Luke
20:27-40 — Heaven lacks a number of things; no stress, no hunger, no
tears. Best of all there is no cemetery there, because there is no need for
one. Heaven is where the living God is and where His people live in and with
Him. These people do not die but share eternal life with Christ. There is no
death in heaven because God is a God only of the living as people live in and
to God. (vs. 38)
The
Sadducees, with the story of the woman who married the seven brothers, hoped
that Jesus would say something that would contradict the Law of Moses about
successive marriages; the implication was that the resurrection was
inconsistent with the laws of Moses.
In the
Matthew and Mark accounts of this circumstance Jesus is more severe with the
Sadducees; “You are wrong…You know
neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” This is a strong rebuke of
their spiritual ignorance.
Moses
believed in the resurrection. Jesus quotes the passage in the burning bush
incident when God identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and points out that God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. “God of the dead,” is a contradiction in
terms. It is inconsistent with the nature of God.
A Post – Pentecost Collect: Living
God, Your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy and pity. Grant
us the fullness of Your grace to lay hold of Your promises and live forever in
Your presence; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.[2]
Collect for Friday of the week of Pentecost 22: Redeem us o God, out of all our poor ways into Thine. Teach us Thy will for us by calling us back each day to the things which we know are most certainly true. Direct our lives by the constant pressure on them of other lives that have felt the touch of Thy hand and loved the beauty of Thy peace, until our faces be set toward Thee, and all our hope hid forever in Thine. For Jesus’ sake. Amen [3]
[1] Image of
the cross, © Ed Riojas Higher Things
[2] Lutheran
Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
[3] Collect
for Friday of the week of Pentecost 22, For All the Saints, A Prayer Book For
and By the Church, Vol. II © 1995 The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau,
Delhi, NY
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