11/13/19 – Luke 20. 27-38
An elder in the church came by to visit the new pastor-one Sunday afternoon: He was a “highly respected member of the congregation” for over 25 years.
While they were sitting on the back porch of the parsonage the man said, “Preacher, I’ve got “something to tell you.”
I’ve never told this to anyone before it’s extremely difficult to tell you this now but my wife – and I have ARGUED and FOUGHT “almost every day” for the past 30 years of OUR marriage.”
The pastor was “TAKEN BACK” and didn’t know what to say or “how best” to respond. So instead, he nervously took another sip of his coffee. He wasn’t QUITE SURE at all what he should do.
After a brief pause the young Pastor said, “EVERY DAY?” “Yes,” came the response JUST ABOUT every day.”
“Did you FIGHT this afternoon before you came to the church?” “Yes!” Well, “how did it that GO, for you?”
“She came crawling to me ON HER HANDS AND KNEES.” “My Goodness said the preacher man, what did she say?”
“Come out from under that bed YOU coward and FIGHT-LIKE-A-MAN!”
(Pause)
Well, our Gospel text for tonight RECALLS “the FRICTION” the “ARGUING” and “the FIGHTING” that went on between the Pharisees and the Sadducees almost EVERY DAY during the lifetime of Jesus. They just COULD NOT see “eye to eye.”
Pharisees were the legalists, the lawyers. The Pharisees accepted the law, the prophets and the writings. They also “believed in and embraced” the “oral tradition” that had circulated for many years “in regard to Moses.”
Sadducees were the Temple “ELITISTS.”
They only accepted THE TORAH, the five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch and nothing more.
ONE believed in resurrection the other DID NOT. So they were in constant CONFLICT, constantly BICKERING back and forth…
The Sadducees oversaw ALL the inter-workings of the Temple, the daily sacrifices, the court of the women, and the court of the Gentiles, the Priests, and the rotation of who served when and where. It was THE SADDUCEES and the Scribes who secured the “houses of widows” for the Temple. The Sadducees were generally “the wealthier” and the “more aristocratic” than the Pharisees.
The two groups could just not come together in ANY KIND of agreement.
That is THE CONTEXT to this confrontation between the Sadducees and Jesus. And since Jesus was “the new prophet in town” and up to this time was “primarily SKIRMISHING with the Pharisees and/or the scribes” it was now the Sadducees’ turn to “TAKE HIM ON.”
They were DETERMINED to see what this young upstart Galilean is made OF. So, they have come to him with their “CLEVER LITTLE RIDDLE.” The Sadducees are attempting “to SET Jesus UP…for a downfall.”
They WERE NOT “honest seekers” or believers desiring to better understand God’s WORD and WILL.
They already know WHAT they believe or in this case “DO NOT believe.” They are “FIXED in their position – there was NO RESURRECTION of the dead,” and NOBODY, especially some “itinerant Galilean rabbi” was going to change THEIR minds.
Jesus NOT ONLY affirms “life after death” and “the resurrection” he continues on “that life here on earth” and life-after-death ARE NOT at all ALIKE.
The life “to come” IS NOT simply a continuation of this “present existence.”
Jesus made it clear that the life in the eternal state is MORE (far more) than just an extension of what we have – here on earth. Don’t be so short-sighted!
Marriage in the afterlife, would take that relationship “to a NEW and more GLORIOUS level”- that we cannot fully comprehend – here and now.
And then he said, there is NO death in “that age.” They CANNOT die for ALL of them are alive to God. Jesus is clear that God is the God OF THE LIVING.
Jesus has just turned THE TABLES on the Sadducees. They are without further comment. They do not know what to say. They have been STYMIED and SILENCED.
No one can deny that our God is a TRANSFORMING God. A God who is calling “his children” to be THE LIGHT of the world…
He calls us into a new existence. He calls us as his own. He calls us INTO HIS GLORY…into HIS REALM…his heavenly KINGDOM.
HOW SILLY we are, or they WERE when we think we have GOD figured out…or that we KNOW what heaven will be like.
So, with just a few short words, Jesus was able to silence his critics, gain public honor for himself…and set the record straight…
He was remarkable I tell you, and they thought they HAD HIM!
Amen.