They Are Like Angels

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, but 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. Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

Luke 20:27-38 NRSVUE

This is the lectionary reading from last week because we didn’t have worship. This is a common lectionary reading when Advent is approaching. We are not yet in Advent, but this is a story that I sometimes preach at weddings and Holy Unions. I can preach it with my eyes closed because I’ve been using it for 12 years now in weddings.

Based on this reading, the Sadducees, a sect of Jewish religious leaders, asked Jesus a parable question. The question arises because they did not believe in the resurrection from the dead or the afterlife. There is nothing in the Old Testament that says anything definitive about the afterlife. Did you know that? In the Old Testament, very rarely does it mention anything about the afterlife. The only thing mostly said in the Hebrew Testament is that the dead go to Sheol. Sheol is not hell; everyone in the Old Testament goes to Sheol, the land of the dead, where one perspective is that the dead are in a sleep-like state. There is also no mention of heaven or hell for the dead in the Old Testament.

Since there is almost nothing mentioned apart from Sheol, there was a group of Jewish leaders in the time of Jesus who held two positions: either there is something we don’t know about because the prophets and the Old Testament did not say anything, or there’s really nothing to it. The belief was: when you’re dead, you’re just “poof.” This was the perspective of the Sadducees, in comparison to the Pharisees, the tradition Jesus belonged to, that believed in and preached about the afterlife.

The Sadducees, who were the religious and political leaders in the temple, asked Jesus to challenge his knowledge and preaching through a parable. The parable tells of a man who married a woman but died immediately. Part of their law—the Old Testament Law, the Torah—states that if a man dies childless, his surviving brother is required to marry the widow. In the parable, the widow married the next brother, but he also died. This continued until all seven brothers died after being married to this woman. Finally, the woman also died.

So here’s the question the Sadducees posed to Jesus: if the resurrection is true, who will be the legally recognized husband of this woman? All seven marriages were valid according to the Torah and the law. They could not imagine a woman having multiple husbands, although, conversely, one man could have multiple wives. A woman having seven husbands was unthinkable to them.

So, the question: if the resurrection is real, who will be this woman’s legal husband in the new life?

Jesus’s answer is: “When the time comes, there shall be those who are worthy of the kingdom, who will neither be received nor given into marriage, and they will be like angels of God who will forever be in God’s presence, praising, worshiping, and giving thanks to God.” That’s Jesus’s point. In the resurrection, no one will be received or given in marriage.

I always say this during a Holy Union: if the resurrection and the Judgment Day are true—when we face God in our death—it means all marriages are void. That’s basically what Jesus is saying. To the question, “Who is the legal husband of this woman in the resurrection?” Jesus answers, “When the time comes, no one shall be given and received into marriage.” Marriage will cease. We will be transformed like unto angels of God.

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What this means is that who you are married to, who your partner is, or what your partner is, does not matter to your salvation. How you treat your partner is what matters. There’s a difference there. How you treat your partner? Yes. But who your partner is or whether you have a partner or no partner at all will not be the basis of your salvation. Basically, that’s what Jesus said.

By extension, because marriage, at least in their context (and we can bring this to today’s context), is heavily gendered. Under patriarchal norms during the time of Jesus and even now under heteronormative patriarchal norms, pag-aasawa (marriage) is gendered. Some churches say it is only between a man and a woman because you have to bear children, and you can only bear children after you get the blessing of marriage.

By extension, not only does marriage have nothing to do with your salvation, but your gender or sexuality has nothing to do with salvation either. In the same way that who your spouse is has nothing to do with your salvation, your sexuality has nothing to do with your salvation.

However, how you practice your sexuality or gender expression and identity could have something to do with salvation. Even for progressive and LGBT-affirming churches, even though we affirm and proclaim that your same-sex relationship or your transgender identity is not a sin (based on our theological and biblical understanding), how you express that may or may not be good or bad.

We can still ask, are gay people committing bad things? Yes. Are people still doing certain bad things with or without their sexuality involved? Yes. But their sexuality—our sexuality per se—is not a factor in our salvation or what it means to be a good or bad person.

This week is Transgender Awareness Week, and this coming week is Transgender Day of Remembrance. To those people who are saying that being transgender or being gay is an abomination or a sin, I guess one particular affirming passage is this one. It’s also an affirming passage even for straight people, as it says that marriage is not the only path to a correct Christian life. Even having a stereotypical Christian life—that you have a Christian family, are married, have children, and are in the church—can be oppressive to some people, even straight people. Jesus tells us: it doesn’t even matter when the time comes. No one shall be given into marriage. All marriages shall become void. It does not matter.

And here’s another beautiful point, especially for Transgender Month. It says that when the resurrection happens, we shall be transformed like unto angels of God. What does that mean? In the historical theological development of the concept of spirits or angels, either they are genderless (because they are spirits), or the spirit that manifests into a physical being can choose whichever gender they manifest themselves as. So, if we are to become, if this physical body is to be transformed in the resurrection of the dead like angels of God, then you are either genderless or “gender-full,” or a being with many eyes or many heads, as in the Book of Ezekiel. In this sense, the direction for whoever is “worthy of the resurrection of the dead” is to be transformed, to transcend the human body like unto the angels of God.

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So I am here to tell you, with the parable of Jesus and the answer to the Sadducees’ question, that in the end, it’s really just about us. How did we really live a life of kindness and generosity towards each other and people, especially the poor? This is Luke’s gospel, after all. I’ve said it several times: the Gospel of Luke is the most pro-poor, pro-oppressed gospel. The word ‘poor’ is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke more times than in the other gospels. The Gospel of Luke is where we find this story. And in relation to being pro-poor, there is an anti-rich message as well.

The only thing that matters to Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is not marriage or being married, but how we treat the lowliest, the poorest, and the most vulnerable in our world.

I challenge you this week: read the Gospel of Luke page to page. It’s only 24 chapters. You will see that Jesus’s primary concern—at least in the Gospel of Luke—is that salvation is about two things:

1. The word metanoia (repentance), which in some cases is much better used as transformation. How do you transform yourself as a person? How do you grow as a person? Grow in love, in kindness, and in generosity.
2. Growing in kindness and generosity towards those who are poor, oppressed, and the most vulnerable in our world.

That is the biblical framing and core of the Gospel of Luke. The story of the rich man and Lazarus is only found in the Gospel of Luke. In that story, it is not explicitly said that the rich man did anything bad, but the rich man did not do what was in his power to do. He saw the poor man every day and did nothing.

So at the end of it, whether you’re straight, you’re gay, you’re trans, you’re Black, you’re white, you’re yellow, whatever you are, however you identify—married, non-married, single, blessed, celibate, not celibate, whatever it is—the question of our lives will just be: How did you grow to be loving and kind to the most vulnerable among us and in the world? That is the only question of our lives.

This is confirmed in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25. When Jesus tells the story of the actual end of the world, the actual Judgment Day, he asks: “When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me something to drink? When I was a stranger, did you welcome me? I was naked, did you give me clothes? I was sick or in prison, did you visit me?”

That’s the only question. “For if you have done this to the least of these, you have done it to me.”

God will not ask about your religion. God will not ask, “Are you a member of MCC? Are you a member of the Catholic Church or the Born Again Church or any other church that claims to have the only salvation?” God will not ask. The question of our lives will simply be: “How did you grow in love and serve God by serving people?” Amen.

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