Message

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THE GOD OF THE LIVING

Luke 20:27-47

Key Verse: 20:38 “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

  Last week we learned about Christians’ basic duty and attitude as people of God and as citizens of this country. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Christians have dual citizenship and dual duties. We should not ignore either one, but should fulfill both. Here, Jesus did not teach them morality or ethics, but the basic relationship between God and man. The relationship between God and man is an indispensible and inseparable relationship like that of a vine and its branches.  Man cannot live without God because we came from God. When we acknowledge God as God, the owner of our lives, we become who we should be and can fulfill our duties.

  Today’s passage is Jesus’ dialogue with the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. Through this passage, Jesus taught them that there is a resurrection and that our God is the God of the living, not of the dead. Let us study the meaning of Jesus’ words, “Our God is the God of the living.” Amen.

First, Sadducees (27-33)  Look at verse 27. “Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.” Who were the Sadducees? The Sadducees were the political and aristocratic elites of Jesus’ day.  They cooperated with the Roman government and gained most of the seats of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling consul. The Sadducees controlled the temple, and high priests were chosen from among them. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees did not accept the oral law or traditions. They only accepted the written law, especially the Torah, the five books of Moses. They did not believe in an afterlife, the resurrection, or in angels because they did not believe that these were mentioned in the Torah.

Historically speaking, the Sadducees were influenced by Hellenism since Israel had once been occupied by Alexander the Great. Hellenism is a root of modern humanism. The Sadducees were secular humanists. They believed in free will - that man has a right to choose good or evil. Because they did not believe in an afterlife, they thought there were no rewards or penalties after death. To them death was the end of everything and nothing more.

What was their question to Jesus? Look at verses 28-33. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” What a weird and tragic story! They might have had the idea from the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. When Er, the first son of Judah, died with no heir, Onan, his young brother married Tamar, who had been his older  brother’s wife. When Onan also died, Tamar had to wait for Shelah, the youngest son of Judah, to grow up and become her husband. (Ge 38:1-11) According to Deuteronomy 25:5,6 , if a brother dies without a son, his widow must marry her husband’s brother in order to fulfill her duty for her first husband. We call this “levirate law”, which was given to protect the widow and guarantee continuance of the family line.

  However, the Sadducees made up an extremely unlikely story to discredit Jesus’ teaching about the resurrection.  Their question was, if there is resurrection, whose wife will she be because all seven were married to her. Their question sounded logical. How could a woman marry seven times in a family and send all her husbands to the grave before she died? To this widow, carrying out one funeral ceremony brought enough sorrow and grief, so how could she endure seven consecutive funerals?

  What was wrong with the Sadducees? The Sadducees were money grabbers. They collected the temple tax and controlled all the financial matters of the temple. They had scrambled for political power and obtained the place of honor in their society. They seemed to have gained all the things which they desired. However, they were under the power of death because they did not believe in the resurrection.  To them, death was the end of everything. What happens to those who believe that death is the end of everything? They become hedonistic, fatalistic, and nihilistic.

  Those who have no resurrection faith live only for today, not for tomorrow. The Apostle Paul said, “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Co 15:32, Is 22:13)  They become extremely hedonistic. They become pleasure-seeking party animals. They only follow their physical desires because they don’t believe in an afterlife or in God’s divine judgment.  On campus there are many descendants of the Sadducees. They claim to be atheists or agnostics and indulge in wild parties. They don’t have any plan for tomorrow because they don’t believe in an afterlife.

  Those who have no resurrection faith become fatalistic. The Sadducees claimed that they don’t believe in fate. Still, they surrendered to fate because they didn’t accept God’s involvement in human life. To their eyes, all things looked sad, pessimistic, and limited, like the helpless and sorrowful widow. Like their name, all things looked ‘sad- you- see’. Because they didn’t believe in the resurrection, their life on this earth was nothing but the continuation of one suffering after another, just like the widow went through.  In Albert Camus’ novel, “the Myth of Sisyphus”, Sisyphus is condemned for eternity to roll a rock up a hill, but when he reaches the summit, the rock rolls to the bottom again. (Existentialism, Wikipedia) To Sadducees, their life was the repetition of suffering and absurdity like that of Sisyphus. Their life was aimless, meaningless and confused. Fatalism is the cousin of nihilism. How did Jesus answer them?

