Reflection on Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44 (NRSVue)

[Jesus said to the disciples,] 36 “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Reflection

“Keep awake!” Jesus implores us.  “Keep Awake” (Matthew 24:42).

Shouting that at the start of the Advent sermon is a favorite pastime of preachers throughout the world, startling parishioners for years and years.  One startled parishioner once shouted back at me, “I’m not asleep yet!”  “Yet.”  This was the same guy who loudly snapped open his newspaper whenever he thought I was preaching too long.

But it is more than an inside joke for preachers.  It is an actual desire in the heart of Jesus.  He desperately does not want us to be swept away in the concerns and distractions of this world. 

And we do get swept away.  Like “in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” we get swept away in the family drama that inevitably comes with the holiday season.  We get swept away with the national stories and political concerns that tug at our attention as we talk and sip our coffees.  We get swept away with the struggles of paying bills and providing for our families.  It is not that these things are never important or worthy of our attention, but our minds and our lives can get swept away with these things, causing us to fall asleep to all that God is doing. 

Not all of us, of course.  Some of us are able to work “in the field,” keeping our minds on God, while others of us are swept away because of others concerns (Matthew 24:40).  They are the ones who are not paying attention while the cows are stampeding towards them, and they get swept away in the commotion and get trampled.  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

Some of us use our time in the kitchen to pray and meditate on all that is holy, and others are swept away while “grinding meal together,” worried more about the things that distract, and their bread is ruined along with their lives (Mattew 24:41).  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

A monk once taught me that even the simple task of bread making or beer brewing can be holy.  He taught that all of it can be a time for prayer and…and.  Well, I did not really hear the rest of what he was saying because my mind wandered to something else.

Ever been there?  Have you ever been so distracted and carried away with your concerns that you were not truly present with the person you were with, or not truly present to accomplish the task at hand?

I was once at a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor was so distracted, talking and decompressing about the trauma from which she had just come, that it was only after 15 minutes of talking that she realized that she only had about 5 minutes remaining to talk about why I was sitting there in the room.  And you thought there was nothing hazardous about a pastor’s job.  “Keep awake,” Jesus says. 

“Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 26:42-44).

“Keep awake…you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 26:42). 

While I was preparing for this sermon, I decided that I needed to find some way to stay awake spiritually.  “I need to try my best to keep awake,” I thought to myself.  “Maybe I will set an alarm to help remind myself.  Maybe I will start some sort of daily routine that allows me to remember to keep awake.”  And just as I resolved to do exactly that, a very basic question popped into my head.  “Jesus?” I asked, “what does keeping awake look like?”

“How can I possibly keep awake if I have no idea what you are talking about, Jesus?”

And that question sent me into the Bible.  I started searching for what was going on just before Jesus told us to keep awake.  And if you take a wander with me to just a few chapters before today’s reading about keeping awake, you will discover in Matthew 23:37 that Jesus laments that Jerusalem has refused to gather under his wings and follow his ways.  And if you look even further back you will see Jesus warning some scribes and Pharisees that they have been paying attention to the wrong things; they have been swept away, focusing on things that are not very important.  Sound familiar? 

Listen to Matthew 23:23: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23). 

“Justice and mercy and faith.”  The scribes and Pharisees have been distracted by things that are not so important and have forgotten to do the most important things: “justice and mercy and faith.”  We still get distracted today from these very things in favor of other concerns and pressing needs: “Justice and mercy and faith.” 

Jesus is not stating anything new by trying to bring our focus back to “justice and mercy and faith.”  This has been the drumbeat of the prophets forever and ever.  Micah 6:8 reminds us: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Isaiah 1:17 tells us to: “Learn to do right; seek justice.  Defend the oppressed.  Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

And just in case you are not the type to hear a message through verbal instruction, but you need to hear it in song form, the Bible serves up for us Psalm 82:3. “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.”

Ensuring that all people are treated fairly and just, making sure that all people experience forgiveness and experience a concern for their wellbeing, and encouraging people to love and trust in the Lord is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he tells us to keep awake! 

