Second Presbyterian Church

"What About the Resurrection?
Preaching From the Gospel of Luke"
September 18, 2005

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2005 » Sermons for September 2005 » Sermons from the Series on Luke

#62 in the Series on Luke
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Psalm 110
• 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20
• Luke 20: 27-44

This passage, according to Luke, contains the last of the word-tests that were hurled at Jesus in order to trip him up, make him vulnerable for arrest and crucifixion. So far, it had been a miserable failure. Jesus had successfully dealt with the issue of authority with a question in response and a parable. Chief Priests and scribes retreated and the Sadducees came forward.

We know very little about Sadducees, based upon passages in scripture that do not place them in a very positive light. They were the temple rulers. They held a majority on the Sanhedrin, the Temple's ruling body. The Pharisees, on the other hand were only a minority.

The Sadducees were very conservative in that they only accepted the Torah as scripture. The Torah consisted of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Sadducees did not recognize the historical accounts, the wisdom literature, the Psalms, or even the books of the Prophets as Holy Scripture. The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed that the entire Old Testament, more or less as we know it today, were inspired scripture.

The Sadducees did not believe in angels, or the resurrection. And that is why they posed the question to Jesus. It was Hebrew law that the brother of the man who died must marry his his widow. In so doing he helps his brother's family to have children and heirs. To not be able to do this would doom the family to extinction. For the Sadducees, living life forever meant having an heir to carry on the family name. So, the Sadducee's question to Jesus was posed to expose just how ridiculous the notion of resurrection really was: e. g. when the widow finally dies without children, then whose wife shall she be in the resurrected life?

Jesus' answer was two-fold. 1. He noted how ridiculous it seemed for people who have been resurrected for eternal life to even have the need for marriage and bearing children. One's resurrected body would be alive forever. Procreation will not be necessary. It is only in this, mortal life, that procreation gives us a semblance of immortality. And it is just that: a semblance!

2. In the second part of Jesus' answer he wisely avoided referring to scripture that the Sadducees did not recognize as valid in the first place. Instead Jesus referred to scripture from the Torah, from Exodus 3. The Sadducees did not recognize any reference to the resurrection in the Torah. And the Torah is what Jesus used. The LORD is God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The LORD is God of the living, not the dead. Since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had obviously died, then Moses was directly referring to their resurrection! Thus, Jesus responded to the error of the Sadducees and pointed out that there is a resurrection.

Finally Jesus talked about how David had referred to the Messiah as his LORD. If that is the case, then how can the David's son be the Messiah? The Messiah would always be considered as one who succeeded the throne of David. Yet, for Christians, the Messiah must be considered God, One who was, is, and always shall be.

Even the Pharisees, much less the Sadducees, were not grasping the idea that Jesus was both fully God and fully human! But that is what Jesus is alluding to here; his divine Son ship with God.

Oh well, ancient history you might think. Yes and no is my answer. Even during the time of Luke the Church was struggling with who Jesus was and whether the resurrection had taken place, or not. Some early Christians erroneously believed that the return of the exalted Jesus had taken place!

It's the same old argument. Was Jesus raised from the dead, or not? This argument follows closely the argument still raging about the authority of Jesus. Is Jesus THE Messiah, or is Jesus just one of many valid avenues to reach heaven? I believe the former: Jesus is THE Messiah to whom all heaven and earth shall someday bow down and worship. Jesus is THE Messiah who redeems all sinners; regardless of where they come from and what religious heritage they once belonged.

Why can I say this? Because I believe that Jesus died on the cross, truly died - no apparition of death. And I believe that Jesus rose again from the dead, truly alive - no apparition of life. He was no ghost. Jesus rose from the dead and many witnessed him. And the experience was so empowering that the apostles (the witnesses) went out into all the world and preached the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection for the redemption of humankind!

I once had a supervisee, an American Baptist minister, ask me about my belief in the resurrection. What did I believe and why. My answer was two fold. First of all, I believed in the resurrection of the body, and not just some ethereal, abstract continuation of what Jesus Taught. Bultmann referred to it as the resurrection of the kerygma of Jesus. That is his teaching continued on, but that his body remained in the Grave.

I personally believe that witnessing the empty tomb and having fellowship with Jesus after his crucifixion transformed those disciples so profoundly, that they went out proclaiming the Good News! They could not have done this witnessing, if it all were a fraud and bogus. One doesn't put his life on the line for a lie.

The second part of my answer to my supervisee was this. What is the most difficult understanding to accept, when it comes to the belief in Jesus' resurrection? For me, the most difficult was Jesus being bodily raised from the dead. And even as Luke reminded us when the angel, Gabriel, visited Mary, "nothing is impossible with God." I explained to him that any other explanation about the resurrection I experienced felt like an explaining away of the miracle of Jesus' resurrection! I experienced it like God needed us to help Him along in his plan of redemption and that is ludicrous! God did the impossible, the almost unthinkable: He raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

Christians receive a lot of grief about this doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. From a human point of view, it is such an impossibility! Our neighbors might chide us for our foolishness in believing such an impossibility, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You may even receive grief from fellow "Christians" who claim to be in the Christian tradition, but who cannot believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Hold fast. Do not be swayed by mere human logic, because this was done by our Lord, not by human beings. It is our belief in the resurrection that creates the foundation for our hope. Why? Because not even our death, the death of this mortal body will be the end of our life with God. We shall, indeed live with God forever. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.