Little Resurrections

The New Revised Standard Version The Question about the Resurrection

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.”

Introduction

The last time we were together was September 18th, a date that I’ll remember for a couple of reasons.

It was of course a really wonderful day for me, and I hope for the church, as we mark the beginning of God doing something new in our midst.

But it was also a little bitter sweet, because to be here I actually had to miss the funeral of a dear friend and mentor, someone that I actually met here at Beulah when I was a teenager.

Jack Watson and his wife Helen were my confirmation mentors.

After I left here and found my way to Westminster in the South Hills, I was excited to see that they had moved down south as well and were worshipping there.

They were some of my biggest mentors, cheerleaders, and friends.

And the world is just a little less fun without both of them in it.

It was really hard to miss that funeral, but I knew two things for sure:

First, that Jack would have been beside himself to see that my story had wound it’s way

And secondly, I know for sure that I will see Jack, Helen, and all the beautiful saints that I have come to love over the years in the life to come.

Not everyone believes that it turns out.

There are some who would deny anything that seemed supernatural or mystical or anything like that.

And it turns out, it’s been going on for a while.

Who are the Sadducees?

We actually don’t know much about the Sadducees historically.

They get lumped in with the Pharisees a lot in the scriptures, but they were different in a few ways.

Wealthy Elite Religious Leaders

For sure they were religious leaders in the Jewish faith.

But Josephus the historian notes that they were likely on the upper strata, particularly when it comes to socio economic status.

So first of all, they were rich dudes with opinions.

Because the world needs more of those.

Strict adherence to the Torah

They believed that everything they needed came from the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Torah.

Whereas the Pharisees had developed a rich and deep oral tradition, the Sadducees wouldn’t have it.

They held a strict, literalist view of the Torah, and anything beyond that was a step too far for them.

Including...

Nothing mystical or supernatural at all

No angels

No demons

And especially, no resurrection

Their belief was that when we die, we die and that’s it.

It’s interesting that the Jewish faith believed in a resurrection, even before Jesus was on the scene.

But for these Sadducees, it’s a step too far.

In fact for as little as we know about them, this seems to be one of their main beliefs.

It’s a trap!

Obviously this is a trap, and Jesus knows it.

But it’s actually a really cruel and horrible trap, one that discloses their real intentions.

Levirate Marriage

If you were a man of privilege, you obviously entered into a marriage by way of paying your bride’s father a dowry and then having a wedding.

Women were, essentially, property.

And the sole purpose for women in that culture was to provide an heir for these men of privilege.

So if a man of privilege dies before he has kids, that’s a problem because all of his material wealth wouldn’t have an heir to pass it along to.

So your brother steps in and essentially marries your wife, not to support a relationship, but to have a child in the original brother’s name to whom the wealth could pass on.

It isn’t his child, or even really hers.

It’s the deceased husband’s heir.

For women in particular, this is a particularly dehumanizing system.

And somehow, the Sadducees find a way to make it even more dehumanizing.

They assume a position they don’t believe.

They craft this story about a woman whose husband died, and in fact after seven brothers, the woman dies childless from all of these marriages.

They’ve crafted a scenario based on a position they don’t believe in, and one that if we stop and think about it for a second is full of pain and suffering and grief for all those involved.

It’s a particularly heartless way to get at their actual goal:

They’re trying to get Jesus to say something that they can use against him later.

The Sadducees are all about the power, wealth, and influence they have.

Jesus, because he is gaining followers and crowds and disciples, is a threat to their power.

They’re trying to get Jesus’ own people to turn on him.

Jesus’ Loving Answer

Jesus masterfully redirects them, and corrects how they’ve misunderstood resurrection.

“Considered Worthy”

Jesus makes a distinction between “Those who belong to this age,” who are focused on the worries of the world as we know it.

Compared with those who are considered worthy of the resurrection.

Considered worthy is a word that might need a little help in the Greek translation.

“katazioo”- Lay claim to.

And so Jesus is essentially asking the Sadducees, and the crow around them, a bigger question:

Do you want to lay claim to the world as it is, or do you want to lay claim to the world as it could be?

Are you ok with this system where a woman can be treated like property?

Are you ok with this system where people are given to each other like trading cards?

Are you ok with this world as it is?

Or…do you see a better world out there?

Can you imagine a resurrection world?

Everyone who is living has value to God

Jesus gives some more nuanced theological answers, but the line that sticks out to me is this:

God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all of them are alive.

I think this has two profound implications for us on this all saints day:

Those we have lost are not really gone. They’re with God.

You will never ever look into the eyes of someone that God does not love.

The Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection.