And just in case you do not know what any of that looks like, Jesus provides us with a very clear example.  He teaches that when he comes again, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,  for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me’” (Matthew 25:35-40).

This is what keeping awake is all about: giving the hungry food, providing drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger and caring for them, giving clothing to the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison.  Those who are awake enough to remember these things are the ones who will not be swept away.  They are the ones who know what kingdom living is all about.  They are the ones who are awake enough to see the needs around them and are awake enough to keep the thief from snatching away those opportunities to show love to others.

And, in this teaching, did you also notice that Jesus has already returned?  It says that when we give water to the thirsty, we give it to Jesus.  He has already returned in the face of a thirsty child.  He has, indeed, shown up at an unexpected time and in an unexpected way.  “Keep awake,” Jesus urges.  It is possible that he has already arrived.

And with that, instead of being inspired, I am now thinking about the number of times I have seen the thirsty one and walked away.  I guess it is only natural to think that way, and I know that I am not alone.  I know plenty of people who live in fear, or feel tired, or simply lack the ability to feel the Holy Spirit at work in their lives.  We stand gazing at the horizon, looking for something better, looking for something beyond this time in life, always looking into the distance.  All the while, the flood waters of hopelessness are collecting around our feet. 

If I have just described you, do not worry.  There have been plenty of times that I have stood, unable to move, unable to shake the waters of inaction from my soul.  That is why we have each other.  That is why Jesus has given us a kingdom in which we stand. 

That is the very reason that Jesus asks us to keep awake and care for others; because there have been plenty of times that Jesus has sent someone who was awake to provide the water when I needed it.  Jesus has often provided someone to hand me some food when there was none.  Jesus has provided me people who have not been swept away by fear and inaction.  Jesus has provided me with kingdom people, who have not forgotten to give the hungry food, provide drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger and care for them, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. 

And unbeknownst to me, Jesus has offered me to others as well.  Remember that doctor who had to unload about the trauma she had just experienced?  Well, Jesus just happened to provide someone trained in pastoral listening to help ease that burden off her shoulders.  And a weary and tired doctor experienced a bit of mercy. 

“When was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing?” the people ask at the end of the age.  I did not realize it at first either, but that is the way of those who are awake to God.  You do not plan or schedule love, you are love.  Jesus makes you person of love.

Living in this way is such a gift!  We get to be a part of the love and salvation that Jesus has given us on the cross!  We get to see the eyes of people start to gleam once again when they realize that someone notices them and realize that someone cares about them.  We get to know deep down that we are a part of something vital in this world when we help others.  We are extensions of God’s love, blessing the world when we give the hungry food, provide drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger and care for them, give clothing to the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. 

Keep awake so that, together, we will be a part of Jesus’ great vision to allow God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Reflection on Luke 23:33-43

 

“Let him save himself” (Luke 23:35).

“Save yourself” (Luke 23:37).

“Save yourself, and us” (Luke 23:39).

This is what those who are “of the world” tell Jesus.  This is what those who are “of the world” say to each other.  This is what we say to ourselves.

“Save yourself.” 

“Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” 

“Take some time for yourself.” 

“Save yourself, and us!” 

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Did you know that last one is not in the Bible?  It is quoted constantly as if it were.  “God helps those who help themselves.”  It is a better-known phrase than John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

The two phrases could not be any different.  The John quote, which is actually from the Bible, tells us about how God saves us through faith.  God saves us. 

The one that is not from the Bible tells us that we need to be the ones who take the initiative to save ourselves.  We save ourselves. 

“Be the author of your own story.” 

“You can do it.” 

“Trust in yourself.” 

“God helps those who help themselves.” 

“Save yourself.”

Those of us who are “of the world” take great pride in our self-made accomplishments.  Those of us who are “of the world” can clearly see that if it were not for our own hard work, we would be nowhere in life. 

