This is a morning of firsts here, dear friends in Christ. It is my first preaching opportunity now as an official member with you here at Lutheran Church of the Cross. Exciting! It also is my first with friend Carolyn as organist, we’ve had many devotion times together next door over at Luther Court but our first now on a Sunday morning and first with Don as assisting minister.
And, it is my first attempt at what my seminary professor Dr KSG calls “manuscript preaching” from the pulpit. Some of you who know me well, may know that I actually prefer to preach up close to you, eye to eye, with notes on hand, just in case. But, there is a first time for everything and it is a true humble honor to be back.
So, let’s jump right into things here now. Today’s gospel can be a bit tricky. The potential trap for us is to get too caught up in what Jesus tells us heaven will be like. Inquiring minds want to know after all. Right? It is our DNA, our human condition or natural desire to want to know. Many theologians refer to this in Latin as our desiderium naturale, and time and again, it can lead us to miss the real point that Jesus is making, especially when it comes to parables.
To help us unpack this further, I’d like to first take us back to another well-known Scripture passage from Luke 21:1-4 of the widow’s mite. The temptation in this parable is to focus all our attention on the generosity of the poor widow. The main point here is about generosity of the heart and devotion, right?
Well, yes and no.
The danger with such a narrow reading here is that it ends up laying a huge guilt trip on all the faithful souls gathered to hear God’s healing words. This is not at all consistent with Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation and unity.
In calling his disciples to him immediately after the widow has made her offering of two coins, all she had, Jesus is pointing out the fact that this widow is very poor. It is in the realm of Jesus’ deep care for the poor and marginalized that the message becomes crystal clear as Jesus implores the question…why is she so poor in the first place?
By asking this basic question, we better can now understand in a whole new light what it as the heart of Jesus’ ministry and why time and again we read in the various parables of Jesus that the poor will always be with us and that is where you will find me!
It becomes a central purpose for us to witness the crucified, resurrected Jesus in the poor, the weak, the elderly, the marginalized in any of those around us each day…
This week when I was visiting my mother Janet at her residence at Luther Court and had the opportunity to join her for the 9:30 AM devotions and was struck by the pure joy and the deep faith of the gathered folks as they sang Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine among other good oldies. Jesus, crucified and resurrected, was fully present there and is today and will be tomorrow as well…not only in the upper moments but equally in those more liminal (between times) and uncertain ones. This was very evident as you take the time to be with and walk with the elderly and health-challenged in such places where God is allowed to be honored, uplifted and welcomed fully.
Feeling the divine presence of the One who God sent and who did not flinch or over-react against all those who ultimately tried in vain to trick Him, but rather focuses us all back on what is really important in life, is humbling yet also extremely empowering.
Let’s now return to our Gospel reading this morning to approach what Jesus wants us to focus on here. Jesus’ message in Luke’s Gospel has less to do with marriage and how that will sort itself out in Heaven, and rather is about shedding light on an ancient Jewish custom that had become problematic for many.
Luke Timothy Johnson from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, calls the Sadducees a “closed-horizon” religion. In other words, they had not been able to experience the generative, transformative power of God’s promises in the resurrection. As the priestly party in Israel, the Sadducees dominated the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. [Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible: Luke (Tyndale House, 1997)] They were heavily involved in politics, and since the Roman government assigned the High Priest, the Sadducees made sure that one of their own made it into that position. They also managed the temple; they owned the very lucrative money-changing business and the sacrificial system and had become enormously wealthy as a result. Do you see any similarities here to some groups of Christians today south of us (and also in Canada) who seem to be immersing themselves into the heart of their nation’s politics?
They appear to be focusing on a gospel of prosperity for a select group of believers, over one of equality, of reconciliation and love for all of humanity, let alone all of creation.
For the Sadducees in Jesus’ day, God was mostly authoritative, punitive and life was all about the here and now and not at all on the future eschatological (heavenly) promises that Jesus often talks about. There were no hymns proclaiming “happy days” where we “shall stand amid the heav’nly throng,” let alone doing so while singing with “hosts from ev’ry land” as we sang together so joyfully to begin this time of fellowship and worship.
The question the Sadducees challenge Jesus with in verses 28-33 of today’s Gospel seems comes directly from Deuteronomy 25:5-10—the law of Moses concerning “levirate marriage.” This was a unique custom for the nation of Israel, where the nearest of kin was expected to marry a widow whose husband had died without having an heir born to them.
It was, according to William Barclay, in his The Gospel of Mark (Westminster Press, 1975) done for two reasons: *to keep the family name alive…and
*to keep property and inheritance rights within the family.
Now by the time of Jesus, this law had ceased being practiced in society. But to the Sadducees, it was still one of their favorite arguments against Resurrection. They were well known for their knowledge of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, in Greek the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They were experts in all the laws and teachings in those five books. But, one major piece was missing for them. There is nothing in any of them about any sort of new life after death. They did not concern themselves at all with the Book of Isaiah, or any of the other prophets who would create a new place of hope for the middle class. This includes the relatively less powerful Pharisees, who did come to learn from the prophets about afterlife through their own rabbis and teachers and time spent in the synagogues – which also often found them in direct conflict with the Roman authorities.
But, Jesus, as a devout Jew, knew how unfair this custom was, not only to the widow, but equally to the next brother in line. There were two sides who were being abused, each in their own way. Just stop and think about from your own perspective, what if, for example, the two were not at all compatible as life partners?
