Marriage in the Eternal?
September 9, 2023
Luke 20:27-40 | Isaiah 29:13-14
(Warning: Today’s reflection is going to be different than most.)
What is?
What will be?
…and how then shall we live right now?
These are some of the larger overshadowing questions that come to mind and heart when reading our passage for today. Jesus’ answers to all these gotcha questions are always wise and perhaps surprising. But today’s may go quite a bit further for many in today’s context.
Marriage is an earthly phenomenon. It is not eternal. It is something God has given blessing to for humanity, a gift. It is not an original divine institution the likes of the sabbath. It is for the protection and maintenance of human relationship.
This is not to say that marriage doesn’t or can’t reflect the beauty of God (and it should). It’s also not to say that marriage can’t serve as a sacramental means of grace in that it can and does have the potential to carry the righteousness, beauty, and love of God.
But marriage is not a heavenly institution. The RomCom, Disneyfied, happily-ever-after context we live in might not like this.
But Jesus said it. So we have to wrestle with it.
Honestly, if you think about it, it might even be freeing. “‘Til death do us part,” is actually the exact right vow, perhaps written in light of this very passage.
This brings up some significantly difficult questions. Is sexual union only an earthly phenomenon as well? What do relationships look like in the resurrection? How, for so many, can such a central and integral understanding of relationship just go away? (Perhaps there’s a reason that Jesus was not married beyond the pragmatics of a particular bloodline or his knowledge that to do so would be irresponsible in light of his pending death. Maybe it’s more about a particular heavenly solidarity with all people.)
Regardless, he answers wisely and magnificiently yet again. And let’s give the religious leaders at least a little bit of a nod in that they finally acknowledge his wisdom.
…and resolve not to try and trip him up again.
Luke 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, who deny that there’s a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. The second and then the third brother married her. Eventually all seven married her, and they all died without leaving any children. Finally, the woman died too. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.”
Jesus said to them, “People who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to participate in that age, that is, in the age of the resurrection from the dead, won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. They can no longer die, because they are like angels and are God’s children since they share in the resurrection. Even Moses demonstrated that the dead are raised—in the passage about the burning bush, when he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. To him they are all alive.”
Some of the legal experts responded, “Teacher, you have answered well.” No one dared to ask him anything else.
Isaiah 29:13-14
The Lord says:
Since these people turn toward me with their mouths,
and honor me with lip service
while their heart is distant from me,
and their fear of me is just a human command that has been memorized,
I will go on doing amazing things to these people,
shocking and startling things.
The wisdom of their wise will perish,
and the discernment of their discerning will be hidden.
Prayer
God,
It’s definitely one of those the-more-I-learn-the-less-I-know kind of days. You astound me. And while I’m confident that you don’t want me to feel stupid…I do feel like I have a lot to learn.
So help me, God:
Give me wisdom beyond knowledge of facts and figures.
Above all, season it with love.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Great commentary. This has always been an enigma for me but I trust God that He knows the best way.