“HERE COMES THE
BRIDE”
Most people believe in life after death. According to a
2005 CBS survey, close to 80% of people believe in an afterlife of some sort.
The popularity of near-death or after-death books like Heaven is for Real and the like suggests that people long for a
glimpse of what waits for them after death.
Many
people find their hope in nothing less than the belief that if this life is
imperfect and flawed, the next life will be better. We find hope in the belief
that death will be no more, sin will be conquered for good, and pain will cease
to exist. This is the Christian’s hope.
If there
is no life after death then death is really the end. If there is no life after
death there is no heaven or hell. If there is no life after death there is no
reward or punishment. If there is no life after death there is no resurrection
of the dead. And if there is no life after death there is no purpose to living.
We have one chance and you had better not mess it up.
If there
is no life after death, then those of us who believe in Jesus are, as the
Apostle Paul said, living in futility. If only for this life we have hope in
Christ, we are to be pitied more than all people (1 Cor 15:19). We believe in a
fairy tale and Jesus is a deceiver, if there is no life after death. Why follow
Jesus and live a life of obedience to him if there is no hope?
Shakespeare’s
character “Macbeth” spoke these words in that famous play: “Life’s but a
walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and
then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.” This is a life without the hope of Christ.
Jesus
had ruffled the feathers of the chief priests, elders and scribes when he
entered Jerusalem. He taught with authority and told a story about a vineyard
that implicated them in his impending murder. Consequently, the Jewish leaders
got together and decided to trap Jesus in his own words. In this context, the
Jews ask him a ridiculous question that produces a brilliant answer from Jesus.
It is in these words of Jesus that you and I will find our hope that death is
not the final word on your life and there is a resurrection.
1. What makes Sadducees so sad?
The Pharisees and the Sadducees hated each other. But in
order to trap Jesus they joined forces to pose some questions to him that
should have implicated him as a false teacher. Matthew’s gospel tells us that
they took turns trying to trap Jesus.
The
Pharisees wanted to overthrow the Roman oppressors; they hated all things
Roman. So they go to Jesus and ask a sticky question: “Should we pay taxes to
Caesar?” Jesus asks for a coin, which they produce, thereby implicating them
for possessing something they hate. Caesar’s face is on it so give it to
Caesar, Jesus replies.
Now the
Sadducees had no problem with the Romans. They did not want to upset the
applecart, cooperated with the Romans, and benefited by preserving their
political clout and position as the ruling class. Sadducees were the wealthy
Jews, the ruling elite, and they dominated the Sanhedrin. Oh, and they did not
believe in the resurrection as the Pharisees did.
This was
the one doctrine that defined the Sadducees: they rejected the resurrection.
They denied the immortality of the soul and did not believe in the judgment
day. No heaven; no hell; no human immortality. The soul perishes with the body.
It is possible that the Sadducees were influenced by Greek philosophy and
balked at the idea of bodily resurrection. They denied eternal life because
they thought all there was to live for was each day. Being the wealthiest
people in Judea they focused on the pleasures of the “Now.”
Sadducees
no longer exist. After the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 they were wiped out. But
the spirit of the Sadducees exists in North American culture of prosperity.
Though people believe in some kind of after-life, they continue to live as if
this life is all there is and indulge in it excessively. If eternal life were a
true goal of these people wouldn’t they live with a view of heaven? Would they
not abandon the pleasures of this life in hopes of a greater pleasure as
promised by the Lord? But as it is, their lives are as sad as the Sadducees
because they have an insatiable desire for what this life offers.
2. When partial knowledge leads to a complete ignorance
The Sadducees limited themselves to the first five books
of Moses, the Pentateuch, also known as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. And in those books, they said, there is no mention of any
resurrection.
If they
had read other parts of OT Scripture they would have heard Job say, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in
the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet
in my flesh I will see God…” (Job 19:25-26): or they would have read
Daniel, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust
of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and
everlasting contempt,” (Dan 12:2). But they rejected anything that was not
Moses.
Countless
times the Sadducees tripped up the Pharisees with a question about the
resurrection that left them stymied. They now bring that question before Jesus.
You have
heard teachers say that there are no dumb questions? I say there are: How many
angels can dance on the head of a pin? Can God make a rock so big he can’t lift
it? Those are dumb questions. Here’s another: A man marries and woman and then
dies without giving her children. According to the Law of Moses, the brothers
have to marry her to help her bear children to make sure that the eldest
brother’s line is preserved with descendents. But all seven die failing to give
a child to this line (this is enormously important to the Sadducees). Then they
ask, “…at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married
to her?”
The
story was intended to cause anyone believing in the resurrection look foolish.
How stupid the resurrection would look in the light of this problem. How could
the dead be raised, the Sadducees asked, if we are unable to tell who is
married to whom? Seven brothers would be arguing over one woman. How absurd.
You could hear the snickers in the crowd.
