Will you be married in Heaven?
9/22/2009 12:04:25 PM
Please read Luke 20.27-40 Good Morning. "Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees"--who were they?  They were one of three different Jewish sects at the time of Christ, who were mostly aristocrats.


Please read Luke 20.27-40


Good Morning.


"Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees"--who were they? They were one of three different Jewish sects at the time of Christ, who were mostly aristocrats. The Sadducees held the majority of the 70 seats of the supreme council or high court called the Sanhedrin. (The Sanhedrin will be convened to decide what to do with Jesus after His arrest.) Almost all of the high priestly families were Sadducees, and though they had the confidence of the wealthy, the general populace could simply not relate to them. In order to understand that the Sadducees too were coming to trap Jesus--this time in a theological controversy, you have to know some of what they believed: they denied any resurrection of the dead and any afterlife--believing that the soul perished at death, therefore there is no penalty or reward after earthly life. (I was taught that is why they are called the Sadducees, because they don't believe in life after death, which is very sad-you-see?) This set them apart from the Pharisees--who were mostly middle-class businessmen, whose aim it was to uphold the Law, and all oral traditions as well, making them very legalistic. Unlike the Sadducees, they certainly believed in the after life, and were generally more in step with the common man. Then there was the stricter sect, the Essenes, who held to a severer discipline. They rejected pleasure as evil and esteemed conquest over passion to be virtuous. They believed in sharing all their possessions in common--no one among them was poor, and no one was rich, as that was despised. So the Sadducees came to Jesus, and. . .


"They posed this question: "Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother's name. Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. So the second brother married the widow, but he also died. Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, who died without children. Finally, the woman also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!" Jesus answers by telling them there will be no marriage in Heaven. To which, all the Mormons say, "Wait just a second here. . ." While it is common knowledge that the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ or the Mormons as most know them, highly esteem their families, there is more to it than just that. One of the greatest promises of Mormonism, (this from an LDS website) is embodied in the doctrine of celestial marriage. Celestial marriage refers to a type of marriage which Mormons believe is intended to last beyond the grave and through eternity, (thereby refuting Jesus' teaching here in Luke's gospel). 'Celestial' means 'heavenly' and indicates that the marriage is heavenly in nature, and divine in its origin and potential. The marriage must be 'sealed' in the Temple, (which has its own very strict requirements for admittance--while there are 130 temples worldwide--fewer than 10 percent of all LDS members are allowed to enter these structures. The temple is for performing the faith's most sacred ordinances--marriages or sealing of marriages--that had not been performed in the temple originally--and proxy baptisms for the dead.) If the marriage is 'sealed', it will be 'bound' on both earth and Heaven; otherwise, it ends at death. Okay, we'll stop there--but it is interesting to know what other prominent religions teach, isn't it? In the Fall of 2007, I taught a series of classes entitled, "What Do They Believe, Anyway? It was at once fascinating and also challenging to get a good grasp of the fundamentals of the LDS, Scientology, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Judaism in America. Very worthwhile study.


So about the seven husbands. . . the Sadducees probably keyed on the number 'seven' because there was a familiar folk tale of seven brothers, each of whom married the same wife in turn, and died childless. It was used by the Sadducees in an attempt to ridicule the Pharisees for their belief in the afterlife. It is key to note that the Sadducees accepted only the first five books of the Old Testament (the Torah) as supreme authority. Jesus meets them on this point, by noting how God said to Moses (remember, from the burning bush?) that the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--the God of the living, not the dead. So. . . if God is still God to the patriarchs as He speaks to Moses, long after their deaths, they must be alive or present somehow in the midst of God. Brilliant! Jesus uses the Torah to support the resurrection of the dead, of life after death--this held them speechless.


So, what about resurrection--about life after death--why does it matter? Because we do not have just the promise of Heaven to the believer, but that of TRANSFORMATION. Paul talks about this miraculous change of our perishable, imperfect bodies to the imperishable spiritual bodies we will be given. . . It will happen "in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." 1 Corinthians 15.52 I want to be transformed--totally. . . 'you?


Well, here in Luke 20, Jesus has rebuffed his enemies on his own ministry's authority, on politics, and now on theology--it is too much for the Pharisees and Sadducees, who at least agreed on taking Jesus down--no more questions. He beat them at their own game every time.


Until we are changed. . .

Christine