This scripture is ridiculous. Well, at least that’s what I said when I read it. Not only is it ridiculous to consider that a woman married seven brothers, it is crazy to think that the seven brothers died after marrying the same woman. But what is most ridiculous is to think any of this matters in heaven, in the realm of God. We have a lot to consider in this ridiculous story.
But, in order to understand what is actually going on, we must get to know the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And to do that, since you seemed to thoroughly enjoy our singing together last week about Zacchaeus, I remember another song from my childhood, “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep.” You all know it: “I just wanna be a sheep [Baa Baa Baa]. I just wanna be a sheep [Baa Baa Baa]. I pray the Lord my soul to keep! I just wanna be a sheep.” I apologize to everyone because now you have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Annoying or not, we all probably know it and we are tempted to sing the rest of the verses. But the verses I remember most are the ones that go: “Don’t wanna be a Pharisee. Don’t wanna be a Pharisee. Cause they’re not fair you see. Don’t wanna be a Pharisee.” Wait, what? Then the last verse: “Don’t wanna be a Sadducee. Don’t wanna be a Sadducee. Cause they’re so sad you see. Don’t wanna be a Sadducee. I just wanna be a sheep [Baa Baa Baa]…
This is a troubling song and it gives us a disturbing view of Pharisees and Sadducees and their actions. I mean, the Bible doesn’t really paint a pretty picture of these religious groups of people. Do you remember Luke 18 several weeks ago? There was that one Pharisee who said, “I give thanks that I am not like them?” And yet, here we are, teaching our children in this song to sing words just like that proud Pharisee, “I don’t want to be like them, those Pharisees and Sadducees.”
I don’t know if Pharisees weren’t fair or the Sadducees sad, but they were definitely very opposite. The Pharisees were numerous and only cared about living out the religious and ceremonial law. Sadducees were few, but very wealthy. They had political ambitions and were the priests and politicians. They wanted to stay as close to Rome as possible so they wouldn’t lose their power or wealth. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection from the dead and angels and spirits and the afterlife. The Sadducees did not think there was a resurrection from the dead and there were no such things as angels and heavenly beings. The Pharisees believed in the coming of a Messiah as someone who would live a ritually perfect life. The Sadducees did not believe in a Messiah at all, as a Messiah would mess up their ordered and politically-centered lives.
The Sadducees only followed the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And in those first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) there is nothing really about eternal life, resurrection, or immortality. With that being the case, the afterlife was not taught as part of their faith tradition and so, they did not believe in Heaven or Hell. Which means, this question the Sadducees posed to Jesus was very odd and unlike anything the Sadducees believed. And it almost seems as if Luke was emphasizing that strangeness. Luke began this scripture lesson with the words, “The Sadducees, those who didn’t believe in the resurrection, asked Jesus a question” about… the resurrection.
And so, the sad and tricky Sadducees brought to Jesus this question of who would be the husband in heaven of the woman who was married to seven different men. And this is incredible on two levels because the Sadducees didn’t believe in heaven and they also didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah. This made the question they asked Jesus all the more ridiculous. I mean, the Sadducees made this story so outlandish for Jesus that the listening crowds could only ask how anyone could believe in the reality of heaven if the afterlife is such a messed-up place of confused relationships and screwed up marriages. It was a silly question posed to what they considered a silly Nazarene acting like a Savior whom the Sadducees ultimately didn’t believe in. Ridiculous!
But Jesus took a silly question and responded with a divine answer. Rather than answering the actual question, he dodged the Sadducee’s trap and revealed something very important about God. Jesus pointed out what God said to Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And not only was God the God of these ancestors, but God was not God of the dead. God is God of the living. It didn’t matter about resurrection, or death, or afterlife, or angels, or sheep baa baa baa. Those things don’t matter because God is a God of life, not death.
Dr. Oluwatomisin Oredein, professor of black religious studies, constructive theology, and ethics at Brite Divinity School reveals that resurrection is a lesson about God bringing life to all. She claims that the lesson is taught through the ancestors of old. Oredein says, “Moses understands this, that life can be found again on the other side of death. A bush tells him that things that should consume life are in fact under the will and control of God. God speaks to Moses while a bush does not burn – two impossible things that nevertheless enter into the realm of the possible. Perhaps Moses learns that resurrection can look like not being consumed by that which should consume you. Resurrection can look like the opposite of what should be.”
Jesus then uses ancient Hebrew leaders as an example of God bringing life through resurrection. “God being with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves resurrection’s tilt. It is in going to a foreign land under God’s command and having a child at an impossible age. It is in journeying to one’s death with hope that life might be on the other side. It is in wrestling with God – and living. It is in the later lives of others spent authoring the writings by which Jesus and the Sadducees abide. Resurrection means living on even though circumstances should not allow it to be so. It is the miracle of persisting, of stubbornly illuminating the glory of life.”
