Pentecost 25 year C Sermon Luke 20:27-38
Did you know the word sarcasm…
taken back to its original Greek…
taken back to its original Greek…
Greek slide
σαρκάζω (sarkazo) means to tear flesh.
Sarx is the Greek word for flesh…
and Paul uses often in his letters.
And here in this story… the most powerful people in the first century Jewish world…
are using sarcasm… to ridicule Jesus… [pause]
just days before his flesh is torn for real…
by Roman flails.
Sarx is the Greek word for flesh…
and Paul uses often in his letters.
And here in this story… the most powerful people in the first century Jewish world…
are using sarcasm… to ridicule Jesus… [pause]
just days before his flesh is torn for real…
by Roman flails.
Sarcasm is always destructive.
It sneaks into our tone of voice as a spirit of malice…
It sneaks into our tone of voice as a spirit of malice…
Blank slide
Sometimes it hides behind irony …for example…
when someone might say… “What a fine musician you turned out to be!” or ‘don't work too hard’…
to someone lying on the couch watching TV.
When people use sarcastic irony to attack …
their criticism is delivered under a stealth missile…
of humour…So with this in mind… let’s listen to the Sadducees… who don’t believe in the resurrection…
as they question Jesus… about the resurrection.
‘Rabbi…Moses wrote if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children…the surviving brother…must marry the widow and produce children for his brother.
And Jesus…since that’s right there in the Law…
what would you say if there were seven brothers…
The first one marries a woman and dies childless. The second and the third marry her, and then all seven and they all die one after the other…leaving no children at all.
when someone might say… “What a fine musician you turned out to be!” or ‘don't work too hard’…
to someone lying on the couch watching TV.
When people use sarcastic irony to attack …
their criticism is delivered under a stealth missile…
of humour…So with this in mind… let’s listen to the Sadducees… who don’t believe in the resurrection…
as they question Jesus… about the resurrection.
‘Rabbi…Moses wrote if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children…the surviving brother…must marry the widow and produce children for his brother.
And Jesus…since that’s right there in the Law…
what would you say if there were seven brothers…
The first one marries a woman and dies childless. The second and the third marry her, and then all seven and they all die one after the other…leaving no children at all.
Finally, the woman dies too.
Now then Jesus… at the resurrection…whose wife will she be…since all seven were married to her?
I was thinking about Jesus’ response to the Sadducees this week when I got this email from my mother…
Dear Dena…that’s her nickname for me…I want your thoughts on after we die. I believe in Jesus our Saviour and life everlasting. All my life I trusted that God is with me… Now… will Daddy and I be together in Heaven? I cry for him every day and night. It doesn’t get better it gets worse because I was 67 years of my life with him. I want to be with him…
will we ever be… or is this over or dissolved?
I’m having a very hard time…
No one should ever love anyone so much.
Must go to bed now Grace of our Loving god be with you I love you….Mother’
will we ever be… or is this over or dissolved?
I’m having a very hard time…
No one should ever love anyone so much.
Must go to bed now Grace of our Loving god be with you I love you….Mother’
Is my mother asking the same question as the Sadducees? Would Jesus response be helpful to her?
Well…here’s how Jesus answered… the sarcastic riddle posed to him by the Sadducees Jesus said
Slide words
Those who are considered worthy of a place…
in that age…and in the resurrection from the dead…
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
in that age…and in the resurrection from the dead…
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
quoting these words of Jesus in scripture… can brings sadness emptiness and confusion…to people like my mother who are… in grief for their spouses.
I felt that to choose Jesus response to the Sadducees…
as a reply to my mother…would be cruel and insensitive …and as much an abuse of Holy Scripture as the Sadducees attack on Jesus with the words of the book of Exodus. Yes is it possible to abuse people with scripture.
blank slide
what I wrote back to my mother was this:
Darling Mother, I hope you wake up feeling better. Nothing can dissolve the bond you and Daddy have because it’s made out of love. I believe when we die we go to be with God… and that in God's presence all questions are answered and we will have true peace and everlasting life. I'm sorry I didn't ring you today. I will ring you tomorrow. [pause]
What happens after we die is the crux of my mother’s agonising question. But what happens after we die…
is just a political vehicle for the Sadducees…
a way to launch a powerful attack on Jesus…
by the high priests of the Temple.
You see in the first century…these Sadducees are in favour with the Romans and the Jewish royal family…the Herods. They’re descendants of Zadok… King Solomon’s high priest…
they control the economy of the Temple…
and command a majority in the Sanhedrin –
the Jewish General Assembly.
While the Sadducees are small in number…
compared to the Pharisees…their political and financial influence is far greater.
And while the Pharisees expect the Messiah to come at any moment…to restore the throne of David …
the gospel of Mark quotes the Sadducees… saying,
"We have no king but Caesar!".[i]
With so much… religious…economic and political power at stake…the Sadducees have the most to lose because of Jesus. A popular uprising
lead by an alleged Messiah…
would jeopardize their supremacy in Jerusalem.
they control the economy of the Temple…
and command a majority in the Sanhedrin –
the Jewish General Assembly.
While the Sadducees are small in number…
compared to the Pharisees…their political and financial influence is far greater.
