Luke 20:27-38 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and 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. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." 34 Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but 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. 36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And 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. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."
I remember that day. Over 42 years ago. That day I stood up there before God and everybody and made promises that were impossible to keep. Oh, I didn’t think so at the time. I was sure it was within my power to love and honor and cherish as long as we both should live. I was ready to take this leap, ready to remake my life around this other life, this woman I loved. It was exciting, I was happy, I was ready. Little did I know. Over 42 years I’ve learned how little I knew.
I had to learn that this kind of love is beyond us as human beings. This kind of commitment is out of our reach. At least it is beyond us on our own. For this covenantal love to work it takes mutuality; two wills, two hearts working in tandem. It also needs a supportive community to surround the couple. Also the abiding presence of the Spirit, pouring out love and forgiveness in abundance.
The Sadducees weren’t asking about this, of course. They were asking about eternity. Since eternity is understood to come through offspring who carry on the name, how does this eternity thing work in resurrection? Jesus side-stepped the whole question. Or rather he answered the question behind the question. Eternity works by different rules than you thought. It isn’t your effort that makes it work, it is God’s. It isn’t what you can do to ensure eternity, it’s what God does.
Who knows how Jesus would have answered if the question was different. If it was about intimacy and commitment and about love, and not about manipulating a place in eternity. Maybe it would have been an assurance that love and relationship is what makes us alive, and that does continue in the resurrection.
Covenant God, inspire our hearts to love like you taught us to love, like the love Jesus showed us. Every day. Amen.
I know, it says 42 years and it’s only 40. But the above is for the devotional that I’m writing and it will be for the year 2022. Published in 2021, but the Disciplines for 2022. There’s a part of me that says that’s a long way off and who knows what I’ll be thinking or doing, or what the reader will be thinking or doing by then. Things seem to be changing all the time these days.
At the same time, I’m finding reservoirs of love and grace that I had forgotten were there in this time where it is mostly just me and her. And 57 cats and a dog. OK 2 cats, but some days it feels like more. We see other people, I zoom with other people, we text and video chat our kids all over the place. But most of the time, the day to day, it’s just me and her.
Someone made a meme that says after the pandemic the ones making money will be hairdressers and divorce lawyers. Maybe that’s true for some. (And I did have to get a haircut recently, now that we are slowly opening things here in Tennessee.) But what I’m finding is that maybe that day I did something right. This person who has followed me all over the world, who has set up house in more places that I can even recall easily, who has taken our residence and made it home, that she really is a gift from God. And I’m eternally grateful.
Eternally. No, we can’t capture eternity in our minds. It is beyond us. I’m troubled by Jesus statement. But I’ve learned to trust Him. So, I guess we’ll find out what He meant on another That day. I’ve been blessed by many loves in my life. But none like this one. And I can’t imagine it not being there. Even in the eternity we are promised.
Life continues, Jesus says, love continues in eternity. So I think His response to the Sadducees was stop trying to figure out that time, and live eternity in this day. In this life. In this love. Because when you do, then you have an inkling as to what it might be like. On that day.
Shalom,
Derek
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