Jesus, in today’s Gospel message, is reminding us of a core mission for us here at Church of the Cross, and throughout the world. We are called to defend those out in the margins, called to call out injustice when we see it, called to reconcile, called not to judge but rather to be judged, called to bring love where this is hatred and mistrust.
That is what so many of you here at Cross, each in your own ways, are doing. Brita and I have been warmly welcomed and drawn to your mission. We join you each day in solidarity with the marginalized of this community to continue doing what God is calling us to do.
So, where do we go with this point from here, friends?
Jesus is on the home stretch by the end of chapter 20 of Luke, heading back towards Jerusalem and soon enough Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter. By this point here in todays’ reading, the Sadducees and others had already made numerous attempts to discredit Jesus, to challenge his earthly and spiritual authority. Up to now, Jesus always responded with a question to a question. Are you the King of the Jews, for example? (Trying to trip Jesus up about what true authority is all about) and Jesus calmly asks, who do you say that I am?
This last time, Jesus’s response is quite different. Things are ramping up and time is running out a bit on Jesus’ earthly mission. One great irony in all of this interaction in today’s Gospel is that Jesus’ own followers will soon thin out, and in the next day or so, Jesus, who was so popular while performing miracles throughout Galillee, will be left alone.
There would be no thank-you notes, no parades, no floods of emails or viral messages online, and, being fully God, but at the same time fully human, Jesus would have felt hurt.
We, joined by the disciples and all the various religious power groups of the day, watched Jesus, the King of the Jews and Son of Man, ride humbly back into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey. A donkey. Not a chariot or fancy Mercedes.
We all, at one time or another, can feel that way today, especially if we find ourselves in conflict with or on the other side of a contentious issue, even amongst family and friends and feel we are on the short end of the stick…
So, the message here this morning is… We don’t have to be poor or marginalized to be able to relate to Jesus at some level here. As the famous line from High School Musical goes, “we are all in this together, friends!”
One final point to end on here this morning.
Famed prize fighter Joe Louis once said, everyone wants heaven, but nobody is willing to die to get there. A country music song even came out after he said this, many moons ago.
Chapter 20 of Luke’s Gospel is filled with a barrage of questions for Jesus.
*The Supreme Court Justices—the Sanhedrin, who we mentioned earlier as the ruling class—attempt to trap Him.
*The political nationalists—the Herodians—and even the poor Pharisees also try and trap Him with their question about paying taxes to Caesar.
And now, we read today of the Sadducees giving it one more college try at giving Jesus a riddle that Jesus won’t be able to answer. They are, in fact, the last group to attempt to challenge Jesus’ very credibility with a riddle that even Jesus can not solve.
Jesus had by then, become a serious threat to their basic monopoly of power, wealth and security. They think they are about to stump this poor, peasant teacher from the back country woods of Galilee, in order to silence Him and cast doubt amongst even his most faithful followers.
But, there is good news for all of us as this and so many other Gospel stories play out. For any of us who in any way felt marginalized or abandoned, or felt down about the future of our church, let alone our society, Jesus’ response is uplifting.
Backtracking just for a brief moment to help be more clear here before moving on, Jesus is not saying that we will not know who our spouses or children are in heaven or close friends and family members. Quite the contrary, in fact. The emotions those of gathered here in person last Sunday to light candles for loved ones, and those who joined us online, were and are real. Jesus gets that, loud and clear.
Our memories aren’t wiped clean. Recall that Moses and Elijah came back to meet with the Lord on the mount of Transfiguration—and they were still the same Moses and Elijah, only now glorified. So the message is that you will still be you and me and all of us, only perfected and glorified by a faithful God who loves and cares for each of us equally.
Here’s the stunning thing Jesus does that the Sadducees simply were not expecting and truly had no answer for…how would Jesus know what the angels are like in heaven? How would he know about marriage and relationships in heaven?
In response to this question, Jesus gently offers the Sadducees a taste of their own medicine, by quoting from the Book of Exodus in verse 37 of today’s gospel reading, the second Book of Moses: Jesus says to the Sadducees, “Didn’t you read what Moses said?”
*God did not say to him, “I used to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they’re dead,” or:
“I wish I still was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that day is long gone.”
No! “I am” at present, I am here and now the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; why?... Because they’ve been resurrected from the dead! The Sadducees are simply left speechless at this point.
That good news, my dear friends, that Heaven will be filled with the souls of all without any labels or class distinctions of any kind, is worth one day for each of us, the late fighter Joe Louis included, to face our own earthly death in peace in the full promises of eternal life. It also offers hope that our suffering and that of others around us is only temporal.
Whether we are alive or we die, as Paul reminds us in Romans chapter 14, and as we will soon sing with joy, we belong to the Lord,” who will never abandon us”. Take comfort in that as you come to the table this morning, broken as we might be, to share in the feast, knowing that Jesus faced loneliness, faced persecution, faced many of the same doubts, the same misconceptions.
In the moment of greatest abandonment on the Cross, Jesus chose us rather than the easy way out, to face the sting and pain of earthly death for those left behind that we may all one day together share in resurrection hope the promises of new, eternal life.
Grace, mercy and resurrection peace be to each one of you, siblings in Christ, and to your loved ones and to all those entrusted to our care in any way, both here on earth and in Heaven.
Amen.
