The Goal Isn't To Escape Earth To Get To Heaven
In Luke 20 the Sadducess asked Jesus a question …
“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. Now there were 7 brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and third married her, and so in the same way all died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the 7 had married her.”
The Sadducees were being jerks.
And I say that because whereas PHARISEES believed that all would be raised at the end of the age (they believed in the eventual resurrection of the dead), the SADDUCEES did not. And so they weren’t asking Jesus this ridiculous question because they were curious, but because they wanted to make him look stupid.
“Hey Jesus. You believe in a resurrection? Cool. So if a woman marries 7 brothers, who will she be in God’s Kingdom? Brother 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7?”
And then all high-fived each other like a bunch of middle school boys picking on the kid everybody hated out on the playground.
Jesus, though, takes the questions seriously and informs them that the woman won’t marry because “those considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry or are given in marriage. Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are like children of God.”
Hm.
The woman, remember, was a WOMAN. And as a woman she was an outcast in her own right. Women in Jesus’ time were seen as lower class, uneducated, and without any rights. They weren’t much more than property of men, which we see in the Sadducees story, right? They didn’t really want to know who she would happily marry after the resurrection, but whose property she would be.
“7 different brothers owned her in this life, which one will own her in the next?”
Jesus, though, lets them know that no one would own this outcasted woman because in the next life she will be elevated to the place of an angel.
In her commentary on this story, Nancy Lynne Westfield says that “this radical statement of the Gospel, that there are no sociopolitical states in heaven, is good news even today.”
Why?
Because those who have been dehumanized will be restored.
Those who have been oppressed will be set free.
Those who have been treated as inferior will be called beloved.
“This woman”, Jesus was saying, “will no longer be the property of any man. She will be nothing other than a child of God. An angel. She will know the joy and the peace that was not hers while she lived amongst men such as yourselves.”
BUT.
The goal, though, remember, isn’t to escape here and get to there.
Right?
The goal of this life isn’t to just make it through the oppression of this life so that we can get to the sweet resurrection of the next.
Rather, the goal is to make this world and this life a less oppressive place for those who spend their lives in oppression. The goal is for you and for me and for all of God’s people to look around them and have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the cries of people who are being oppressed and dehumanized and do what we can to eliminate the sources of their pain and help set them and their voices free.
Right here.
Right NOW.
We’re not called to sit on our hands and wait for the day that God makes everything right. Instead, we’re called to get off our hands and use them as God’s own hands to make things right now.
Whether it’s a woman who you know of who is being abused at home.
Or a kid who sits by himself at the lunch table every week.
Or a boss at work who you know is going through a rough time at home.
Or a single mom on your street who can’t afford groceries for her kids.
Or the LGBTQ person who is deathly afraid to come out.
Surely there is someone in your midst, someone your life today who is being oppressed by the circumstances of their lives.
What will you do to bring resurrection to them today? To bring them new life? To help them find their voice? And see their worth?
Much love to you,