God Of The Living (Luke 20:38)

 


Wednesday, April 9, 2025


Psalm 89:39-53

Exodus 8:20-9:12

Luke 20:27-47


Observances: William Law, priest and teacher (d. 1761); Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian (d. 1945)


God Of The Living (Luke 20:38)


Something I think all of us Christians struggle with is the fact that we need to balance the Bible’s repeated calls to righteous living alongside our own need for humble self-reflection on our own unrighteousness. It is so easy to proclaim “thou shalt not”, yet so difficult to flip it into a “thou shalt”.


Take the current debate in the Church about marriage, for example, while thinking about Jesus’ response to the Saducees in today’s reading. At first glance, the resurrection seems like it will be pretty miserable: no marriage in the age to come! Yet what if our attitude to marriage is the same as that of the Saducees.


They seemed to think that marriage was, in itself, something to be grasped at. Grasped at by the men and the woman in this life; and grasped at in the resurrection in their argument over who gets to be married in eternity. Jesus turns around and, in his response, gives a curious answer: that in the resurrection there will be no marriage, “for they cannot die anymore.” (Luke 20:36) And all of this hinges on whether we accept God as the God of the living.


It would seem that God’s purpose in Jesus’ mind is that there is life: God is the source of life, Jesus is the bread of life, and God does all things for the purpose of increasing life in abundance. Marriage is not needed in the resurrection, for eternal life is a matter of fact. Contrast that to this age, where death is a fact of life and so, therefore, God has given us marriage.


Perhaps it is old-fashioned to suggest that the purpose of marriage is for the making and raising of children. If so, my only responses are from two sources, both of them ancient: the Book of Common Prayer, and today’s words from Jesus. Yet it seems to fit well with what we have been picking up on recently about God’s wealth, and our participation in the increase of it.


It also gives us a broader and more fundamental principle that we can apply to other aspects of Christian living as well. Because, could we perhaps say that God’s wealth is in his capacity to give life? And as his image-bearers, we have been given some share in how God gives life? Alongside marriage, another obvious category would be the natural world. There is life in abundance on our very doorstep; how could we participate with God in bringing his abundance of life into the world immediately surrounding us?


God of the living, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: we praise you for giving us the gift of life, and moreso for the gift of everlasting life in your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us so to live that we may be vessels of your abundance in everything we say and do.

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