Second, our God is the God of the living. (34-39)  Look at verses 34-36. “Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of resurrection.”  In these verses Jesus taught the Sadducees two things; first, there is no marriage in heaven; second, we all will be changed like angels. Marriage is one of the most important occasions in one’s life; just as important as birth and death. Many unmarried young men and women have the desire to get married. In order to find the right spouse, they spend lots of time, money, and energy. After they get married, many of them have troubles in their marriage life, such as lack of affection, loss of mutual interest, differences of character, disagreements about their children’s education, financial discord, marital infidelity, and so on. All these troubles deprive them of the joy they expected to have in their marriage and family. Their sweet dream of marriage is shattered and broken into pieces. Many children suffer mentally and psychologically because of their parents’ separation.  However, Jesus said that there is no marriage in heaven.  There are no divorces or funeral ceremonies in heaven. We all will be changed into spiritual beings like angels. The Apostle Paul described this in his first letter to the saints in the Corinth Church, “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven…Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Co 15:49,51,52)

  The Sadducees thought that resurrection is not mentioned in the Torah, the five books of Moses. However, Jesus showed them that they were wrong. Resurrection is mentioned in Exodus, the second book of Moses. In order to prove this, Jesus said in verses 37-38. “But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Before Moses was called to deliver his people from Egypt, he was at Mount Horeb. There he saw God in the burning bush, who said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” (Ex 3:6) When God said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”, he meant that these three patriarchs are still living in God’s kingdom even though they died many years ago. God used the present tense “I am” instead of “I was”, in order to teach them that our God is the immortal living God. Above all, Jesus said, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” In this verse, Jesus also taught them that there is no death in the living God. All those who are in God will be raised again as Jesus did. For to him all are alive.

  The Apostle Paul said in 1 Co 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” According to this verse, all men die as a result of Adam’s sin. The penalty of sin is death and all without exception die. However, to those who are in Christ, death is not the end of everything. Those who are in Christ will all be made alive. All will be resurrected as Jesus rose again from the dead. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He paid the penalty for our sins by his precious blood and liberated us from the power of sin and death. Then, he rose again from the dead on the third day and gave us the living hope of glorious resurrection, eternal life, and the kingdom of God as our inheritance. Therefore, there is no death in Jesus Christ. There is no fatalism in those who are in Jesus. To them, there is no tear or sorrow which comes from the power of death. Life is not the repetition of rolling a rock to the top of a hill like the Myth of Sisyphus. Life is a pilgrim’s progress to enter the kingdom of God. To those who are in Christ, tears for Christ are more pure and beautiful than morning dew. To them, present suffering is a prelude for heavenly glory, and physical death is the prerequisite for a glorious resurrection. That is why we UBF church people don’t speak about a “funeral ceremony”, but call it a “home-coming ceremony.” Those who are in Christ will all come home to the eternal dwelling place, the kingdom of heaven, after we finish our life journey on this earth.

  Our God is the God of the living, not of the dead. These words also mean that our God is the living God and that we receive his living spirit. Those who are in Christ should live by his living spirit. (Gal 5:16) This is because God did not give us the spirit of timidity, but the spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7) Those who easily give up need God’s spirit.  They have evil spirits and they are still under the power of death. Those who are in the living God never give up. They are full of living spirit to challenge their limitation and obstacles by resurrection faith. They have faith even to overcome death.  By this living faith many ancestors of Christ were thrown into the dens of lions, burned at the stake, and suffered in hunger, sickness, and loneliness.  However, even before death, they did not lose heart. Rather, they welcomed death as the doorway to enter the kingdom of heaven. To them, martyrdom was an honorable medal for victory on this earth.  One sick UBF woman missionary was near to death. But she asked her tearful husband not to cry with sorrow, but to sing hymns full of spirit for her. She could do so because she had resurrection faith. She overcame death because she believed in the afterlife; eternal life in the kingdom of God. 

  We sometimes find out ourselves to be near-sighted and spiritually blind like the Sadducees. We think that our lives are our own and that we will live on this earth forever with our money. I am sorry to say that our life is not our own. Someday we all will die and will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The Bible says to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, God will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (Ro 2:7,8) No one is exempt from God’s divine judgment. Peter asked a question to the believers. “What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” (2 Pe 3:11,12) May God give us resurrection faith so that we may overcome the power of death.  May God help us to repent of our unbelief, pride, selfishness, and laziness so that we may live with God’s living spirit. Amen.

  Look at verses 39,40. “Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.”  In verses 41-47 Jesus taught them that he is the Christ, the Son of God. Look at verse 41. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘How is that they say the Christ is the Son of David?” If the Messiah was supposed to be a descendant of David, how could David call Jesus his Lord and Christ and the Messiah? Jesus’ question was logically paradoxical, but spiritual, and it is based on the promise of God.  Jesus is God!

  In today’s passage, we learned that our God is the God of the living, not of the dead. There is resurrection after death and we will all be changed like angels. What a glorious day will our own resurrection be! What a day it will be when we meet our Lord Jesus Christ face to face in the air. Then, Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes and will say, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant! Now come and participate in my Father’s joy”. May God help us not to live like the Sadducees, but live like Peter, Paul and many other great men and women of God. May God make America a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Amen.

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