How sad…you see...

(Ok I couldn’t resist that…)

But a question sits right before us: Do we believe in resurrection?

Little Deaths

One of my favorite contemporary theologians is Andrew Root, a professor of youth ministry at Luther Seminary.

In one of his books, he makes a distinction between the concept of “sin,” and the concept of “sinning.”

Sin is death

The universal nature of sin is so observable in that all of us are going to die.

No one makes it out alive, do we?

Death is God’s ultimate “no” to our way of being in the world, the final stop.

And we all know this is coming, so we all start trying to bargain our way out.

Sinning is serving death to earn death’s favor

Root puts it this way:

Andrew Root Quote

Sinning, then, is those things I do that deny God (the source of life) and dehumanize my fellow human being or myself. My sinful actions are not wrong because they deny some perfect law of right and wrong. Rather, my actions are wrong and maybe even evil because they ignore or destroy my connection to God and neighbor in an attempt to maintain myself.

So while sin is the universal nature of our death, the sins that we commit, the act of sinning, is actually a reflection of the thousands of little deaths we experience every day.

Examples

8th Grade Boys

Imagine a junior high ministry retreat

There is pre-built in to the equation an understanding that there will be jokes, and poking fun at folks, and pranks.

And maybe it sounds dramatic, but to your average 8th grader those things can feel like little deaths.

So, sometimes an 8th grader will realize that he can start making fun of other people, so that he’s not the one who’s the butt of the joke.

He can serve death in order to carry death’s favor.

Greed

When someone is greedy, they are essentially acting out of fear.

They have come to assume that there is a limited amount of resources to go around, and that if they run out of resources they’re going to die.

So they do their best to gobble up all the resources they can, even if it means making sure that their neighbor has fewer resources than they do.

A greedy person serves death in order to carry death’s favor.

Racism

So often we think of racism as the things we say, or slurs, or something like that.

In reality racism is any time we allow the color of someone’s skin determine how human or not they are in our eyes.

To be racist is to assume that there is a limited amount of power or influence, and to try your best to disallow someone of a different race from gaining any of their own.

However major or slight our racist tendencies may be, to be racist it to serve death in order to try to carry death’s favor.

Little Resurrections

If resurrection is about bringing life to death, it is then absolutely about “re-humanizing.”

And if there can be a big resurrection after our final death, there can be little resurrections to all of our little deaths too, can’t there?

8th Grade Boys

Imagine the kid on the junior high retreat who steps in to the middle of the joking and the insults and says “No, we don’t behave like that around here. We don’t treat my friend like that.”

That’s a little resurrection, isn’t it?

Greed

Or imagine the person who gets fed up with the system of greed, who is tired of taking and taking and taking.

So this person decides that they are going to give.

They give to a food pantry.

They give to their neighbor in need.

They give to their church (stare?)

And isn’t it true, every time I come across a person who lives like this they tell me how good it feels.

It feels good because they’ve found their way to little resurrections.

Racism

Or imagine a church...

Imagine a church that was committed not just to welcoming all, but making sure that all belonged.

Imagine a church that steadfastly insisted that the ways that the world out there wants to divide us are completely invalid in this community.

Imagine a church that intentionally reached out to people from every tribe and tongue and nation, around our world and within our neighborhood, specifically to push back on the sin of racism.

Imagine a church that lived completely without dividing walls, where folks belonged regardless of the color of their skin.

Such a church might find themselves in the midst of a little resurrection, wouldn’t they?

The Table is a Reminder: Resurrection is Possible

You see, the Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection.

And truth be told, I think there are a lot of modern day Sadducees out there.

There are some who would say that the Resurrection of the Dead is fantasy.

There are some who would say that when you die you die, and we’ll never see those loved ones again.

And I imagine there are even more who would deny these little resurrections too.

You can’t do anything about middle schoolers making fun of each other. Kids will be kids.

You can’t fight greed in this day and age. That’s just the way the world works.

Racism is such a big monster, there’s just no way the church can do anything about that.

Sadducees don’t believe in resurrections of any size.

But we as believers? We ought to.

We ought to live with the assurance that we will see our loved ones, the saints who have gone before us, in the life to come.

We ought to live with the assurance that death does not have the last word, love does.

We ought to live with the assurance that every little death we experience can be met with a little resurrection, a little shot of life, a little reminder of our humanity.

And for all the times that we forget, Jesus offers us this table.

Jesus reminds us that his body was broken and his blood was poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins.

For the reversal of death.

For resurrections both big and small.

And so as we gather around this table this morning friends I hope you will remember that resurrection is possible.

And not only that, but resurrection is already yours.