When you
base your knowledge on a limited passage of Scripture without considering the
whole, you will be in error. You cannot ignore what Scripture says about
Scripture. This is the first thing they teach you in Bible School: Scripture
interprets Scripture. Otherwise you get books on the Prayer of Jabez – one
little verse that forms a huge doctrine – and it’s wrong. Or you get Rick
Warren’s Daniel Diet – and it’s become an American phenomenon. Or they begin to
form strange ideas about heaven.
The
Sadducees were failures as Bible students. Read the whole word of God and then
form your doctrine.
3. How life will be in eternity
According to Matthew, Jesus answered them aggressively, “You are wrong because you know neither the
Scriptures, nor the power of God,” (Mt 22:29). I love that answer.
The
Sadducees had made a huge error, an error based on what the Pharisees taught
about the resurrected life, namely, that life in the age to come would be just
like life in this age only much, much better. In other words, they were
interpreting heaven from the viewpoint of earth. Jesus, on the other hand, was
teaching that we must interpret earth from the viewpoint of heaven.
Jesus
went on to say, “The people of this age
marry and are given in marriage.” THIS age – not the age to come. In THIS
age we marry and add the great proviso- “till death do us part.” In THIS age we
recognize that marriage is for procreation, for the continuance of life through
our offspring. To say as some couples do “I will love you for eternity” is
erroneous if their thought is that marriage is forever. Marriage is for THIS
age.
“But those who are considered worthy of
taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection of the dead will neither
marry nor be given in marriage…” (34-35). Jesus seizes on the Sadducee
obsession with maintaining your inheritance and land and name. That need to
continue your family line will disappear. Marriage, which is that awesome
expression of love and symbol of our need to give and receive love, will no
longer be necessary. The resurrected life will be so different from this earthly
life that there will be no marrying.
I have
often thought that, if it were possible, I would like to be married to Sharon
for eternity. Knowing my theology better than that, I hope to live next door to
her. For I know that my need for love will be most satisfied in Christ.
Marriage is a reflection of the covenant love God has for us and with us, which
is why in the fulfillment of all things, marriage is nullified.
Jesus
throws in a challenge: only those who are considered worthy will enjoy this age
of eternity. But when we look at ourselves and we gauge our worthiness we know
that we come up short. We know that we do not love God as well as ought; we
know that we do not love our neighbor as Christ commanded as purely as we
should. We are unworthy of the sight and enjoyment of God forever. How then can
we qualify for this age to come? The truth is, the only One worthy of taking
part in the age to come is the One asking the question. Jesus is worthy and we
need his worthiness. “This righteousness
(worthiness) from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe,”
(Ro 3:22).
Only
through faith in Christ will we be admitted to this eternal life and “no longer
die; for they are like the angels.” Then we will be counted as God’s children,
for Christ has made us worthy to be called such.
4. Why God is the God of the living
Jesus said that the Sadducees did not know the Scriptures
or the power of God. He is not done showing them how wrong they are in their
thinking.
The
Sadducees claimed there was no resurrection taught in the five books of Moses.
So Jesus takes a page out of those five books and says this: “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.’ He is not the God of the
dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive,” (37-38).
This is
found in Exodus 3:6, where Moses discovers the burning bush and God tells him
to take off his sandals. Note how God introduces himself: he does not say he
“was” the God of Abraham, he says “I am the God of Abraham.” When we speak of
loved ones who have died we speak in a past tense: “he was a good
father,” “she was a good cook.” But the Lord does not speak that way of
those who die. His promise to Abraham was to be his God forever, and God does
not break his promise. He is the living God and they live too. Is he the God of
the dead, the departed, or the God of the living?
So then,
as we think of our parents who died in Jesus, or your husband or wife, or that
child whom you loved so much – all of them are alive. This is not some greeting
card platitude but a real honest-to-goodness truth. We have the bodies, yes, but
the person you knew is not disintegrated or vaporized – they are alive and
living in the Lord’s presence. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death
of his saints,” (Ps 116:15).
Remember
Jesus’ promise to the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with me in
paradise.” We don’t know the full extent of what Jesus meant when he said this
to the thief but we know that because Jesus overcame the grave, that man was
introduced to eternal life and it was beyond his imagination. It is beyond ours
too. And I don’t think it is for us to conjure up some earthly perspective of
what heaven/paradise will be like. Our focus is that Jesus is there, he who
said, “Because I live you shall live also.”
I suppose that dumb questions can be turned for good
purposes. We can be thankful that the Sadducees, in their misguided way, posed
a question that Jesus would answer beautifully. And in so doing he gave us
hope.
Whose
bride will she be? Ironically, the true bride is the church, and the wedding
day is almost here. “Let us rejoice and
be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride
has made herself ready,” (Rev 19:7). All we have to do is “say yes to the
dress.”
There is
a song, a hymn that expresses nicely the truth of this passage and reminds us
of the hope we have in Jesus. It does not focus on made-up ideas about heaven;
it focuses ultimately on the joy of finally seeing Jesus face to face. Even
that thought itself is hard to comprehend – how great that will be.
There is coming a day,
When no heart aches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there,
No more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain,
No more parting over there;
And forever I will be,
With the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be,
When my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand,
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be
AMEN
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