Maybe we are right.  Maybe we care a lot about making our way in this world and this life, and we have accomplishments to prove that we have done exactly that.  Maybe our own success has been our focus in life.  Maybe, that is what drives our life.  Maybe, at the end of the day, all we care about is saving ourselves…or more graciously, ourselves and our friends and family. 

“Save yourself,” we whisper to ourselves when the times get rough.  “Save yourself,” we whisper to ourselves because we are too afraid to lay our burdens on anyone else’s shoulders.  “Save yourself,” we say into the lonely night as we twist and turn and try to figure it all out before the sun comes up.

Do you know what Jesus did not do?  Jesus did not save himself.  He was not the focus of his own life.  His own welfare was not the center of his own actions.  Instead, he made his life all about others. 

He healed people who were blind.  Just ask blind Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-43). 

He found people who were lost.  Just ask Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). 

He ate with people who were tax collectors and sinners.  Just ask Levi and the tax collectors and sinners who were feasting with Jesus at Levi’s house (Luke 5:29-39).

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” Jesus explained (Luke 5:31-32).

Jesus, “the King of the Jews,” as the sign above his head on the cross declared, did not save himself.  He was not that kind of king.  Rather, he hung on a cross of humiliation for the sake of other people; to save them.  Jesus was not a rich and successful king as our world defines a king.  But he was a king.  He was a king with and for the people.  He is “our” king.

I know of a faithful member of a church who was given a harsh warning from the pastor when he started hanging out on the front porch with some unsavory neighbors.  You know, the ones with the beer in hand, playing shoot the squirrel, sitting on the old couch in the front yard.  “You are who you hang out with,” the pastor warned the faithful church member.  “You won’t get anywhere in the world hanging around them.”

Do you know what the faithful church member answered?  “You are right.  You are who you hang out with.  I hang out with Jesus.  Maybe, they will become a little more like him by hanging out with me.”  The faithful church member was exactly that: “faithful.”  He hung out with the wrong people, because that is where Jesus hung out.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Luke 5:31-32).

Jesus hangs out with the wrong people, he hangs out in the wrong places, and he winds up on the wrong throne.  Christ’s worldly throne, after-all, is not one with gold plating atop a marble staircase.  Christ’s throne is a cross. 

No one fights to the death to sit on that throne.  No one strives to be nailed to a throne in the middle of a kingdom of dying criminals.  But Jesus does.  Jesus was a king with and for the people.  He is “our” king.

Those who walk up to Jesus’ cross, taunting Jesus and spitting in his face, do not actually think that he can save himself.  It is a display of mockery for the benefit of all who pass by on the road into the heart of Jerusalem.  But these people who mock do say one thing that is absolutely true, “he saved others.”

Yes, that part is the absolute truth.  Jesus did save others.  He healed others when other people could not.  He guided others when other people would not.  He accepted others when other people refused.  “He saved others.”

And he is going to do it one more time before he dies. 

You see, Jesus, our King, refuses to use his powers to save himself.  After-all, Jesus explicitly states that he “is not a king of this world” (John 18:36).  But Jesus will go to any length to use his powers to save others. 

One of the two criminals hanging with Jesus at the very end of his life refuses to join with those who taunt.  Instead, that criminal admits that he wasted his time in this life.  “We indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds,” the man admits (Luke: 23:41).

He is one of those people who tries only to help himself, but in doing so, he ends up destroying himself.  He is one of those people who deserves his cross.  But he is also the only one who turns his head toward Jesus and asks, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). 

That man is the man who Jesus chooses to save.  Jesus does not save himself.  Jesus does not save someone who is morally deserving.  Rather, Jesus saves someone who simply and profoundly asks to be saved.

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

Jesus, our king, did not build for himself a worldly kingdom with a palace and throne, gilded with gold.  Jesus did not create for himself a wealthy life.  Jesus did not save himself.

But Jesus does save others. 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Jesus promises us.  “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10).

All those who ask, find that they are welcome in Jesus’ kingdom. 

That was true way back on the day that Jesus joined a thief on some crosses, and it is still true today. 

All those who ask, find that they are welcome in Jesus’ kingdom. 

