LENT 2016 – GOING TO JERUSALEM

Tuesday, February 23

The Question About the Resurrection - Matthew 22: 23 - 33

             Why are some people so negative about everything? Or so contrary? Or so doubtful? Or so argumentative? Or so confrontational? Always being judgmental and critical? Always rigidly right (or, maybe, left)? Always so stuck in their own point of view that they don’t even try to understand the other person’s opinion? Always ready to defend to the death some small, often inconsequential matter (in the grand scheme of things)?  Always judging the other person over some perceived, wrong thinking, while feeling smug and superior?

            I don’t really know why I am that way – what about yourself?

            The Sadducees, a quite conservative brand of the Jewish faith, want to argue with Jesus over the issue of – are you ready for it? – what kind of marriage is there in heaven? They think they are being clever. The topic began, perhaps, about the reality of the resurrected life? That would have been worthy of discussion, but they try to turn it into an inane riddle. It was an absurd question since they didn’t believe in any sort of resurrection to begin with. Their question was meant to prove how foolish an idea that resurrection was.

            Some religious folk (and, in this day and age, some non-religious types, too) have a checklist of stuff that we are supposed to believe – according to their versions of faith and philosophy. If we want to “get to heaven”, i.e. reach the summit of life, we must think just like them. We must believe what they believe.

For religious people, we must read only the right translation of the Bible. We must have the right creed. We must have the right theology of grace, salvation, end-times, and the list goes on and on. They know absolutely what is right, and why you are so utterly wrong.

            I don’t really know why I am that way – what about yourself?

            It is great that you and I have some clear and valued expressions of our beliefs and even about our relationship with Jesus. But let’s not get caught up in arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Jesus refuses to indulge them in their baiting of him. Instead he challenges them, and therefore us, too, to give God the last word. Jesus has a much bigger picture of the resurrected life.  The details of this life are God’s concern, a matter for his all-embracing, creative Love.

God’s pleasure is to bring us, his “angels” (v.30), into his fellowship. Whether my “halo” is silver or gold, my “wings” are peacock feathers or ostrich feathers, whether I play a harp or a saxophone or not at all, is beside the point.  Besides, Easter Sunday kind of puts an accent on Jesus’ point, “He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” The Resurrected Life is going to be full of surprises.

I don’t know why God does it that way. Do you?