Don’t you see? In the Sadducee’s story the woman lives on despite the death of seven husbands. She suffers and is condemned and has no name. She was the horrific and anti-woman focus of this narrative. There was no talk about the men having anything but glory in the afterlife. Whereas the Sadducees were trapping Jesus by revealing the terrible lot in life of the woman who couldn’t keep husbands alive and that her eventual fate was to die and deal with the eternal problem and pain of being divided in loyalty with seven men.
And Jesus, instead of getting wrangled into the mess of who was responsible for seven ended marriages, or even what marriage looks like in the afterlife, called the Sadducees’ attention to Moses who represented the entire people of God, the people who were led by the burning, never-ending presence of the Divine; the Moses whom God was with through every trial and every desperate moment; the God of life and of resurrection. Jesus focused on Moses who revealed a God of resurrection that spans the generations, that spans the lives of all people, that spans the circumstances of all people, both women and men.
The Sadducees (sad you sees) could only focus on the men dying and the woman being trapped in a terrible and sad position. Jesus beckoned the Sadducees and us to notice the generations that lived in the presence of God and to the saints that continue to reveal to us a God of life and resurrection. Jesus didn’t get lost in a game of semantics. Jesus emphasized that no matter who you are, what gender you are, who you are married to, what you have done, what you have come through, what you have survived… God is a God of the living. And this story of resurrection today is not meant to make us do theological gymnastics. No, this story of resurrection tells us that everyone is claimed by God, wrestled and wrested from death and despair. God is the God of the living and no matter who we are or what we have done, to God, all of us are alive. All people have purpose. All people have meaning. All people are important. All people have value. God is the God of the living.
Several years ago, I was fortunate to visit the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC where I got a box of wonderful Monet cards so I could write letters to people. Hanging in a gallery there, Gallery 60, I think, is a series of four paintings by Thomas Cole. The series is called “The Voyage of Life”. Each painting depicts a stage of life: childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age.
The first painting is of childhood. It shows a mountain with a dark cave at its base and a river flowing out of the cave. A beautiful timber boat glides out of the cave into a world of lush vegetation, flowers in bloom and a peaceful, gentle surface on the water. Inside the boat is a laughing baby with a Guardian Spirit standing right behind. The painting shows childhood as a time of wonder and joy.
The second painting is called “youth”. We see the same boat now travelled further downstream. The baby has grown into a teenage boy. He stands in the rear, confidently steering the boat towards a majestic white castle off in the distance. The riverbanks are still lush and green and the Guardian Spirit stands on those banks, watching the young man boldly chart his course. The painting shows youth as a time of dreaming and absolute self-confidence that nothing can hold back.
When we look at the third painting the scene has changed dramatically. The youth has become a man, the river has become a raging torrent, and the sky has become dark and threatening. The castle of dreams is nowhere to be seen and the boat’s rudder has broken. Up ahead lie treacherous rocks, with white water crashing all around them. The man in the boat is caught up by forces he can’t control. With the rudder broken he cannot steer his boat. All he can do is look up to the sky and pray. Meanwhile the Guardian Spirit sits hidden in the clouds. Cole is picturing adulthood as a time when the joy and wonder of childhood have been tamed by difficult and tragic experiences, when the confidence and boldness of youth have been swept away by the harsh realities of life.
The final painting is called “Old Age”. The battered and weathered boat has finally reached the ocean. The dark clouds remain, but the water is still. The boat’s occupant is now an old man, and his gaze is fixed firmly on the clouds out there in front of him, clouds pierced by the glorious light of heaven, the light pierced by angels coming to and fro. For the first time in his life the man sees the Guardian Spirit that has accompanied him on his journey. It comes, takes him by the hand and prepares him for his journey into the heavens.
Friends, the Guardian Spirit is always with us. No matter what storms batter us, no matter how big the waves, no matter how much water gets in the boat, we are not alone. God is with us throughout our lives. It doesn’t matter what heaven is or what it will look like, because what is really important is that God is with the living, holding us and guiding us and guarding us along the way. Whether you are lonely, or hurting, or frustrated, or scared, God is with you and will always be with you, whether you see the Guardian Spirit or not. And again, remember that not only was God the God of our faithful ancestors, but God is God of the living. And it doesn’t matter about resurrection, or death, or afterlife, or angels, or marriages, or sheep baa baa baa. Those things don’t ultimately matter because God isn’t a God of death. God is God of the living.
Amen.