Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Luke 20:27-38New International Version (NIV)

The Resurrection and Marriage

27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too.33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

When I was 15 I was on top of the world.  I had a sweet 1979 Monte Carlo that was baby poop green and my school permit.  Earlier that summer I had put a new cd player and upgraded the 6x9 speakers in the back window and I liked listening to my music loudly so everyone I drove by had to listen to it too.  On this particular day, there was a softball game going on that I was attending and just so everyone could see my car and listen to my loud music as I drove away, I left a couple innings before the game was over.  Because, you know, that ugly car with a terrible sound system was going to impress the girl I thought was cute at the time... At that time you could park on the road by the softball field because they didn’t have the grass lot yet and it was a yield sign instead of a stop sign at the intersection of Jones St. and N. West St.  I was careful when I pulled up to that yield sign.  I actually stopped, looked both directions.  I crept forward, then stopped again and looked both directions.  I finally decided the coast was clear and decided to proceed with the left turn.  Then all of a sudden, wham! I see a young man airborne across the hood of my car.  I get out and he is a little banged up but doing fine and his moped laid there in front of my car.  The people who saw everything happen come up to the accident and see that everyone is ok and call the cops.  

When the incident first happened, I thought for sure it was my fault.  I mean, I hit a young man on moped at an intersection.  How could it not be my fault?  The young officer that showed up did his due diligence to his credit.  He spoke with a couple witnesses that said the young man came off the sidewalk with his moped and that is why I didn’t see him.  After that evidence was told to the officer, he decided to not give me a ticket that evening.  I may have been embarrassed in front of that girl I thought was cute but at least I was going to be able to keep my license.  I was happy the officer did his due diligence to seek truth and justice, especially since it was to my benefit.  Justice had been served.  The young man had a couple scrapes and bruises but other than that he was fine.  The system worked because it worked out in my favor.  I went to the bed that night relieved and thankful for that officer.  

However, the next morning was very different.  After my parents had gone to work and I had just gotten out of bed, the officer from the night before showed up out at the house at the end of his shift.  He showed up to give me a ticket for failing to yield while making a left turn.  I was speechless.  I was destroyed.  I was angry.  How could he do this?  How could he change his mind?  The worst part, I then had to turn around and call my parents and have two different conversations with them about what had just happened.  Their reaction was similar to mine but they did a much better job of keeping their emotions in check.  I spent that whole morning so angry and upset.  I cried tears of anger and frustration with the whole process.  This wasn’t fair.  The system was rigged and the officer was a jerk.  The system had failed and justice was not served.  I grew to despise that young officer because I just knew that he was out to get me for some reason.... I knew he had something against me.  Every time I saw him after that, that feeling of disgust ran rampant through my body.  I fostered those feelings for several years and held a grudge against that officer even though I never ran into him again.  Any chance I got to bash him and his character I took advantage of by piling on whenever his name was brought up.

During the course of the last several years, I have gotten to know that officer.  He is not the arrogant, self-righteous jerk I spent several years thinking he was.  I feel terrible for the many things I said about him behind his back.  He was doing his job.  A job that I am now grateful he does.  A job that could possible put him in danger.  A job where he lost one of his closest friends on Wednesday.  He is a great officer and even better human being.  It has taken me over 16 years to fully understand that and it shouldn’t have taken nearly that long.  After the vigil/memorial service that we put on he came up and thanked me.  He thanked me.  I didn’t deserve it especially after the many terrible things I had said about him in the years prior to getting to know him.  He lost a very close friend, he serves his communities and he thanked me.  No officer, thank you.

In our scripture for this morning, the Sadducees were trying to catch Jesus with a “gotcha” question as they didn’t believe in the resurrection anyway.  Deuteronomy 25:5 is where the statement about marrying your brother’s wife if he passes away childless takes place and this was one of the many scriptures they would point to as a defense for their stance on resurrection.  In fact, they viewed the resurrection as a ridiculous concept.  We all have these ideas and notions of what Heaven will be like.  We all want to know if we will see our loved ones there.  We all want to know what it will be like so we come up with these ideas and statements about what heaven will look like because it puts our minds and hearts at ease.  But the truth is that we don’t really know.  And that is by design.  Jesus encouraged the hearers of his teaching that day to not focus on the technicalities of heaven and instead to focus on the love of God.  

The Sadducees often declared that they could not believe in heaven since there was little information on it and even less proof on the matter.  Both are valid points in the minds of many still today.  However, Jesus makes it make sense by saying God is not the God of the dead.  He is the God of the living.  If God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob then they still have to be alive.  This argument satisfied the Sadducees and the Scribes but the same argument may not satisfy the minds of modern people.  This scripture is difficult to preach for this very reason but we can still take a couple things away from it: 1)God is the God of the living; and 2) in the words of William Barclay, “Jesus used language and arguments which people could and did understand; he met people with their own vocabulary, on their own ground, and with their own ideas. We will be far better teachers of Christianity and far better witnesses for Christ when we learn to do the same.”

In closing, God is the God of the living so there is a question I must ask you... Are you alive?  Are you slowly dieing inside with the dislike or even hatred of another person in your heart?  Are you fostering hatred instead of love?  Is there an addiction, vice or sin that is robbing your family, friends and humankind of the truest greatness you are destined for through the love of Christ?  I shared my story of the officer as a way to show all of you that God is alive.  How else could the story of me and that officer come full circle if God did not have some sort of hand in all the circumstances that lead to our interactions?  Think about it.  Every single choice made on my part and the officer’s led us to that moment Wednesday evening.  Every choice over the course of 16 years could have derailed that encounter.  That is the God we worship.  We don’t understand all the why’s and mysteries of life but yet Jesus calls us to not focus on them.  Instead, focus on the love of God.  Failing to yield while making a left turn when I was 15 led me to that moment Wednesday evening.  As a teenager, there is no way I could grasp that concept.  And as an adult, there is no way I could fully understand the glory, the love and the grace of God but I do know that I am loved and that I will my best to let others know they too are loved.