Come to the cross with your burdens, you need not bear them alone. 

Come to the cross with your sins, Jesus offers to feast with you and make you clean. 

Come to the cross with your pain, Jesus desires to heal you. 

Come to the cross and worship your king.  He is a king who understands pain.  He is a king who understands sin.  He is a king whose throne is a cross of shame.  He is a king who helps those who are unable to help themselves. 

Come to the foot of Jesus’ throne. 

Come to the cross and ask Jesus to remember you. 

Come and be given the kingdom of God.

Jesus remember me,

when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus remember me,

When you come into your kingdom.

Reflection on Luke 21:5-19

 

Luke 21:5-19 NRSVue

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, [Jesus] said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

  7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8 And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

  9 “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

  12 “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Reflection

“Trust in me,” Jesus teaches.  “Not a hair of your head will be destroyed forever.  By your steadfastness you will gain the breath of life” (Luke 21:14, 18-19).  

That is the promise that Jesus gives his followers when the world as they know it begins to crumble.  When the institutions start to shake, when the people start to riot, when the natural forces take lives, and when hatred is turned even toward you, one of Christ’s loving people, Jesus begs us to listen close.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

These words of Jesus were remembered just years later as those first Christians found themselves in a world where the curtain of the temple was not only torn in two; the curtain was gone.  So was the temple that housed the curtain.  God’s house was mere rubble.  “The days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down,” Jesus said (Luke 21:6). 

The dust of the temple’s destruction settled onto the shoulders of those early Christians who were viewed by the Roman Empire as secretive and rebellious.  The empire used those early Christians as a scapegoat to cover the ills of the empire.  Empires always find a scapegoat to arrest, persecute, imprison, and even kill so that they do not need to look too closely at themselves.

“They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name,” Jesus clearly warns (Luke 21:12).

But Jesus also bears a promise.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

We cannot repeat that promise too much because the reality that we face is that everything falls apart, everything comes to an end, and nothing lasts forever.

The peace and prosperity of the 1950s fell to the riots and wars of the 1960s.  The international harmony and economic prosperity of the late 1990s fell when the twin towers fell in 2001.  Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.

Just the other day I overheard someone mentioning that “Ten years ago I was running miles.  Can you believe it?  Now my knees won’t even let me walk across the room.”  Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.

One time while staying at my in-laws’ home I was working on some kind of project, and I needed scissors to cut some plastic.  I went downstairs and found some nice, sharp scissors in a drawer just below my mother-in-law’s sewing machine.  As I cut away, my mother-in-law walked in and saw the horror that was taking place right there in the sanctity of her own home!  In my whole life I had never before heard the term “sewing scissors.”  But I learned about them that day.  I wanted to say, “Nothing lasts forever.  Everything falls apart.”  But I also wanted to live.

Jesus says:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

When everything is going wrong and everything seems to be falling apart in our lives, the fundamental problem that we face each and every time is that we try to stack all the falling pieces back up and we try hold it all together someway and somehow.  We try to fix it all, and when our fix does not work, we are left with nothing but rubble around our own feet.

Adam and Eve did not trust God.  Rather, they ate from the tree that would let them decide good and evil for themselves.  They trusted in themselves, and they ended up cast out from the life of the garden.

Moses did not trust that God could do anything about the slavery of his people.  So, he took matters into his own hands and murdered an Egyptian.  He ended up being cast out of Egypt into the wilderness where there is little life.

Jesus says:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

When life started falling apart for those early Christians who were arrested and persecuted, and brought before kings and governors because of Jesus’ name, Jesus tells them: “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (Luke 21:14-15).  “Trust in me” Jesus is saying.  “Trust in my wisdom.”  We do not know how to pull things from destruction to wholeness, from death to life, but the one who rose from the grave does.  “Trust in me,” Jesus says.

“Pastor, now that I trust in Jesus, I thought that life would go so much better.  But I have to tell you, it hasn’t gotten any better.  What am I doing wrong?”  He was a man in his thirties, but he was still a baby Christian.  Jesus had found him just a year earlier.  But I do not think that his question is any different than some our questions who have been following Jesus since we were able to put on our own shirt.  “Why is this happening to me?  What did I do wrong?”