And while the Pharisees expect the Messiah to come at any moment…to restore the throne of David …
the gospel of Mark quotes the Sadducees… saying,
"We have no king but Caesar!".[i]
With so much… religious…economic and political power at stake…the Sadducees have the most to lose because of Jesus. A popular uprising
lead by an alleged Messiah…
would jeopardize their supremacy in Jerusalem.
And as Jesus enters the city… descending the road down the Mount of Olives…Luke reports…the threat becomes very real…for the whole crowd begins to sing…
the ancient hymn…
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
What happens next only the threat more intense…
When Jesus and his entourage enter the Temple courts…
the one hailed as ‘king’ by the crowds…
begins to exert his authority…
by driving out the money changers.
Every day after this Jesus returns to the Temple to teach.
The Temple priests are now plotting to kill him…
but they can never catch Jesus without a crowd… hanging on his every word. [pause]
When Jesus and his entourage enter the Temple courts…
the one hailed as ‘king’ by the crowds…
begins to exert his authority…
by driving out the money changers.
Every day after this Jesus returns to the Temple to teach.
The Temple priests are now plotting to kill him…
but they can never catch Jesus without a crowd… hanging on his every word. [pause]
And while the Sadducees make the loudest noise in Jerusalem … their authority is being challenged…
by a man who speaks more quietly…
and claims his own prophetic… and royal authority.
As he teaches…Jesus hints at a conspiracy to have him assassinated. He tells a story…
about vineyard tenants who kill the owner’s son.
about vineyard tenants who kill the owner’s son.
With crowds around him constantly … the Sadducees need some other weapon than arrest… and in today’s story they use it…they bring out a proof text from the book of Exodus …and cover it with sarcasm…
to make a fool of Jesus.
to make a fool of Jesus.
You see the Temple priests were real biblical conservatives… believing only the written Torah…
the first five scrolls…to have the authority of scripture
they considered the resurrection of the dead…
to be a new and modern heresy…
if they can’t get Jesus as a traitor to Caesar…
the first five scrolls…to have the authority of scripture
they considered the resurrection of the dead…
to be a new and modern heresy…
if they can’t get Jesus as a traitor to Caesar…
they’ll get him as a heretic.
There’s an irony… even in their choice of topic…
They’re plotting to kill Jesus and thereby
end the threat he poses…to their stranglehold on power
They don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead…
so they’re sure Jesus influence will end…
if they can just have him killed.
My mother …was asking what happens when we die…would she get to be with Daddy again…
but that’s not what the Sadducees
want to debate with Jesus…
but that’s not what the Sadducees
want to debate with Jesus…
In the first century when Jews argued about ‘the resurrection’… they weren’t thinking about what it’s going to be like after we die…they had in mind Israel’s story.. from Abraham… to their own time…
and into a future…when God would raise all Israel from the dead… and create a new world for them to live in…
and into a future…when God would raise all Israel from the dead… and create a new world for them to live in…
To first century Jews the resurrection was an event[ii]…
a God event…in which the dead would be alive again
in a way they weren’t right now… a time when all the wrongs of the world… would be put right.
a God event…in which the dead would be alive again
in a way they weren’t right now… a time when all the wrongs of the world… would be put right.
The Sadducees don’t believe in this…and so they taunt Jesus with… what to them is a ridiculous question …about who’s married to whom…
when the resurrection comes. [pause]
when the resurrection comes. [pause]
But instead of tit for tat…Jesus’ ignores their flesh tearing purpose…and makes two serious points…
first…
resurrection life is going to be different from this one …for one thing…death will be abolished…
and so sexual relationships and the need to continue a particular family line… will be irrelevant.
first…
resurrection life is going to be different from this one …for one thing…death will be abolished…
and so sexual relationships and the need to continue a particular family line… will be irrelevant.
Second
Jesus says… the book of Exodus which the Sadducees hold as authoritative…the book of Exodus
‘does teach the resurrection…when it describes God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the patriarchs are still alive in God’s presence…
awaiting the final resurrection.’
Jesus says… the book of Exodus which the Sadducees hold as authoritative…the book of Exodus
‘does teach the resurrection…when it describes God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the patriarchs are still alive in God’s presence…
awaiting the final resurrection.’
So Jesus is saying it’s reasonable to believe
that all are alive to God...
even if the powers that be disagree. [pause]
No one present during this argument in the Temple could have imagined how the first fruits of the resurrection to come…would appear during their own lives.
The resurrection of Jesus…would give a huge boost to the faith of his followers… in Jesus as Christ…
and in their own future with God.
And they went on telling the story of the Sadducees debate with Jesus …long after the whole of the Roman Empire had embraced Christianity…
not only because it illustrated Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection…
but because Easter had proved the Sadducees wrong.
Death did not have the last word. [pause]
Over the next week…I pray that you and I will monitor the way we use sarcasm in our relationships with others.
Are we using it to put someone down…
as the Sadducees did?
Do we insist… we’re just asking… an innocent question
when we are actually intending to tear flesh…
Are we using it to put someone down…
as the Sadducees did?
Do we insist… we’re just asking… an innocent question
when we are actually intending to tear flesh…
And when someone uses sarcasm against us…will we respond with the confidence and gentleness of Jesus?
My prayer… is that we will all become ready to surrender any spirit of malice we might carry to God
and allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ…
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
and allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ…
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
