God of the Living

God of the Living

Exodus 3:1-15/Luke 20:27-40

24th Sunday after Pentecost ~ November 11, 2007

"Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." Luke 20:38 (ESV)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Today in our Gospel lesson we see Jesus being challenged by the Sadducees. Let me give you some context here. This interaction occurs in the time after Jesus triumphant entrance into Jerusalem and just before His arrest, execution and resurrection. After Jesus came to Jerusalem Luke records for us many confrontations with the religious leaders and Jesus being questioned by them. The interactions usually came through the Pharisees and scribes but Luke records this one as being from the Sadducees.

The Sadducees were what you could call the "elite" of Jewish society. Many of them were wealth and had great power in society. IT was the Sadducees that controlled the High Priesthood in Jerusalem. They also had a "split personality" when it came to their lives. On the one hand they wanted to be seen a religious purists. So much so that they decided that only the books written by Moses would be definitive religious texts - that is the first five books in the Old Testament. On the other side the Sadducees wanted to preserve the peace for their own wellbeing. They were the group that probably compromised the most with Roman authorities when other Jewish parties were trying to distance themselves from Roman rule.

The Sadducees were a group that had tried too hard to sit on the fence and have it both ways. And in the end I believe they had a death faith. Why do I think their faith was dead? This is what Luke says, "Those who deny that there is a resurrection." How could you believe in God and not believe in an afterlife? I believe their faith became a show of pomp and circumstance more than a true belief in God. They had sold out and their faith was dead.

We can see that also in the way they question Jesus. First they focus on the Law given through Moses (again, only the first 5 books were of any importance) a law designed to help preserve families and they focus in on which man has a wife. It is an absurd question of seven brothers each dying and no heir is born. And on top of questioning whose wife, they talk about the resurrection in which they don't even believe. Where the Sadducees just wanting to get in on the action of questioning Jesus?

Well Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. First he answers their question about marriage by saying they are comparing apples to oranges - the way things play out in eternity are different than here on earth. Maybe they just wanted to preserve their way of life here and now. But the heart of the matter is the resurrection. Jesus, knowing their strict view of Scripture, uses probably one of the most famous passages - Moses and the burning bush. Everyone would have known what Jesus was talking about. And Jesus pulls out the part where God says, "I am the GOD of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Now the Sadducees are probably thinking this is easy - these men are dead, we can see their tombs, and we are just talking about the past. But Jesus doesn't speak of these men as past tense but as present - meaning they would have to be alive. If they are alive then there is an afterlife. And if there is an afterlife there is a resurrection.

The Sadducees don't even respond to Jesus only scribes do. This, in Luke’s account, is the final question thrown at Jesus until his trial when he is asked, "Are you the Christ?" I believe Luke was carefully crafting his Gospel and puts this last because it is the last great even of Jesus life - HIS resurrection. And that would be happening soon.

Now the question is - "So what does this have to do with me?" As Christians we believe in the resurrection, we believe in an afterlife. In fact we are looking forward to it. But Luke includes this account, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that we can learn about Jesus and our lives. So what does this mean for us? I believe that it hits home when we realize that for God to be a God of the living that there is death.

Death - not something we like to think about, but it is a reality in our sinful world. The Bible is clear - the wages of sin is death. Because of sin we have death in this world. And boy do we try to avoid death or the harsh reality of it. Some in the world look at death as an end - how lonely is that. Others try to escape death with all kind of means of prolonging a troubled life. Others just want to deny death. But death is real. And more than just "something that happens" death is a punishment for our wrong-doing. We all face death because we are sinners.

Let’s face reality here. When we look into our heart of hearts we know that nothing we do ends up right. We feel the pain of this world in a variety of ways and death is always right in front of us. Because of sin we are all dead. And no matter how hard we try we can’t overcome death. We need a Savior, and Jesus proclaims that He is the God of the living. He is the only way.

Paul says it this way, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5, ESV) In our baptism we not only die to sin but are raised to life in Jesus, the God of the living. We who are dead have been made alive in Christ. Christ took on death, took on our sin and defeated it. He is victorious. This weekend we observe Veterans Day and we have the image of war in our mind. In once sense this is a good image for our text today – defeat is death and victory is life. And the true victory is through Christ – the God of the living.

One more text from Paul that shows to us that in Christ is the only way to find life. “He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20, ESV) From creation to redemption true life is only found in Christ – the God of the living. You who are dead in sins have been made alive in Christ. Rejoice! Amen.