Between death and resurrection

Is the soul as well as the body asleep until Christ’s return (1 Corinthians 15)? How could that square with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) or Stephen’s prayer “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59)? Are passages referring to death as a sleep literal or figurative? Is purgatory the place of judgment (Hebrews 9:27) and where atonement may be made for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:43-45)? Is resurrection instantaneous after death where believers receive a spiritual body (2 Corinthians 5:1-10)? Is the spirit absent from the body and consciously present with the Lord in heaven (Philippians 1:19-26) but awaiting a body at the return of Christ (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)? All die and by God’s grace we can enter his joyful presence forever (Luke 20:27-38).

God of the living

Presumed dead but alive seems to be a theme regarding the patriarchs and matriarchs of antiquity in the Gospel message according to Luke. Many Sadducees were wealthy priests who did not believe in the resurrection. Luke quoted Jesus as saying that God is the God of the living. Phrases similar to God being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are repeated often in the Old Testament. Yet were they not all dead? If so, then God would be called the God of the dead. So, they must be alive to God, even though we call them dead. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) also shows Abraham as alive. God is the God of the living implies something more than just a future life. It implies that our lives today are already blessed with eternity.

Unrestricted love

Many people have attempted to find cheap immortality by experiencing unrestricted sexual love. Our world continues to suffer the consequences of breaking sexual taboos. Sexual restrictions are for this life and create a safety zone which perpetuates family units and healthy societies. Yet in the resurrection (Luke 20:27-38) there will be no need for restrictions on love, because marriage and sexual love will no longer exist. To those who have suffered horrible sexual experiences this may be good news. It is also good news to those who have had wonderful marriages with lifelong joy. The joys of human sexuality are only a pale foretaste in comparison to the eternal pleasures of the resurrection. There will be no such boundaries to our relationships in God’s presence forever because in the resurrection there will no monogamous marital relationships, just unrestricted love.

They can no longer die

What does it mean in Luke 20:27-38 that those who are accounted worthy to partake of that age, and are resurrected from the dead can no longer die? The Sadducees were not so different from us, in that they tried to obtain eternal life through their children by perpetuating family lineage or family names. It is a worldly version of eternal life. Even today, some conversations tend to sideline those who cannot have children or have the gift of celibacy and so choose to remain single. Marriage is indeed honorable, but so is celibacy. We do not then, need to be married and have children to be assured of everlasting life with God. When we reorient our thinking away from the values of this world to those of the next, then we begin to see things as God does.

The mocking marriage puzzle

The Sadducees’ questioned Jesus perhaps with mocking humor: Moses perpetuated a Ugaritic and Hittite custom that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, he must marry the widow and raise up offspring to inherit his brother’s land. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a horrible woman and rather than live with her he died in self-defense, childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way each of 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? Was it meant to humorously disprove the resurrection? Jesus did not answer the question but pointed out how ridiculous it was because there is no marriage in the resurrection (Luke 20:27-38).

Trick levirate question

In ancient times marriage meant survival and was often more a business arrangement than romantic. Ancient law gave agricultural inheritance through the males. This was because females would usually marry and thus be partners in their husband’s farmland. Israel inherited this practice but made exceptions where the general rule created an unfair situation. The necessity for a male heir created the levirate marriage, where a man married his deceased brother’s wife so as to ensure the family inheritance. This is the background to the trick question the Sadducees asked Jesus (Luke 20:27-38). Whose wife would she be in the resurrection? The question was not sincere but designed to trick Jesus about the resurrection, something the Sadducees did not believe in. Important beliefs in Christianity are repentance, faith, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection, and eternal judgment (Hebrews 6:1-3).

Sadducees

Who were the Sadducees (Luke 20:27-38)? Under King David temple liturgy was organized by a high priest named Zadok. Possibly under that Zadok or a later name-sake, a group formed to support temple worship. Their name Sadducees refers to Zadok. In Israel there was no separation of church and state, so any such religious party was also a political party and Jesus’ comments about them were also political criticisms. Sadducees were conservatives believing that preserving temple worship would perpetuate God’s blessing. After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, they lost followers and disappeared. They opposed the more liberal Pharisees who believed that people could worship God anywhere. The Sadducees also did not believe in a resurrection as this discussion shows. The Pharisees and Sadducees were not often in agreement but they were united in opposition to Jesus.

Abraham, dead or alive?

