God is the God of the living and not the dead. Those who love and God and who serve God in this life will be alive to God even after death. 

And that life is so different from this life that we cannot even begin to conceive of it.  Try to imagine what would happen if someone could tell a baby in their mother’s womb what life would be like after birth.  The womb is warm and dark.  There is no sunlight or cool breezes there and there are no smells or colors.  There is no need to eat or to breathe.  Everything is done for you in the womb.  How could that baby begin to understand the beauty of a sunrise, the joy that comes from hard work, the glory of fresh-baked bread, or any of a thousand things that make up a typical day for everyone of us.  Just as that baby cannot begin to conceive of life after birth, we cannot begin to wrap our minds around life after death. There are many people who say they know what heaven is going to be like and some of them will even go so far as to tell you who you will find there.  My friends, I will stick with the apostle Paul who said, “No eye has seen, no ear has hear no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 

How then shall we live as people who believe we will be raised from death to life in God?  First, we shall live with joy and confidence.  Our story is not in our hands, but in God’s hands.  We are going somewhere with God.  We may not be able to describe our destination, but we know we have one.  We are going from this life to be raised to a new life in God.  We will be children of God just like the angels. 

Secondly, we shall live in hope and not in fear.  We don’t need to live in fear as so many others do.  Others may worry about where their lives are going.  Others may wonder what is on the other side of this life.  I know that many speculate about heaven and the next life.  There are even television shows where people try to communicate with loved ones on “the other side.” This is nothing new. It has been around for thousands and thousands of years.  We, Christians, do not believe in many cycles of life or in immortality as a right. But we do believe Jesus’ words to Martha:  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those that believe in me will live, even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die.”[4] My friends, we may not know the details of what is ahead for us. But thanks to our Lord Jesus we do know that just as this life was worth the struggle of birth, the next life will be worth the struggle of death.  “In life and in death, we belong to God.”[5]

Finally, we shall live as if what we do now really matters and we shall not become discouraged.  Through the prophet Haggai, God spoke to the Israelites who were depressed and discouraged because standing before the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem, they felt that they could never hope to recreate the beauty of the Temple that invaders had destroyed.  They were completely overwhelmed by the size of the job before them.  They felt unequal to the task of rebuilding the Temple.  And they were unequal to the task!  “Is there anyone among you who can still remember how splendid the Temple used to be?  How does it look to you now?  It must seem like nothing at all.  But now don’t be discouraged, any of you.  Do the work, for I am with you.  When you came out of Egypt, I promised that I would always be with you.  I am still with you, so do not be afraid.”[6] What we do matters because God is with us and God is working through us.  The plan and the building are in God’s hands.  We also are unequal to the task, but God is with us in this life and in the life to come.  What we do matters when we live and work in God.  So we do the work because God is with us.  And when we are done there will be another life, that is utterly unlike this life.  But at the heart of this life and at the heart of that other life is the One God we have always known, if only dimly, the God of the living and not of the dead.

“When John Owen, the great Puritan pastor and teacher lay ding, he spent his time dictating some last letters to friends.  He said to his secretary: ‘Write that I am still in the land of the living.’  Then he changed his mind and said: ‘No, change that to read—I am still inn the land of those who die, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living.’”[7] “In the land of the living—that is where we are headed my friends because “In life and in death, we belong to God.”[8]