Luke 20:27-38 (and Revelation 21:1-7)
Barry Unwin. Venue: Upton & Ripple 6 Nov 2016
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “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 raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless.30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning 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.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
I did my first funeral since moving here on Thursday. I have to confess I quite enjoy doing them – it’s a privilege to be able to help people at such a vulnerable moment in their lives. Yet because of that vulnerability I often have to be quite careful in what I say. You see funeral visits are the times when people often bring out what vicars call “folk religion” – basically all the slightly quirky beliefs that they’ve developed about death.
Things like,
He’s become one of God’s little angels
There’s another star in heaven tonight
and most pointedly in the light of today’s bible reading,
John and Mary are together again
When people come out with things like that I tread carefully – but questions about heaven have to be explored at some point – and our passage today is actually a really good opportunity to do that.
In our gospel reading – Jesus was in Jerusalem. It’s just a few days before the Last Supper and everyone has questions for Jesus. This time it’s the Sadducees. And what a stinker of a question they’ve got for him.
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 raise up offspring 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?” (Luke 20:28-33)
Anyone want to try to answer that?
Now the reason its such a stinker of a question is that its rooted in scripture. Back in Deut.25, Moses did indeed write a law that said that to preserve the family’s land and name, 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. If you know your church history you’ll know that the Church of England came into existence in part because of that very question.
But the main reason it’s an awkward question is because of who is asking it. Jesus is debating with Sadducees here: a rich, powerful, wealthy group of high priests, they were the Oxford and Cambridge educated people of their day. In the church of England they’d be bishops and cathedral deans.
So Jesus is up against some powerful people with a powerful question. Let’s take a look at how he responds…He said,
The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage (Luke 20:34-5)
And I reckon that raises two broad issues we need to grasp about Heaven or the age to come.
First, how the age to come will be the same as this age. And second, how it will be different.
So let’s start with the similarities.
How heaven will be the same as this age
The best place to catch a glimpse of life after our resurrection is right at the end of our bibles – in the last two chapters of the book of Revelations, some of which we read as our epistle. What did it say?
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away (Revelation 21:1)
What’s its promising is that this earth will not last forever. That one day it will be renewed. Not just made-over. But made afresh. If you think of those images in the book of Isaiah, of swords being beaten into ploughshares, (Is.2:4) and, wolves and lambs lying down together – (Is.11:6) that’s what they’re talking about. The age in which this broken violent world gets made anew. And that new word – the new earth – will be our home.
Our culture has given us a picture of life after death as angels and harps and puffy white clouds – anyone remember the Philadelphia advert? But the Bible sets the future on a new earth. Real physical stuff. But perfect. Like when it was made in the first place. However this new earth can never be spoiled. It’ll stay perfect forever.
That’s what we’ve got to look forward to. A real physical afterlife. And it will be familiar stuff – Revelation chapter 22 gives us a picture of our future home – an extravagantly beautiful city – with rivers and trees and gardens.
And that future home will be filled with people from every tribe and people and nation – and we won’t mind, because we’ll speak a common language (English?)
And it you’re a foodie, this last bits for you – Heaven begins with a great banquet! The wedding feast of Jesus and the church, where God will serve us the finest wines and meats. That’s going to be tough if you’re a vegetarian!
So that’s how the age to come will similar to our current age.
Now let’s think about the differences…
How Heaven will be different to life now.
I’ve already talked about how the new creation is a real physical place. And part of that is we’ll have real physical bodies. We won’t be disembodied spirits floating around on clouds. But bodies begs a question – what will they be like? Well let me read you a little more of Revelation 21.
[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ (Rev.21:4)
What’s he saying? No more death or dying or ageing or sickness or disease. Those things are all consequences of life in this age.
In the age to come our knees and hips and eyes and minds will work perfectly forever. That’s something to look forward to isn’t it?
There’s a vicar I know who says the logical conclusion of that for him is that he’s going to take up skiing in Heaven! I might well join him. I’m going to have the time to learn to balance properly!
But what of marriage? Well in our gospel reading Jesus said,
those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage” (Luke 20:35)
Jesus is saying that in the new creation there will be no more marriage. Those that were married will no longer be married. And those that aren’t married will no longer need or want to marry. So all that folk religion stuff about Mary and John being together forever – well assuming they’re both in the new creation they will no longer be married. Which is probably quite a relief for the widow in the Sadducee story!
But some may find it quite a disturbing thought. Romance, marriage, sex – it’s such a big part of our lives. Some people think they’re the ultimate things about being human. Which is why it’s so wonderful that there’s something even greater stored up for us in the new creation.
And that’s something greater is God himself. You see one of the reasons God created marriage was to serve as an illustration of how one day he’ll be fully united to his people. It’s a picture of two complete opposites who are united in love. (Which incidentally is one of the big theological arguments against gay marriage but let’s not get into that today!)
God gives us marriage as a sign of the unity we have with him. And in the new creation – we’ll no longer need the sign – because we’ll really have God with us, in all his fullness.
See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; (Rev.21:3)
So there’s how heaven will be different to life now. The question it leaves us with is – will you be there? Are we what Jesus called “God’s children” in our reading?
Well we can only be God’s children through trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross. And if you have the slightest doubt about that – if you aren’t sure of your status as a child of God – I’d be delighted to talk more with you about that later.
To finish, let me read you a section from the Last Battle, CS Lewis’ final Narnia Book – which is an allegory of the what it’s like to enter into God’s new creation. It starts with Aslan – the Christ figure in the stories – explaining the deaths of the key characters in the story.
Aslan said softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are–as you used to call it in the Shadowlands–dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (HarperCollins: New York, 1956) p. 228.)
Let’s pray.
If you’d like to read more on this topic I’d heartily recommend NT Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope.