Imagining the Resurrected Life
based on Luke 20:27-38
by Rev. Karen Goltz

I am actually married to the eldest of seven siblings. Granted, two of them are sisters, not brothers, but I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be passed down the line in the unfortunate event of my husband’s untimely death. But according to the law of Moses, if my husband died and left me childless, that’s exactly what would happen. Never mind that two of his brothers already have wives and children of their own; in that patriarchal society where women had no legal standing of their own and needed to be under the protection of their fathers, husbands, or sons, this was the solution to provide for a childless widow.

Sounds delightful for us women, doesn’t it?

Levirate marriage, as it is called, was established for two reasons: to maintain the line and inheritance of the deceased husband, and to protect the widow from destitution. Since women couldn’t own property or enter into contractual agreements, the intent was to make sure someone would be there to provide for them. If their husbands died without leaving them a son to care for them, it was the closest male kin’s responsibility to marry her, provide for her financially, and give her a son in her first husband’s name. The closest male kin was usually a brother, but sometimes it was a more distant cousin or uncle or something. In the book of Ruth, Naomi and her husband Elimelech went to Moab with their two sons. Elimelech died, but Naomi was cared for by her two sons, who both married Moabite women. After about ten years, both sons died as well, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-in-law alone. Naomi tried to send both her daughters-in-law back to their parents’ homes, in the hopes that they would find new husbands, but Ruth insisted on remaining with her. Listen to what Naomi said to Ruth: “Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, go your way, for even if I were to have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown?” Can you even imagine what that would be like? But such was the importance and acceptance of this system. [Ruth 1:1-14]

Ruth did remain with Naomi, and returned to Naomi’s homeland, where she met Boaz, who was somehow related to Elimelech. When he decided he wanted to marry Ruth, he had to seek out another family member who was closer to Elimelech, and convince him to relinquish his ‘right of redemption.’ The other family member did relinquish his right, because marrying Ruth and maintaining the family inheritance of her late husband would have damaged his own inheritance. [Ruth 3:11-13; 4:1-6] You see, the surviving men didn’t get a lot out of this practice. They didn’t get to keep whatever property the first husband had, and whatever sons they produced with their brother’s wife was considered his brother’s, not his own. In Genesis we hear the story of Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah’s firstborn son Er. Er died, so Judah gave Tamar to his second son, Onan. But we’re told “Onan knew that the offspring would not be his,” so he, shall we say, practiced an ancient form of birth control. Read Genesis 38:9 if you want further details on that. Then Onan died, and Judah told Tamar to remain a widow in her father’s home until his youngest son Shelah grew up and could marry her, but Judah never intended to allow her to marry his last remaining son. He believed she was bad luck, and giving her in marriage to Shelah would be a death sentence to him. When Tamar realized what was happening she disguised herself as a prostitute and presented herself to Judah. When Judah heard that Tamar was pregnant he condemned her to death, until she was able to prove that he himself was the father of her child. When confronted with this truth Judah acknowledged that Tamar was in the right, because he had failed to provide for her by withholding his youngest son. [Genesis 38:1-26]

If Judah thought Tamar was bad luck after two of his sons had died, you have to wonder how the last three or four brothers in the Sadducees’ hypothetical situation must have felt about their inevitable bride-to-be.

So today we have some Sadducees coming to Jesus and trying to trip him up. The chief priests and scribes have already tried it and failed miserably. So the Sadducees, who don’t believe there is such a thing as resurrection, come and ask Jesus a question about the resurrection. With his answer, Jesus is supposed to both answer the question of whose wife will this very thoroughly married woman be and convince them of the truth of the resurrection claim to begin with.

Not surprisingly, Jesus doesn’t do what they expect him to do.

Instead, Jesus essentially tells them that they lack imagination.

They don’t believe in the resurrection because they have no idea what the resurrection actually is.

Levirate marriage was a solution to a social problem: women being culturally forbidden from taking care of themselves. The Sadducees’ question revealed that their idea of the resurrection was that death was a mere interruption in life as it has always been, just with everyone back all at once. Hence the problem of a woman married to one man at a time seven times in a row suddenly trying to figure out who she’s married to now. But Jesus rejects that view of the resurrection. It is not merely a continuation of this life. It’s something entirely different.

Resurrected life is life lived in direct relationship with God. We know his will, understand his ways, and live in the fullness of his love and grace. All of us. Everyone. Men do not marry and women are not given in marriage; no one is property. No one is less than anyone else. No one is dependent upon another human being to have their needs met; God meets all our needs himself, personally and directly. The social systems that made inheritances important and women vulnerable no longer exist. The social systems that work to keep some down while elevating others no longer exist. Death and corruption no longer exist, and the fear caused by both no longer exists.

We are a resurrection people. The hope of the resurrection is not focused on the geography of the afterlife. It’s not about where we go when we die. We have already died to sin and been raised to new life in Christ. We have already been resurrected. Yes, we still live with social structures that try to define or limit us, but they are not the final word. God’s love in Christ Jesus is the final word. And through Christ who strengthens us we not only can shake off the definitions and limits imposed upon God’s children by society, we can challenge those systems and work to bring the resurrection reality to more people. In fact we are called to do exactly that.

Imagine a world in which all people are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of gender, race, social status, or economic reality. Imagine a world in which it is never a struggle to obtain the basics necessary for survival. Imagine a world in which fear and death simply do not exist, and therefore have no impact on the way in which we live our lives.

The Sadducees could not imagine such a world, and therefore did not believe in the resurrection. But we are a resurrection people, and that is the world to which we are called. Let us live in the world to which we are called, and transform the things of this age that seek to deny the grace and freedom that come with a resurrection life. We can do it, through Christ who strengthens us. Amen.