In Luke 20:27-38 Jesus spoke of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that God is the God of the living. Some Bibles explain this as “to him all are alive” but others say something closer to a literal translation of the original Greek like “all live to him.” As we humans perceive things, people are either dead or alive, but obviously God perceives the reality of things beyond our physical ability to know. Does this mean that Abraham is literally alive now in heaven or just that God counts him as being alive because he will be in the future or that after death a timeless eternity has already begun? There are people who believe different sides of that discussion. But does it really matter since eternity is something beyond our understanding anyway and in that eternity all are alive?

Resurrection questions

How will life be for eternity? Luke 20:27-38 is a passage that gives us a few hints. How will we look at the resurrection? Luke reveals that we will be very different from how we are now. There will be no childbearing or human-style family life. Will we recognize our earthly families? Though Jesus did not directly address that question, he did say that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be recognizable. So, it is reasonable to assume that we would know family members who are also there. It is also reasonable to speculate that current close bonds of love between family members on earth would naturally continue. What about body and spirit? Whatever happens in the meantime, whether or not body and spirit are separated for a time, completeness of resurrection will mean body and soul together for eternity.

Modern Gender Bigotry

When we read modern commentaries on the Bible, a large number of them tend to prejudice the reading with a self-righteous approach about how women today are supposedly treated so much better than they were anciently. There is a bias about gender unfairness and how those were male dominated societies where women lacked justice. Hence anything we read about the Old or New Testament becomes tainted as we look down our noses at our ancestors. A case in point is the idea of levirate marriage which was referred to in Luke 20:27-40. These were arranged marriages where a brother married his widowed sister-in-law in order to provide for her. Rather than look down at our ancestors, perhaps we need an honest look at ourselves. Our families suffer from historically unprecedented breakdowns. Perhaps our ancestors can teach us a lesson.

Sex in Heaven

If what Jesus said in Luke 20:27-40 is not merely rhetorical, then there will be no sex in heaven. What a disappointment for most of us! Does that mean that heaven will be no fun? Does that mean that we will not recognize Mom and Dad as themselves, because they will no longer be of a distinctive gender? The Bible simply does not say. However, it does give hints that whatever we experience here on earth, including sex, will pale into comparison with what we will have in heaven. The thrills and excitement of earthly life are a mere shadow of the reality that we will have for eternity. So, whether or not we will specifically have sex in heaven, we will have something far better. Sexual fulfillment is fleeting. Heavenly bliss is far superior and will last forever.

Illogical Doctrines

In faith matters we have a human tendency to defend various positions illogically. People on different sides may not always be honestly looking for the truth, but a way to justify their own opinions. An example of this is the classic confrontation of the Sadducees with Jesus over the doctrine of the resurrection in Luke 20:27-40. The Sadducees were wealthy fundamentalists who believed that only the first five books of the Hebrew Bible had authority. Their debate with Jesus was designed to lead to an unreasonable (if unstated) conclusion, that the resurrection cannot be true because if it was, the widow could have seven husbands. Jesus pointed out the illogical conclusion by simply stating that such gender issues would be irrelevant in the resurrection. Do we have the courage to change when confronted with the religion of Jesus Christ?

Levirate Welfare System

In our modern self-righteous disdain of historic gender arrangements, the idea of levirate marriage probably gives many great excuse for looking down their noses at our ancestors. A question that "liberated" moderns avoid is why our families are so broken in comparison. We have no reasons to brag. When Jesus was challenged with a riddle about levirate marriage in Luke 20:27-40, we may ask, what was that all about? We live in a world where marriage legalities have been taken over by the church and government. It once was strictly a family affair. The same is true of welfare. The well-being of widows was taken care of via family arrangements. In a world where clan and family were very important, marrying a brother’s widow to provide for her was common. Rather than disdain their culture, can we learn something?

How the Resurrection Works

In all the Bible’s discussion of the resurrection there is little explanation of how that works mechanically. In our striving for doctrinal superiority and one-up-man-ship there are many people who treat mere human theories with dogmatism. There are those who claim that we are resurrected with the same bodies. Does that mean the same molecules? How does that work with decayed bodies that contributed matter to vegetables that other people ate? Others claim that the dead are asleep. How does that jive with what Jesus said in Luke 20:72-40, that God “is” the God of the living, not “will be?” Dogmatism over unclear matters often reveals a degree of ignorance of all the facts and a lack of humility. Many teachings about the resurrection are mere human speculation. One issue is plain. The resurrection is taught as a fact.