|
|
|
Luke 20:27-38
What's next? The story goes that there was this young pastor who was concerned about one of his church members. He didn't know if the man was really saved. For reasons we won't get into just now he was unsure of the man's faith. So he decided he needed to find a way to ask the man if he really believed in Jesus. But he wasn't quite sure how to broach the question. Finally he went to he man's house and after they sat and talked about nothing in particular he leaned forward in a serious way and asked, "Sir, do you believe in the hereafter?"
The man almost jumped out of his chair. "Do I believe in it? I've experienced it!" The preacher though the man must have had a near death experience or maybe he was one of those people who was clinically dead and saw a light or something. So he replied, "Tell me about it."
The man said, "Just the other day I was sitting right here in this chair. And I got up and walked into that room. Then I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around. Then I said to myself, 'Now what am I here after?'"
There is always a lot of curiosity about what's next; about the afterlife. When people want to ask a preacher a religious question a lot of time it has to do with the after life and how to get there. And like any hot topic people have their opinions. It was no different in Jesus' Day. Among the religious people back then there were two schools of thought about the after life. One was that there was no after life; that when this life was over that was it. This was the point of view of the fundamentalists of Jesus day who were called the Sadducees. Moses didn't say anything about an after life in the first five books of the Bible so they didn't believe in it; that's why they were so "sad-u-see."
The other group was the Pharisees - the liberals of Jesus' day. They pointed to prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel who said that at the end of time there would be a resurrection of all who had died. At that time there would be a judgment and the righteous would go to heaven and the unrighteous to hell.
Well the Sadducees decided that they would use Jesus to make a point for their side of the argument. I guess they knew that if they asked him a question about the after life it would get the people's attention and make them look good. So they used what they knew: the laws of Moses. They took an obscure law of Moses that required that if a woman was widowed with no children then the closest male relative was supposed to marry her. This was an Old Testament from of Social Security. If a woman had no husband and no children to care for her then she would be given a new husband from the same family whether she loved him or not.
So the Sadducees constructed a scenario where a woman ends up marrying 7 brothers. In the afterlife who will be her husband? Remember the Sadducees don't believe in an afterlife. They are really trying to argue that there is no afterlife. They wanted Jesus to say that God would not have given them a law that results in a woman having seven husbands if there were life after death, so there must be no resurrection.
Well Jesus shuts them up by quoting Moses, who was quoting God, saying that, to God, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were still alive even after their physical deaths. But what I want to focus on is what Jesus says about the after life. What can we learn about what's next from this passage. You know the afterlife is still a hot topic today. And just as in Jesus' day, there are still differences of opinion about what's next.
Some people believe that when we die we all sleep until the resurrection of our bodies. Jesus here says that he believes in the resurrection. There are other places in the both the Old and the New Testament that speak of a resurrection and a judgment at the end of time. Paul tells the early church that those who die in Christ will sleep until that day when they will be raised to meet Jesus in the air.
The other point of view is that when we die we go to be with God right then, or we go to Hell right then. Didn't Jesus say to the thief on the cross you will be with me today in paradise? When John was taken up into heaven he saw people there who had lived and died on earth. So both the idea that when we die we sleep awaiting the resurrection and the idea that we go directly to heaven are in the Bible.
But what can we tell about what's next from Jesus comment on the resurrection? One thing that Jesus says is that we will be like the angels. I guess this is why people imagine that we will all have wings in heaven. Whether we have wings or not is not what Jesus is getting at. He is saying that things will be entirely different in the next world. In heaven our relationship will be of a completely different order. We will be beyond what we know in this world.
What else can we tell about heaven from the words of Jesus and the Bible? In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus described heaven as being like a great banquet. Jesus also tells his disciples that there will be a place for us in his Father's house where there are many mansions. In the book of Revelation John describes a place of light and beauty and wonder. He describes streets of gold and heavenly creatures praising God without end.
But perhaps the most important part of John's description of Heaven in Revelation is its indescribability. Just as the Sadducees are unable to conceive of an after life much less one where relationships are of a different order from here, so John is unable to describe the things that he sees with any precision. He keeps saying it is like this or it is like that. He lacks the vocabulary to do it justice. So the beauty and wonder of heaven defies complete description.
So what can we say about what's next? One thing we can say for sure is that there is a life after this one. That is without doubt in the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. But what is the nature and character of what's next? That is a little more iffy. Some Christians, based on the Bible believe that when we die we sleep awaiting the resurrection and judgment. Others believe that when we die we go at least in spirit to be with Jesus, and they have scriptures to back up their opinion too.
And what will heaven be like? That seems to be up for debate too. It is definitely glorious. We will be in the presence of God and the angels.
I guess the only way to really find out what Heaven is like is to go there. You really want to know what's next? Well first you have to find someone who can take you there, who has been there. That person is Jesus. He came from heaven and died and went back to heaven.
