God of the Living

Jesu Juva

St. Luke 20:27-40                                       

November 9, 2025

Proper 27C                   

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        They say there are no dumb questions.  If you don’t understand something, just ask.  But not all questions are genuine.  Not all questions flow from an honest desire for knowledge and understanding.  You know what I’m talking about:  loaded questions, trick questions, gotcha questions, hypothetical questions that border on the absurd.  These questions are designed to make you look like a fool as you try to answer.

        The Sadducees approached Jesus with just that kind of question in today’s Holy Gospel—a trick question primarily designed to trip Jesus up.  A man with six brothers dies without any children.  Now, according to the OT Law, the dead man’s brother was obligated to take this widow as his own wife and bear children on his brother’s behalf.  But that brother also died.  And then another brother stepped in; but he also died—as did every last brother, all without fathering any children.  Now, after a grand total of seven husbands, the woman also died.

        But the all-too-clever question of the Sadducees is this:  In the resurrection—in the life of the world to come—whose wife will this woman be, since all seven brothers had her as a bride?

        It’s all hypothetical, of course.  There was no such woman—no such brothers.  You’d be hard pressed to find such a case in the entire history of Israel.  In fact, the people asking the question—the Sadducees—didn’t even believe in the resurrection of the body.  And yet, here they are—these resurrection deniers—asking Jesus about whose wife this unfortunate widow will be in the resurrection.  It’s an absurd question taken to the extreme.  Assuming there’s a resurrection, what an awkward mess this woman will have on her hands, sorting out who’s her real husband. 

        You can almost see those smarmy Sadducees smirking as they trot out this loaded question—hoping Jesus will deny the resurrection or deny marriage or deny the Laws of Moses.  They were expecting Jesus to freeze up like a deer in the headlights.  Instead, He slices and dices their silly hypothetical question with just a few sentences.

        Jesus points out that marriage is only for this age—only for this side of the grave.  The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  Until death do us part.  Death marks the end of a marriage.  Marriage belongs only to this temporal life.  That fact doesn’t diminish its importance, of course.  Marriage should be honored by all—the lifelong union of one man and one woman.  Marriage celebrates and guards the sexual union of a man and a woman as one flesh.  Anything added to that equation constitutes adultery.  The woman in the hypothetical story is not an adulteress, but seven times married to seven brothers—following the Law of Moses.  Technically, her first husband was her husband. The brothers that followed were only surrogate or stand-in husbands.

        Things will be different in the resurrection.  In the resurrection, those who rise are neither married nor given in marriage.  They are more like angels—in that they will never die again.  “Sons of the resurrection” is what Jesus calls them.  Marriage is God’s good gift for this earthly life.  That good gift gets despised and dishonored in a multitude of ways.  That good gift of marriage is dishonored whenever two people live together as husband and wife—even though they aren’t husband and wife.  That good gift of marriage is dishonored by adultery and by the use of pornography.  And so-called same sex marriage is not marriage at all, but a judicial construct that dishonors God’s intention for this good gift.  There are so many ways to “mess up” God’s gift of marriage.

        On the other hand, there are some people who treasure and esteem marriage so highly that they are genuinely troubled by the thought that they won’t be “married” in heaven.  They depend on their spouse so deeply that it becomes a source of grief to think that they won’t be sporting wedding rings in eternity.  On the other hand, there are many marriages that struggle on earth—messy marriages where not all the memories will be good.  What will heaven be like for them?  What becomes of the bad memories?

        It goes without saying that whatever your marital status may be, in the life of the world to come, you won’t be disappointed with the arrangements (trust me).  But more importantly, we dare not forget that our citizenship is in heaven because we have a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life to bring you into eternal fellowship with God.  You have been reconciled by the blood of Jesus—restored to God by grace, through faith in His Son. 

        But let’s take it a step further.  This grace of God—this reconciliation that makes all things right between you and God—it also has the power to make all things right between you and you and you, and you and me, and between him and her, between mister and missus.  In heaven it won’t be the least bit awkward between you and those you’ve squabbled with here on earth—for every relationship will be set right by the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  No matter how messy our marital record may be—or how we’ve messed up other relationships in this life—in the life of the world to come we will look back on it all through the lens of Jesus’ death on the cross. 

        There we will be able to see the good that God is doing in us and through us right now—though right now it is sometimes hidden.  And what’s more, all the tragedies of this life—tragedies like being widowed multiple times—it will all make supremely good sense in the resurrection.  For there it will be abundantly clear that the Son of God—all along the way—has been for you, not against you—that the Son of God loves you and gave Himself up for you—that life’s losses and crosses have really only served to prepare you for bigger gifts which are yet to come.

        And by the way, as long as we’re talking about the resurrection, did you note that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?  Not WAS, but IS?  He is the God of the living, not the dead.  Jesus took the Sadducees back to Exodus chapter three—back to the time when God called their hero, Moses.  Jesus dug down deep into the text to show that while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are—to us—dead and buried—long gone.  Yet to God, they are alive and well forevermore. 

        And so it is with you.  Having raised you up from the death of sin in the waters of your baptism into Christ, God views you like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—alive and well forevermore.  Baptized into Christ, you are already sons and daughters of the resurrection.  In Christ, you are already “like angels,” living even though you die—children of God for whom eternal life is a present possession, all thanks to Jesus Christ, our Savior.

        Saint Luke tells us how the Savior’s answer put a sock in the Sadducees, such that they “no longer dared to ask him any question.”  And that’s how it will be in the resurrection.  That’s how it will be at the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom:  No more absurd questions—but only amazing answers.  Only praise and worship of the great “I AM,” who revealed Himself to the world in His Son, Jesus, and who reveals Himself to you in your baptism and in the Supper you are about to receive.  No more questions.  Only gifts received by trusting hearts, and “amens” and “alleluias” echoing into eternity. 

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.