Luke 20:27-38
November 2, 2022
Devotions at the American Baptist Foundation Board Meetings
King of Prussia, PA
The American Baptist Foundation works with dead people’s money. We often say, the will or estate or trust matures—meaning that someone died.
After I retired from paid ministry 7 years ago, my wife and I finally created a living trust to replace a 40-plus year will that we created before I graduated from seminary in 1975. Like many people, when one is busy with life and ministry, there is never a good time to think about our eventual demise. And in Chinese culture, to do so may also bring about bad luck. My mother would say, “Wash out your mouth!”
The Gospel lesson for this Sunday comes from Luke 20:27-38. The Sadducees were trying to lay a trap for Jesus about eternal life. Since the Sadducees, a group of intellectuals of that time, didn’t believe in the idea that there’s a continuation of life after death, they present to Jesus the case of seven brothers who marry their brother’s widow as prescribed by law at that time. I wonder if each of the brothers had a “charitable remainder trust!” The question is, “If there is eternal life, upon the death of all the brothers and the woman, to whom will the woman be married?”
The Sadducees were probably making fun of Jesus’ teachings. But he took their trap seriously and told them that after their death they will no longer marry or be given in marriage, for they are now like angels, children of God, and all will remain so forever (vv. 34-36).
The point that Jesus is making to the Sadducees is that eternal life is not simply the continuation of mortal or earthly life beyond death. Whatever the reality is on the other side of earthly life, we should not think of it as a continuation of this life that affords us an opportunity to complete still imperfect or incomplete work.
The challenge for us today is that we humans have to do now what we can do for good, such as help the needy, work for the improvement of the human situation, resist threats to fellow humans and other creatures. When ABF funds and Palmer Grants are distributed to support ministries and missions, we are enabling the doing good now.
In the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we see that death is the end of many things, but it is not the end of everything. In God’s compassion, God puts people in God’s heart. While we humans are not eternal, God’s love for us as humans is eternal. Our life does not continue constantly, but God’s mercy is unending toward those to whom God is merciful. As we were, so we are now in God. Because we are in God, this means that we are now healed from our illnesses and cleansed from our evils.
Jesus ends with vv. 37-38 with this: 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. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” What does this mean to say, “to him all…are alive?”
This means that all humans who lived before us and who are now not among us are living “to God.” Because of that connection with God, they are also not dead to us. They have not only spoken in their former times; they still speak today. We do not live without them. The members of the first elected people of Israel, the members of the Christian church, all the people who have given their estates to the ABF, were loved by God before our times—none of them has passed away. We are today, together with them, the complete people of God.
As ABF board members, we cannot fully know all members of God’s people. But when we perform our duties to receive, review, hold in prayer and distribute funds, we come close to those who have left such resources for the work of God’s reign on earth. These generous givers are still saying to us that God is not of the dead, but of the living.
Let us pray.
Dear Gracious and Living God, bless our time and work together as the American Baptist Foundation board with important responsibilities to proclaim that you in Christ is the God of the dead and the living. In our fiduciary tasks, lead us to make available resources that will enliven old ways to become new again, energize weak visions to see everything new again, and empower us to bring about peace and justice on earth. In the name of Christ, the Resurrected One, we pray. Amen.