Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, Year C

FINDING A LIFE IN CHRIST BY FAITH

Luke 20:27-38
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Analysis by Ella Moehlman   

27Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to 28and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; 30then the second 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” 34Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

“Our sense of worth comes by trusting that we are a child of God.”

Author’s note: I was struck by the hypothetical woman of the Sadducees’ question. She certainly never asked to be given in marriage seven times or suffer from infertility, yet that is what defined not just her life, but her death as well. Until Christ comes along and redefines her as a child of God, a child of the resurrection.

DIAGNOSIS: Dying Under the Law 

Step One: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Resurrection is worth nothing 
Or so the Sadducees seem to be arguing with Jesus. “Look at how absurd this notion of resurrection after death is! If a woman were married, according to the law, and her husband died, and she had no children, she’d have to marry the brother, and try for kids, and then if he died… and so on unto the seventh. So whose wife would she be in the resurrection?” It’s not just the Sadducees, however.  It’s us, too. We all have our own religious authorities (external and internal) that try to trap and/or accuse Jesus. God’s gospel just doesn’t make much sense to us, so we’re out to discredit Jesus in favor of our own agendas and works-righteousness. Resurrection? We don’t need that; we’re perfectly capable of making a good life for ourselves here and now. 

Step Two: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – We are looking to the law for our sense of worth, and it’s falling up short 
The woman of the Sadducees’ question isn’t real, but she might as well be. How many times in our lives is our sense of self-worth eroded because we are being defined by the laws that surround us? This woman was “so-and-so’s wife” not just once, but seven times! And each time her hopes for having children were dashed, until she dies alone, spouse-less, childless, and shamed for not fulfilling the social and religious role of a woman in those times. Her best wasn’t good enough for this law. We too find that our own best is never good enough, and we fall victim to the incessant demands of the law.  

Step Three: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – The law brings only death 
Not only does the law as the Sadducees lay it out bring death, it brings nothing else with it – no resurrection, no hope, no promise.  That is all the law gives us. The laws we try to construct for ourselves, or the credit we try to give ourselves for following the law bring only death, too, and nothing more. We all end up dead – even rightly. 

PROGNOSIS: Resurrection Life Through the Promise 

Step Four: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – “God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him, all of them are alive” 
But don’t try arguing about the reality or the logistics of the resurrection with the one who IS the resurrection and the life. Jesus died and descended to the dead, so that he could guarantee us that to God, we are no longer dead, but we all are alive. 

Step Five: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – It’s not the rules of the law but the title of inheritance that really matters 
We hear from God that it’s not the law and the finality of death, but Christ’s grace, and the hope of new life that gives us worth. Our sense of worth comes by trusting that we are a child of God, made so from our baptism. This woman that was married seven times? No longer is she bound by legal matters, as “so-and-so’s wife.” No longer is she carrying the shame and grief of repeatedly miscarrying. She is redeemed! Her redeemer lives and she lives, too. She has new-found life in her identity as a child of God.  And we with her! Resurrection is not about what the rules allow, but is about our being claimed by God.  

Step Six: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Baptized and set free from the old order under the law, we are able to love others and tell them of the good news 
We get to carry out with joy the task of reminding one another that to God, all are alive. This is something we did in church last week for All Saints, naming the saints of each of our congregations who rank alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is something we remember every time we grasp our baptism. To God, we are alive, now and forever!