Here is the truth.  When you are facing hardship, you might have caused it yourself, but much of the time you probably did not do anything wrong.  Wars and earthquakes and famines and plagues and every other thing that we struggle with in this universe “must take place first” Jesus teaches (Luke 21:9).  We live in a world outside of God’s garden.  Bad things happen out in the sticks and thistles outside of the garden.  Good people are brought down from well-deserved heights after being “betrayed even by parents and siblings” Jesus says.  “They will put some of you to death,” Jesus continues (Luke 21:16).  You might not have done anything wrong.  You might not have done anything bad to anyone.  But your neighbor or family member or leaders or even little viruses might have done something bad to you. 

But listen to the promise from your Lord: “Not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:18).  Not even a hair of your head will be destroyed forever, says the one who knows how to pull people up from graves into new life.

“You cannot be destroyed forever.”

“By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19).  Another way to say that is, “By your steadfastness you will gain your breath of life.”  Trusting leads to life.

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

Years after Jesus uttered these words, one of his followers, Stephen was his name, was sentenced to be stoned because he steadfastly followed Christ Jesus.  And as the stones fell, crushing Stephen under their weight, he prayed to the Lord for those showing him hate: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).  He loved his neighbor to the end.  He trusted the Lord through it all.  He held tight and breathed in life eternal with the Lord.  And I find it strangely comforting to know that even when I am in the wrong and I am doing something terrible, that someone might be praying for me and hoping for my forgiveness.  That is powerful stuff.  That is the stuff of trust.

Now, I know that life can become crushing.  I know that life can completely fall apart and look completely different from all that you have previously known.  But you have a Savior who, though the power of the Holy Spirit, stays with you through it all: Jesus Christ.

And that savior has a promise for you:

“Trust in me.” 

“You cannot be destroyed forever.” 

“Hold tight and find life.”

Reflection on Luke 20:27-38

Luke 20:27-38 (NRSVue)

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] 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 a woman 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.”

 

Reflection

“To [God], all of them are alive” (Luke 20:38).  That is what Jesus says about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In the eyes of God these faithful ancestors of long ago are all alive. 

I had a Baptist friend who was blown away by that singular verse of scripture.  He had always thought that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could not have possibly come to know Jesus Christ and come to believe in him as their personal Lord and Savior.  All three had died long before Jesus.  He was previously convinced that they were lost, gone, never to find hope in the resurrection.  But, right here in the Bible is where Jesus blew his mind and revealed that, in God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive, a part of eternal life.  “I guess it really is only God who decides these things.  It is not up to us at all.  Not even the size of our faith decides it.  Only God does,” he commented excitedly as if he had stumbled upon the largest revelation of his life.

Before this, he wondered about the eternal fate of those who had lived before Jesus’ birth.  It was a question about death that had loomed in the back of his mind.  But he is not the only one to have questions about death and what happens after. 

“What about my pets?  Will I get to see them in heaven?” was the hot debate one afternoon in the scene shop of my college theatre department.  Guys were busy nailing, painting, and constructing, and it hardly seemed like the appropriate space for a theological debate, and yet there we were, debating the afterlife of fluffy little pets.  Well, mostly fluffy anyway.  I had a hermit crab for a pet.  Do they go to heaven?

A woman once asked a much more deeply personal question: “Will my husband be mad that I married someone else after he died?  And will I be forced to choose between them in the afterlife?  Or will it just be an eternity of anxiety as I live between these two people that I have loved with my whole heart?”  As I said, lots of people have questions about the afterlife.  Death always seems to linger close by.

“Will my child be forever eight years old?  Will God never give her the chance to know the excitement of finding who she is and finding the love of her life?” the mother of a child who had recently been overcome by cancer asked.  The questions come, stabbing at our hearts and death lingers.

