We
Are Eternal Beings
Scripture:
Luke 20:27 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 have children 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?”
Luke 20:34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are
given in marriage. 35 But those
who are considered worthy of taking part in that age 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 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.”
Questions for Reflection:
1. Does
the thought that you’re an eternal being and that you’re going to live for an
eternity with God in a most pleasant place called
2.
Secularism has robbed many of us of a
sense of the reality that we’re eternal beings.
Please read the following quote from Alexander Schmemann’s
book “For the Life of the World” and discuss it:
Schmenann writes: “Secularism is in fact a religion and as such an
explanation of death and a reconciliation with
it. It’s the religion of those who are
tired of having the world explained in terms of an ‘other world’ of which no
one knows anything, . .
Secularism is an ‘explanation’ of death in terms of
life. The only world we know is this
world, the only life given to us is this life – so thinks a secularist – and
it’s up to us men to make it as meaningful, as rich, and as happy as
possible. Life ends with death. This is unpleasant, but since it’s natural,
since death is a universal phenomenon, the best thing man can do about it is
simply to accept it as something natural.
As long as he lives, however, he need not think
about it, but should live as though death didn’t exist. The best way to forget about death is to
be busy, to be useful, to be dedicated to great and
noble things, to build an always better world. If God exists and if He, in His love and
mercy wants to reward us for our busy, useful and righteous life with eternal
vacations, traditionally called ‘immorality,’ it’s strictly His gracious
business. But immorality is an
appendix (however eternal) to this life, in which all real interests, all true
values are to be found.
Have you noticed for instance that the American
funeral home is indeed the very symbol of secular religion, for it expresses
both the quiet acceptance of death as something natural (a house among other
houses with nothing typical about it) and the denial of death’s presence in
life.
Secularism is a religion because it has a faith, it
has it’s own way of understanding what happens at the
end and it has it’s own ethics. And it
‘works’ and it ‘helps.’ Quite frankly,
if ‘help’ were the criterion, one would have to admit that life-centered
secularism helps actually more than religion.
To compete with it, religion has to present itself as ‘adjustment to
life,’ ‘counselling,’ ‘enrichment,’ it has to be publicized in subways and
buses as a valuable addition to ‘your friendly bank’ and all other ‘friendly
dealers’: try it, it helps!
3. But
Christianity isn’t only about “helping” but rather it’s about “truth
telling” - a
truth telling that will set us on a path that leads from now into eternity!
If it were only about “helping”
us get through this life then there are other religions who
quite frankly do a better job but Christianity is about reconciling us to the
Creator of the entire universe so that we can commune with Him here and now and
into eternity!
Christianity is much much more
than all of this – Christ defeated death:
2Tim. 1:10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our
Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel.
Do you believe
this? Please discuss.
4. In our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 20 verses 27 through 38 we hear Jesus being interrogated by some Sadducees.
Now the Sadducees are like the secularist of today. They were few in comparison to the Pharisees and scribes but they were very wealthy and powerful.
They were the governing class;
and they were largely collaborationist with
The Sadducees accepted only the written law of the Old Testament and in the Old Testament they stressed only the law of Moses and set no store on the prophetic books. They therefore had no belief in resurrection – they were utterly committed to this world – here and now!
The Sadducees, then, came with this question about who would be the husband in heaven of the woman who was married to 7 different men. They regarded such a question as the kind of thing that made belief in the resurrection of the body ridiculous.
Jesus gave them a brilliant answer and it was this.
“That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out ‘Lord,’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
God said I am the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. They were supposedly dead! No No No! Not dead! For our reading concludes with these astonishing words – “for to Him all are alive!”
This made His point most brilliantly – but do you really
think that any one of the Sadducees were converted –
became followers of Christ? I don’t
think so! Argumentation rarely wins the
day! Please discuss the above in the context of what it is that draws people
to our Lord – if it’s not argumentation – what is it and what can you do?
5. Please discuss the
following statement from St. Paul and make it your closing prayer: (Phil. 1:20)
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my
body, whether by life or by death. Amen
and Amen!