We have just heard Jesus answer a question
about one bride who married seven brothers (Luke 20:27-28).
Now, the idea of a
woman marrying seven successive brothers, each of whom dies childless, may seem
a bit bizarre to us today. But ancient Jewish law in the Torah obliged a man to
marry his dead brother’s wife if she were childless. Her firstborn child - if
she had one - would inherit the dead man’s name and property. If the man
refused to marry her, he would be publicly humiliated. In a deeply patriarchal
society this law provided some protection and security to the widow and her
future children.
The question was asked
by Sadducees, adherents of a Jewish tradition who accepted only the Torah, the
1st five books of our OT, as God’s law. The Torah does not mention
the possibility of resurrection, so they rejected the very idea. Later books of
the OT – the prophetic and wisdom books – do talk about resurrection. They were
accepted by other Jewish traditions who did believe in resurrection – in
particular the Pharisees. The disputes between those who did and those who
didn’t were very bitter.
The Sadducees’ question
was this: if you believe in resurrection, which of the seven brothers will the
woman be married to when they all rise from the dead?
It is a trick
question. If Jesus replies ‘all of them’, everyone will be outraged, because
for patriarchal Jews it was entirely unacceptable for a woman to have more than
one husband - even though a man could have more than one wife. If Jesus picks
one brother, they will tie him up in knots justifying which one. So - they
think - he will have to support their view that resurrection is a nonsense –
and that will annoy the Pharisees.
In his answer Jesus reveals what he believes
about resurrection – and at the same time he avoids the trap set for him by the
Sadducees.
Jesus tells the
Sadducees they are mistaken. He quotes the Torah they revere to argue for life
after death, for resurrection.
He points them to the
story of the burning bush in which God tells Moses, in the present not the past
tense (Exodus 3:6), ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob’. God, says Jesus, ‘is
God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive’.
They have died, but they are alive - so they must have been resurrected.
And he draws a clear distinction
between living mortals and those who have died and been resurrected. He says
that after death there can be no such thing as marriage – death really does
change human relationships.
‘Those who belong
to this age’ – mortal
human beings - ‘marry and are given in marriage; but
those who are considered worthy of a place in that age’ – after
death - ‘and in the resurrection from the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage’. Notice that Jesus does
not say that all will rise from the dead – only those who are considered worthy
of it. ‘Indeed’, he says, ‘they cannot die any more’ - they have eternal life - because they
are like angels’ – and angels were believed to be sexless. They ‘are children of God, being children of the resurrection’.
From this we can be
sure of 2 things: 1st Jesus himself does believe in the resurrection
of the dead – at least for those considered worthy of it; and 2nd Jesus
does not believe that those who are resurrected are simply re-animated corpses
– they have become something completely different.
Jesus believed in the resurrection of the dead
– but do you, do I? I hope so, because every Sunday in the creeds we publicly
declare our belief in resurrection.
These days most people
find it very difficult to believe in the resurrection of the dead. Even many
Christians mouth the words of the creeds without really meaning them. Our
modern, materialist world view, informed by science, can make resurrection seem
literally unbelievable. The atoms and molecules of which I am made will be
dispersed when I die, and recycled into other living creatures, including other
human beings. How can they be re-assembled after my death into a living body?
My identity as a unique person is encoded chemically both in my DNA and in my
memories. How can it persist beyond my dissolution?
But surely it would be
wrong to reject what Jesus himself believed! If there is no resurrection of the
dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead, and as St Paul said, our faith is
in vain.
Our world view – how
we make sense of everything around us – is not the same as the Sadducees’. When
Jesus talked to the Sadducees about resurrection he spoke to them in language
they could relate to and understand – the language of the Torah. I feel sure
that when we try to make sense of the resurrection we must also use language
that we can relate to and understand – and for many of us that is the language
of modern science.
We should not be afraid to express our faith in
new ways that make sense to us.
I ask myself how Jesus
might explain to me what resurrection means to him in language I can understand and
believe in. I can imagine him saying something like this:
‘Our lives are world lines, like threads in the 4 dimensions of
space-time. They start at our conception and end at our death, and each of them
is entangled with the world lines of the others we encounter.
God, who is not constrained by space-time, loves and apprehends each of us
in our entirety, from start to finish – in other words, he apprehends our world
line - and every other person’s world line too.
God judges our worth against the quality of our love - our relationships
with others – measured over our entire world line, our whole lives.
Our resurrection is precisely God’s apprehension of us as being worthy
of him. In our resurrection, we are as different from our mortal selves as a
line is to a point - we cannot die a 2nd time, we have been
transformed into immortal children of God.’
I find these ideas
help me to understand resurrection and to believe in it. Perhaps you will find
them helpful too. If not – if this sounds to you no more than meaningless science
fiction psychobabble, like Star Trek speak – don’t worry, just ignore them.
But if you find the
idea of resurrection difficult, I urge you to search for your own way to
understand it, and to believe in it.
Because Jesus believed
in resurrection, and Jesus was himself raised from the dead.
Let me finish in prayer with a Collect for
Resurrection from the BCP (p495)
Bring us, Lord our
God, at our last awakening,
into the house and
gate of heaven,
to enter into that
gate, and dwell in that house,
where there shall be
no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light;
no noise nor silence,
but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes,
but one equal possession;
no ends nor
beginnings, but one equal eternity;
in the habitation of
your glory and dominion, world without end.
Amen.
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