Luke 20.27-38
Who are the Sadducees? We meet them in today’s gospel reading, but among the various religious groups in the New Testament, they may not be the most familiar. They’re certainly not as familiar as the Pharisees, for example. We recognize them because we’ve come to use ‘Pharisee’ as a way to describe a person who is self-righteous or hypocritical (though that, to be sure, is an unfair exaggeration and caricature of biblical Pharisees).
But the Sadducees? They had been a group within Judaism for 150 years or so by the time of Jesus. They were aristocratic, pragmatic, and driven by a desire to maintain their power and wealth. Their religious beliefs were centered on only the first five books of the Bible—Genesis through Deuteronomy. And their practice of faith was austere, quite serious. They didn’t, for example, have room for ideas that seemed to them to be speculative or hypothetical. They denied the existence of angels, spirits, and as we heard at the beginning of the gospel, didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead.
That detail—that they didn’t believe in the resurrection—lays bare the motivation behind their question to Jesus about life after death. All of us probably have questions about such life, questions we genuinely want answers to. What do we mean when we say in the Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come?” What is heaven like? How can we even grasp the day that Revelation describes when death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes? These are genuine questions of faith.
The Sadducees, however, don’t believe in the resurrection. The Gospel of Luke makes that clear from the start. “Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question [about the resurrection].” So much for genuine seeking. Their question about a woman married seven times—walking down the aisle with seven different grooms at her side then later back up the aisle behind seven different coffins—and wondering whose wife she will be in the life of the age to come is, from the Sadducees point of view, designed to show how absurd the idea of resurrection is to begin with, to show up any notion of life after death as fiction.
Now, thinking through personal beliefs and personal doubts is good. It can lead to clarity and humility about both belief and doubt. It’s also good to be skeptical about one’s own skepticism. Jesus, like any good teacher, wants the Sadducees to think through their skepticism about life, death, and life in God. God’s promises are made for life, and these promises endure through death. “God is the God of the living; for to God all of them are alive.” By saying that, what Jesus is asking the Sadducees to think through is that if ancient biblical ancestors like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead and that’s all there is to it—as the Sadducees believe—then that means God is as helpless as we are when it comes to human limitations; death is the end of everything. But no, Jesus says. God is the God of the living; for to God, all of them—living and dead—are alive. God’s work and presence in everyone’s life establishes a covenant and relationship that will not end, does not end, even in death.
As for what this resurrected life looks like, Jesus describes it as existence in a whole new dimension. “Like the angels.” Not that we become angels but that we are like them in the sense that we will never die. In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, St Paul talks about this changed life and new existence. “The body that is sown [in death] is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a physical body; it is raised a spirit-driven body.” Our natural bodies, limited as they are, will run their course and end in death. But our resurrected bodies will be filled with God’s own and endless life—spirit-driven. God isn’t limited by human limitations, isn’t limited to this present, broken world; God’s work in our life doesn’t end with the decay of our disease-prone, dying bodies. A bare seed is sown and a new plant grows—life in another dimension.
As for what this new life in God means, Paul wants us to see how resurrection not only gives hope for the future but also gives courage and strength in the present. Resurrection changes how we live today. Of the present moment, Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.” The resurrection isn’t speculation to be mocked, as the Sadducees seem to think. It is the promise of God to live out, not only when we die but as the source of gratitude, hope, and courage even as we live. ‘Nothing you do for God in the present is a waste of time or effort.’
This promise of life in God even now is the basis for our upcoming Consecration Sunday. Consecration Sunday focuses on our giving as a grateful response for all that God has done for us, for all the ways God has blessed us. Because of the generous gift of life in Jesus Christ—resurrection life at work among us—we can be people of life and love. “Your labor is not in vain.”
In the last two weeks, we have heard about God’s life and love at work in, and through, two of our members: Floyd Nemer and Steve Smith. Two weeks ago, Floyd spoke movingly about what church and faith mean to him, how this place has been a place of God’s strength and peace, of hope when life felt uncertain, and a home where he sees faith lived out in tangible ways that change lives and heal hearts. Last week, Steve reminded us that life is more than living for self. Making sacrifices for the sake of others reflects the sacrifice of Jesus’ life for us; instead of turning inward on our own needs, we look outward to the needs of others. While Floyd offered comfort, Steve offered challenge. Yet both described what it means to think of giving as a spiritual practice, a generous life of self-giving in response to the generous life and love of God for us. Because Jesus lives, nothing you do for God in the present is a waste of time or effort.
Consecration Sunday, then, turns our attention to God’s generous gift of life in Jesus Christ, the spirit-driven life of God—resurrection life—at work in our lives, and how we respond in faith to the life God has given us. I know that this approach has changed our household and the way we have come to think about giving over years since we’ve been with you together in this congregation. And I am grateful. Focusing on the generosity of a loving and life-giving God lets us think about how we can mirror God and be loving and generous ourselves: making intentional steps up on the giving chart included in last week’s bulletin, for example; looking at the percentage table and prayerfully considering increasing our giving; sometimes even being surprised and challenged by what we’ve committed to, yet trusting that the work of the Lord in and through our lives is not in vain.
I also know that conversations about giving in church can be fraught with guilt and obligation—an ecclesiastical sales pitch to make you part with your hard-earned resources. But when Christ rose from the grave, he opened a new economy of grace. The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, were also not known for their generosity. Their beliefs (or lack of them) went hand in hand with their actions. Historians describe the Sadducees as corrupt, motivated by self-interest and personal gain; they were criticized for neglecting justice and mercy. In contrast, the early church trusted and lived out the reality of the resurrection by breaking bread together, sharing possessions, and ensuring that “there was not a needy person among them.” This generosity was not coerced; it was the overflow of God’s life for them meant to be shared with others.
Life oriented to the God of life—the God for whom the living and the dead are all alive—turns us from self to something greater. We are invited to put our hope in God who, the New Testament says, “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment…To do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.” This is life that truly is life; and it comes from the God of life as a gift.
Resurrection is the promise and pledge of God’s life for you, not only when you die but as the source of gratitude, hope, and courage even now as you live in the present moment. In the days leading up to Consecration Sunday, as each of us considers the gifts of God in our life, all our prayer and reflections begin and end with the faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ. God has chosen you, loves you, and is with you in and through all things—in your dying and in your living. God’s work in your life establishes a covenant and relationship that cannot end, does not end. God is the God of the living, Jesus says today; to God, all the living and the dead are alive.
Resurrection, then, is not only for your future, it makes you a person of life today. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, your life—limited as you are—can be a mirror of the generous love and life of God at work in you and through you. When Christ rose from the grave, he opened a new economy of grace. Because of God’s faithfulness, you can be steadfast, unmovable, abounding in energy for the Lord’s work. You can, as our Consecration Sunday theme reminds us, “Tell Out My Soul,” for the generous love that comes to you in Jesus Christ and, in the Lord, trust none of your labor or your self-giving love is in vain.
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