I wish that I had clear answers to all these questions concerning death.  I am not certain that I have any.  But what I do have to say is that all these questions are honest.  They are all heartfelt.  They all touch on love and loss and uncertainty and hope in a very real and raw way.

This was not the case with the Sadducees.  They were members of the wealthy, religious families who oversaw the temple.  They came up to Jesus and asked a question of their own.  But their question was not honest.  It was not heartfelt and tender.  It was an absurd question about a woman who ended up having seven husbands as she was handed from brother to brother upon each brother’s death.  The Sadducees want to know who owns the woman in the resurrection.  “In the resurrection…whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her” (Luke 20:33).

If read in the Greek, the phrase about whose wife she will be stinks strongly of “who will possess her,” and I find that horrid.  They wanted to know who owned her.  I find the idea of owning anyone repulsive.  Further, they did not actually care about Jesus’ answer.  They just wanted him to fall into the trap of talking about an absurd situation and answering in an absurd way, all to prove that they were right in thinking that “there is no resurrection” (Luke 20:27).  They wanted to show that Jesus was wrong in claiming that there is a resurrection.  Their question was not heartfelt or honest.

Now, I do not know how much Jesus understood at the time about us and our concerns about death over two thousand years into the future, but Jesus’ answer is heartfelt and honest, as if he knew that there would be times in our lives when we would desperately need his answer.

As if Jesus somehow knows that we are listening in on his answer about the resurrected life, Jesus answers honestly to the Sadducees’ dishonest question.  Jesus answers that it is “Those who belong to this age” who “marry and are given in marriage” (Luke 20:34).  In other words, these questions and problems are what we worry about in this age and this life.  

And we do worry.  We worry about hurting other’s feelings when we love someone new, and we project that fear into the resurrected life.  We worry about children and all they do or do not get to experience, and we project that fear into the resurrected life.  We worry if we will get to see and be with certain loved ones again, and we project that fear into the resurrected life.  But the resurrected life will be completely different from anything we have experienced in this age Jesus says. 

The resurrected life does not follow the same rules as this life.  It is a life we cannot even imagine.  It is a life that we have never experienced. 

We have not experienced a time without the fear of death.  We have not experienced life in the continuous presence of God without sin and fear creeping nearby.  We have not experienced a life where people cannot die.  We have not experienced a life where people have no need to marry to draw close to someone else.  In the resurrected life we will all be drawn together in the Lord, and we just cannot imagine not needing to worry about any of these questions.

It is like how today’s children will never know what it is like to have to rush home to see an episode of your favorite television show because it is only going to air once, and if you miss it, you miss it.  They do not know the anxiety of watching the time tick closer and closer to the start of the show as the pastor drones on and on at the evening council meeting.

With the advent of on-demand entertainment, this world from the past is a world that children these days simply cannot imagine.  They do not know the feelings and fears associated with that world.  They do not know the frustrations.  They know nothing about those times gone by.

Nor, at the time, could we have ever imagined that life could exist without those television anxieties and worries.  I had no idea that a time was coming when I could just search for the final episode of the comedy Three’s Company; an episode that I did not get to see since it aired when we were on the road. 

Speaking of being on the road, we also never imagined that a time would come when you would not have to worry about how you were going to get gas when traveling far from the interstates because it was Sunday and all the gas stations were closed.

Just as we could not imagine the times we are living in now, so too we just cannot imagine the resurrected life, where the anxieties and fears and questions of this world just do not make sense any longer.  We cannot imagine it, but we can hope for it. 

We can hope for the days of new life when we will not need to worry about our children and spouses who have left us way too early.  We can hope for the days when we will not fear death or worry about its implications because, as Jesus says, we “cannot die anymore” (Luke 20:36a).  We hope for the days when we “are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36b).  We hope for the days when death is not the period at the end of the sentence, when death is not the period at the end of our lives, but death is rather a coma that simply leads us to the new part of the sentence, to the new part of our lives.  We hope for the days when we can simply bask in the knowledge that to be with God is to be alive. 

