Sermon text: Luke 20:27–38
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Today is the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost. Our gospel text this morning is Luke chapter 20, verses 27 through 38 — the account of the Sadducees coming to Jesus with a question about the resurrection.
“There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.’”
It is a trick question. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They are trying to trap Jesus, to make the resurrection look ridiculous.
But Jesus answers them: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Sons of the resurrection. That is what you are. That is the theme of this morning’s sermon.
Notice what Jesus does not do: He does not get drawn into their hypothetical. He does not try to answer their riddle on their terms. Instead, He corrects their false assumption. They assume that the resurrection life is just a continuation of this life — marriage and all. But Jesus says: no. The resurrection life is something entirely new. “They cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
And then He proves the resurrection from the Scriptures they do accept — the books of Moses: “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive. They live to Him. And so will you.
This is the great comfort of the resurrection. Death is not the end. The grave is not the final word. Christ has risen from the dead, and because He lives, you will live also.
You are sons of the resurrection. You have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. You have died with Him, and you will rise with Him. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
So do not fear death. Do not fear the grave. Christ has conquered them both. And on the Last Day, He will raise you up, and you will live with Him forever — as sons of the resurrection.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.