Put Your Life Where Your Prayers Are! "Practice what you preach." "Put your money where your mouth is." All these expressions emphasize the importance of putting actions behind our words. They are different ways of saying, "Show me you really believe what you say." We all know someone who "Talks a good game." They say a lot and make a lot of claims. But we wonder if they can live up to those claims. We have all seen the athlete that goes on and on for the reporters about how he or she will utterly defeat their opponent. And after a while I just want to say, "Put up or Shut up."
Instead of talking about it, do it. Show me your stuff. Do your words really mean anything? If they don't then don't bother me with them.
That's what the world is saying to the church. We talk about grace and mercy and power from above and new life. The world hears what we say. But they don't know if they can trust us. They remember that others have offered them love and kindness and power before. Most of the time those people were just talking a good game. They really couldn't deliver the goods. And they look to see if our lives really demonstrate faith and power and love and mercy and grace. Most of the time they look at Christians and they don't see those things.
God's people have always talked a good game, but they did not always deliver. The prophets promised salvation and peace. They preached to dry bones, and they came to life. They prophesied destruction, and kingdoms fell. God's prophets not only talked a good game, they delivered the goods. But there has always been a portion of God's people, usually the majority, who spoke empty words and meaningless promises that they didn't believe.
The people of Bethel who came to the prophet Zechariah talked a good game. They said, "For these last 70 years since the temple was destroyed we have been fasting in the fifth month. We have commemorated the temple's destruction by weeping yearly on its anniversary. The temple is only half finished, shall we continue in mourning and fasting." They sounded religious, but they really didn't care for God. Their words were empty. Bethel had set up its own temple; they really didn't care about the temple in Jerusalem. They spoke of fasting and prayer, but they didn't back it up with love and justice.
Even in Jesus' day God's people spoke with empty words. The Sadducees came to Jesus to ask him a theological question. "According to God's law if a man dies and his wife has had no children, then his brother must marry her to give her children that can care for her. Now, if a woman, by this law, married seven brothers, who will be her husband in heaven?" The Sadducees asked the question because they didn't believe in the resurrection or life after death, that's why they were so sad, you see. The Sad-you-sees just wanted Jesus to say that there was no afterlife. They talked about the living God, but they couldn't accept that God could bring them back to life. All their study and prayer and sacrifice were empty because they didn't really believe God had power over life, the power to defeat death.
God speaks words of power, but many times God's people repeat those words with hollow voices of faithlessness.
What was God's response to their empty words? To the people Bethel the Word of the Lord came through Zechariah. "You don't fast for me, you fast to make yourselves look good. You and your ancestors say they reverence me, but they desecrate my commandments. Don't worry about fasts. Instead seek justice and mercy. Care for the powerless and love your neighbors."
To the Sadducees the Son of God spoke. The people of this world live their lives in this world. But God's people are different. They are children of the living God. They shall not die. God is the God of the living not the dead. So if you believe in the living God, believe in the life God gives.
God said, "Put your life where your prayers are." Demonstrate through your actions that you believe what you say. Put up or shut up! Don't say you believe in the living God and then deny the new life that God offers. Don't pay false tribute to God's holy temple and then defile God's holy law of love. Practice what you preach. Live what you pray. Then your prayers and words will mean something.
And God's people today come to God. And we pay tribute and lift up prayers and we sing songs. We sing of God's amazing grace that saved a wretch like me, but then we find it hard to forgive a brother or sister who has fallen. Or perhaps we claim the truth of God's love as revealed in the Bible, but then we fail to speak against the sins and injustices of the world around us.
And I imagine God leaning back in that heavenly throne and signing deeply. And in a voice of soft thunder God says, "All that is empty and meaningless. If you really believed in amazing grace you would show that grace to others. If you really believed in the truth of my word you would willingly speak it to all you meet. If you really believed that I give new life you would act like people who are alive.
God's people today still speak empty words.
In the mean time the world is still watching us. Those who do not yet believe are listening to our words. They hear a lot of words. They hear us speak of new life in Christ. They hear us speak of the power of the living God. They hear us speak of divine justice and mercy and love.
And they say, "Put you money where your mouth is." Show me what you really have. But instead of showing them hope, we show them despair. Instead of showing them faith in God's power, we demonstrate doubt that God can save us. Instead of justice we show injustice, instead of mercy we judge, and instead of loving we hate. Instead of showing them that God hears our prayers we act like prayer is meaningless.
We are all guilty of talking a good game. God doesn't want our empty words. God wants our committed lives. Let's show the world that our words of resurrection are true. Let's demonstrate our faith in God's forgiveness by confessing that we have not always practiced what we preach. Let's demonstrate God's power by asking God to help us to live the words of new life that we speak. Let's dedicate ourselves to loving the unlovable, to freeing the oppressed, and to comforting the distraught. Let's live what we pray, then our prayers will really mean something.