To be with God is to be alive.  God is life.  God is love.  God is eternal.  God is everlasting.  God simply is.  Death cannot lay claim to God.  We saw that as God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, burst from the tomb as if death had no say on his life.  That same Jesus Christ pulls us up with him out of the pit of death as a father who does not want to leave his children behind.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has made you children of God forever.  You are children of the resurrection, and you will not be left behind in the grave.

“Children.”  The Bible says that resurrected ones “are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36b).  Jesus says we are children. 

I do not think that he meant it to be demeaning.  The great thing about children is that they simply trust.  When they are lost, they hold the hand of a parent and just trust that the parent knows the way.  When they do not understand what is going on in life, they just trust that a parent does understand and will know how to make things right.  Children are little sponges that suck up new teachings, and they trust that you have something to teach. 

Children simply trust, and that is what makes them so great in God’s eyes.  And in the resurrected life we will be children.  I do not know if we will look like children, but I do know that we will trust like children.  We will trust God without the doubts, questions, and control issues that we have in this life.  We will simply listen to Jesus’ voice; and when he says, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” we will run to him and welcome the mysterious, yet wonderful existence that is the resurrected life (Luke 18:16).

May you know the power of that trust even in this life and this age.

Reflection on Luke 6:20-31

Luke 6:[17-19], 20-31 (NRSVue)

¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹ And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

²⁰ Then [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and said:
 “Blessed are you who are poor,
  for yours is the kingdom of God.
 ²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
  for you will be filled.
 “Blessed are you who weep now,
  for you will laugh.
  ²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
 ²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,
  for you have received your consolation.
 ²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now,
  for you will be hungry.
 “Woe to you who are laughing now,
  for you will mourn and weep.
  ²⁶ “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

  ²⁷ “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; ²⁸ bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 

Reflection

The gospel story was supposed to be shorter today, but I just had to include the part that talks about Jesus coming down and standing on a level place with a multitude of people coming from various regions to surround him and find healing and wholeness through his power.  That picture is the image that I have of heaven where people of all different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and personalities gather together around their savior.  That moment on the plain is a heaven on earth moment; a moment when the values and concerns of heaven leak down onto the earth for us to see and experience. 

And who exactly are the people who gather from the various regions for this heaven on earth moment?  Well, the Bible says that they were struggling people who sought out Jesus’ teachings and deeply needed Jesus’ healing.  The Bible says, “They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.  And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them” (Luke 6:18-19).

“Healed all of them” (Luke 6:19).  

When I think about my dad during his last days, how frail, weak, and in pain he was as he lay in that borrowed hospital bed in the middle of the living room, all I can remember is thinking, “Soon this will all be over and you will be healed.  You will be with Jesus and you will be well.”  “Healed all of them” (Luke 6:19).  In no way did I want my dad to leave, but at the same time I wanted nothing more than for him to touch the healing power of his Savior and be one with the heavenly chorus of the healed.  In heaven, the formerly sick and formerly healthy gather together, the formerly excluded and formerly included gather together, the formerly poor and formerly rich gather together around Jesus who has made all things new and well again.

Back to our heaven on earth moment there on the level plain, the place of equality, the place of togetherness, the place gathered around Jesus where the values and concerns of heaven leak down on the people.  Listen closely to those values and concerns as Jesus begins to teach. 

I find those values and concerns easier to take when set to music.

Blessed are you poor, yours is the kingdom.

Blessed are you who hunger now.

Blessed are you mourners, you will find laughter.

Blessed are you when you’re reviled.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, your reward’s great in heav’n.

The good life belongs to those who Jesus gathered with him on that level plain.  The good, kingdom life, belongs to the poor.  I cannot help but think about the parable that Jesus tells from Luke 14:12-24 where a man holds a great feast and those who were first invited, the wealthy and well-off, do not come.  So, Jesus says that the man extends to invitation to the poor, crippled, lame, and blind so that they can feast at the banquet.  The good life belongs to them. 

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you and defame you on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:20-22).

I wonder if we have forgotten who Jesus blesses in this age where our culture forgets the struggling, reviles the poor, and excludes the stranger? 

