Sermon Luke 20:17-38 Resurrection Thinking

Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Luke 20:17-38

Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church

November 11, 2007

Today is November 11 and tomorrow we celebrate Veterans day. I ask that all of the vets in the congregation today please rise so that we may pray for you. Father in heaven; be with all the brave women and men who have served and are serving our country. Heal them when they are injured or sick. Comfort them when they are down and lonely. And remind them how much we appreciate the sacrifices they have made. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Luke 20:27-38 ²⁷ Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 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, 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."

The topic which divided Jews in the first century was resurrection. The Essences and the Pharisees both believed in the resurrection of the dead. Their reason was simple, God’s justice demands it. They knew that our God is a God of justice and righteousness, and God’s justice will ultimately prevail. But what happens if a person dies before God enacts the justice required? What if evil befalls someone and she dies before God corrects the injustice? Or what if an evil person dies without ever being held accountable for his actions? Justice requires that God, in these instances, reach beyond the grave to balance the scales. Justice therefore requires an afterlife after death which we call resurrection.

The Sadducees disagreed. They searched the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament and found nothing that supported resurrection. They just didn’t believe it. So they presented Jesus with a riddle. The Law of Moses required that if a man dies without a male heir to inherit the land, which God had given the family, then his younger brother should marry the widow to produce the necessary male heir. According to the riddle, what happens if a man followed by six younger brothers all marry one woman but never produce an heir. When the woman is resurrected with her seven husbands to whom is she married? Jesus knew that this was a ridiculous question because in the resurrection having heirs was not important because the people of the resurrection live forever.

Jesus had just the right Bible verse that would answer the Sadducees’ objection to resurrection. When Moses met God at the burning bush he asked God to identify himself. God said the he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus reasoned that since God is the God of the living and not the dead these patriarchs must still be alive. And the only way they can be alive is if they have been resurrected from the dead.

These philosophical arguments must have been very interesting at the time, but within a few days Jesus would prove conclusively that resurrection is true, because he displayed for inspection his own resurrected body. And thus we are assured that there will be a resurrection and we have at least a limited idea of what that resurrected life will be like.

In spite of all of these discussions about resurrection no one expected the real resurrection of Jesus Christ. It came as a complete surprise. Each person came to the resurrection expecting to deal with Jesus’ death. Instead they had to deal with life and this created in them great wonder and awe. According to Matthew, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary came to the tomb where they had watched Jesus be buried the Friday before. There they experienced an earthquake, lightening and great fear. The Roman guards were paralyzed by this fear, but the women heard the voice of an angel telling them to not be afraid because Jesus had risen. They ran off filled with wonder and joy to tell others what they had seen and heard when they saw the resurrected Jesus for themselves and reverently fell down and intimately touched his feet in worship.

Mark tells us that there was another woman, Salome, and that the women were on the way to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body. They were concerned about having to move the stone which covered the entrance, and were surprised when they saw that it had been rolled back. Inside the tomb they saw a man, probably and angel, who told them that Jesus had been raised. The women were astonished, stunned and silent.

Luke tells us about a bigger group including Joanna and several women from Galilee. They looked in the tomb and saw no body. They were puzzled. Then two men appeared and reminded them that Jesus had been raised. Certainly they remembered that Jesus himself had told them that all of this would happen. But when they tried to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard no one believed them. So Peter ran to the tomb and looked inside. Nothing made any sense. They were all bewildered.

John takes us into the mind of Mary Magdalene. She saw the empty tomb and assumed that grave robbers were responsible. So she ran and told Peter and another disciple what she had seen and they ran off to the tomb. There they saw a piece of cloth neatly folded. No grave robber would do that! Later Mary returned to the tomb filled with grief and spilling tears. A gardener appeared who spoke her name, Mary, and she realized that it wasn’t the gardener at all but is was her dear teacher, Jesus!

All of these accounts paint one picture of the resurrection. Listen to these words: “joy”, “wonder”, “bewildered”, “puzzled”, “worship”, and “fear”. These emotions were not experienced by the recognized leaders of Jesus’ group but by the marginalized, women, who were led by the most marginalized of them all, Mary Magdalene. The resurrection did not occur in front of a large crowd of witnesses but in the quiet of early Sunday morning in a cemetery outside the city gates. All the assumptions that the participants brought with them had to be thrown out resulting in the fear of not knowing what was going to happen. Hear some more words: “amazed”, “trembling”, “astonished”, and “perplexed”.

Prior to Jesus’ resurrection people thought about resurrection as a philosophical subject. But after the resurrection people experienced the emotion of a resurrected life. They experienced a sense of wonder. Children experience wonder all the time. But as we grow older we squeeze it out of our lives. We come to church on Sundays hoping to experience a little wonder, but by Monday morning wonder is replaced by knowledge and competence which keep surprises to a minimum. Our sense of wonder is replaced by work. But Jesus’ resurrection reverses all of this. Resurrection starts with work as the women came with spices to tend the dead body and ends with wonder, amazement and awe as we experience the resurrected Jesus. Our Christian faith is based on this wonder, amazement and awe. These emotions never come from hard work or intellectual discussions. They come from experiencing Jesus in prayer and worship.

As we meditate on the four gospel accounts we see that the resurrection experience was totally unexpected. People had heard Jesus talk about resurrection, but no one expected it to really happen as they walked to the tomb that Sunday morning. Thus no one did anything to prepare for it. They were prepared to deal with a dead body and nothing more. And the two groups who expected the resurrection, the Pharisees and the Essences, missed it all together. So don’t expect that you will find resurrection wonder though planning and preparation. It always comes as an unanticipated surprise.

There is one thing we can do to prepare ourselves to receive the sense of wonder and awe of Jesus’ resurrection. All four gospels agree on this. Everyone who experienced the wonder of the resurrection had prepared themselves first with a Sabbath rest. This practice of a Sabbath was clearly proscribed in scripture and part of the religious life of the early church. On Friday, just after Jesus had been placed in the tomb, they all gathered together to remember God’s work in creation and Israel’s deliverance from slavery. One candle would have been lit to remember that God had created the world and on the seventh day rested. Another candle would have been lit to remember that as the Israelites were escaping from Egypt God spoke to Moses telling them to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. This took Jesus’ followers away from the horror of the crucifixion and placed them is a larger context of God’s plan and personal involvement in their lives preparing them to deal with mysteries that would befall them far beyond their ability to understand and control. A Sabbath rest prepared them to receive the wonder of the resurrection.

So I urge all of you to remember to take a Sabbath rest. Take time out from your busy days and weeks and set it aside for prayer and scripture meditation. My practice is to be here in this room at 6AM every Tuesday through Saturday. I pray for this church and I meditate on the scripture passage for the upcoming Sunday sermon. This is a most important time for me as I connect with God on your behalf and try to understand how the scripture passage deals with your spiritual needs. I urge each of you to set aside time each day for prayers. Open your Bibles and meditate on what God is saying to you. This will prepare you to receive the sense wonder of the resurrection when you come to worship on the day of resurrection each Sunday morning.

Lord Jesus, be with us know and give us a sense of your resurrected presence. Give us a sense of the wonder and awe first experience by the women who went to your tomb that first resurrection morning. And allow us to fall down before you and touch your feet in intimate worship. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.