A few years ago, there was an immigrant who found herself stranded with her child in our community.   She and her child had been brought here from South America by her abusive husband, who abandoned her and the child with nothing.  She had nowhere to go.  She had nowhere to turn, except to her brothers and sisters in Christ. 

What I find fascinating about her situation is that the first pastor to whom she reached out was a very old school, conservative guy.  This guy expected his wife to listen and follow.  He expected much the same from the members of his congregation.  You can guess what he thought about immigrants.  But, when this mother and child showed up on his doorstep, he welcomed them into his home and ordered his wife to start cooking.

“That is very generous of you” I mentioned to him one day.

“Blessed are the poor, hungry, and weeping,” he simply said.  It was a heaven on earth moment, where the values and concerns of heaven had leak down onto this man of faith.  The sight of those four (pastor, wife, immigrant mother and immigrant child) gathered around the dinner table was a small glimpse of what we will get to see when we join the saints gathered around our Savior and feasting together in heaven.

Of course, Jesus does not stop his teaching at the blessings, and neither does my song.

Woe to you rich, you’ve found your comfort.

Woe to you now who are full.

Woe if you laugh now, you will mourn and weep.

Woe if all speak of you well.

Return to the Lord and turn from your ways.

You’ll find arms wide in heav’n.

Here is the thing.  In the parable of the man who throws a feast that I mentioned just moments ago, those blessed with power and riches are invited to the feast.  In fact, they are invited first; their blessings demonstrating all that God has entrusted to them.  They are invited to sit at the table and feast.  The sad thing about the parable is that they exclude themselves from the banquet. 

And when I say “sad” I truly mean it.  The Greek word that Jesus uses when he pronounces his “woes” on the rich, the full, the laughing, and the well-regarded, is a word that strongly exclaims grief and lament.  It expresses a powerful sadness at someone’s unfortunate choices and the troubling consequences that their stone-hearted choices will cause.

“I’m so lonely” the man shared.  He had done it to himself, of course.  He admitted that he got extremely mad at his family because of their willingness to love and embrace someone he hated.  They welcomed this person into his family, and he got so angry that he chose to push them all out of his life.  His entire family was gone.  He was resolved in his decision until Christmas came.  “Who will I eat with?  Who will celebrate with me?”

“You can go to your family.  I know they will accept you,” I said.

He looked down at the floor and simply cried.  He could not imagine groveling.  Nor could he imagine feasting with the one he hated.

“Why didn’t they choose me?” he cried.

To him, Jesus has some tough words: “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

They are tough words for me as well at times, but they are swallowed much easier when they are sung.

Do good and love all those who curse you,

Bless those who hate, give them pray’r.

Give to all people who would take from you.

Maybe they may learn to care.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,

Your reward’s great in heav’n.

After-all, there is this feast to which the Lord invites us.  It is a feast to which the Lord hopes to invite the well-off and the poor, the morally great and the sinner, those laughing and those weeping, those loved and those hated.  The heavenly feast includes all of those various people because Jesus desires that they all be there, not because any of them deserve it.  Jesus simply loves them all.  Jesus simply desires that they all be gathered together like on that day on the plain, where he came down to the level of everyone else and gave the gifts of teaching and healing.  Jesus desires that they all be gathered together like on that day on the cross where he spread his arms out wide to embrace even the ones of nailed him there, even the sinners gathered around him, even the thief who would soon find himself included in the kingdom. 

“The [thief] said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’  [Jesus] replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:42-43).

And he is there.  He is among the saints gathered around Jesus, held close through forgiveness and love. Guess what is served at the feast? Love. Love is the main course at the feast.  Love is what allows the feast to even happen.  And, as the Apostle Paul once said, “Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:8).  Christ’s love keeps the feast alive for eternity as the saints gather around.

Love as God loves.  Do unto others

as you would have done to you.

Even the sinners love those who love them.

May en’mies learn love from you.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,

Your reward’s great in heav’n.

 

Be merciful as God show mercy.

You will be children of God.