These illustrations are based on Luke 20:27-38
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Sermon Opener - The Political Controversies of Jesus - Luke 20:27-38
Someone has figured that if we put all of the materials in the Gospels that tell us about the life of Jesus together that it would equal about 80 pages. Yet, most of that would represent duplication, for we know that some of the Gospel writers copied from others. If, therefore you eliminate the duplication, you would have only 20 pages that tell us about Jesus life and teachings. Of those 20 pages, 13 of them deal specifically with the last week of his life. And if you separate it still further, you will discover that one-third of those 13 pages took place on Tuesday of Holy Week. Thus, in terms of sheer volume, we know far more on this day in his life than any other day. The events of that day represent a significant percentage of what we know about the man Jesus.
We know that Jesus spent Monday evening in Bethany, probably in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, since that is where he spent Sunday evening. He arose early on Tuesday morning and he and his disciples returned to Jerusalem. If you will then let your mind drift back through the pages of history, let us assume for a moment that you are living in First Century Palestine. It is the Season of the Passover and you and your family are among the thousands of religious pilgrims who have migrated to the ancient walled city of Jerusalem to participate in the religious celebration. You were there on Monday when Jesus took whip in hand and radically ran the money changers from the temple. It had been an eventful day.
But now it is Monday and it has come time to retire with your family. As you walk down the Villa de la Rosa you pass by the palace of the high priest, the residence of Caiaphas. You notice that a light is burning in the upper floor of this exquisite mansion. You comment to your family that Caiaphas must be working long hours to see that all of the religious festivities go on as scheduled. Yet, if you only knew what was really going on in that palace that evening. If you only knew what was taking place in that smoke filled room…
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Just Deal with It - Luke 20:27-38
If you could ask Jesus a question, any question, and be promised a plain answer, what would you ask? There are a lot of big ones that have never been answered. Wouldn't it be great if you could just go up to Jesus and ask him one of life's big, profound eternal mysteries? "Why is there evil?" "What happens when we die?" "Why are we here?"
Jesus was asked a lot of questions during the time he was walking around the near east some 2,000 years ago. Some of them were pretty good questions: "What must I do to be saved?" or "Whose fault is it that this man was born blind?" Others were not nearly so profound. "Can my two sons get the goods seats in heaven?" "Can you make my brother split the family inheritance evenly?" Selfishness got in the way there. Selfishness and ambition. But however misguided those questions were, at least they actually were questions.
Members of a scholarly sect called the Sadducees had the opportunity of a lifetime with Jesus. They studied scripture most rigorously. They thought about and pondered God day and night. They dealt with life's big questions. It's pretty much all they did. So here is the opportunity of a lifetime. Here is God in the flesh walking around among them. Here is Jesus, perfectly willing to talk about the meaning of scripture. Here is Jesus, eager to shed light on the will of God. The opportunity of a lifetime and they blew it. Some Sadducees came up to Jesus and told him this big, long hypothetical story: an elaborate and drawn-out set-up. And then for the punch line, they asked a question. Only it really wasn't a question. You ask a question if you want to learn something; a fact perhaps, or someone's opinion, maybe some bit of wisdom. The Sadducees don't want to learn from Jesus. Their question wasn't really a question at all. It was a quiz, a logical trap.…
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Humans Are Not Meant For Hibernation
The poet T. S. Eliot in his famous poem "The Wasteland," calls April the "cruelest month," because the showers of April stir up the dull and dormant roots of trees and flowers to begin bursting forth with new life instead of allowing them to remain comfortably asleep in the frozen ground of winter. Yet the sleep of tree roots and flower bulbs is the sleep of hibernation, not of rest. Trees were meant to put out green leaves; tulips were meant to push up through the soil and produce beautiful blossoms. Human beings are also meant to grow, to mature, to blossom, not to hibernate in the frozen sleep of habit or tradition or familiarity. Paul says that we were meant to grow until "we attain to the full height of the stature of Christ."
Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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The Main Thing
A few years back I was asked to write a meditation for the back of one of our Sunday bulletin covers, and I was excited about the prospect until I took a closer look at the assigned text. It was today’s text, whose message I continue to find difficult to distill into a few short paragraphs. But in the weeks prior I had come across one of Yogi Berra’s picturesque sayings. Berra, you may remember, was the New York Yankees catcher back in the 1950’s and ‘60’s who in his own garbled way said some profound things, once asserting that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
In effect, is this not what Jesus is saying to his critics? In the life of faith, keep focused on the main thing. And what is the main thing, but to maintain and nurture our rootedness in God, to embrace life in God’s kingdom, a life of compassion and grace, of peace and self-giving love, of servanthood and hope. When Jesus speaks of the God of the living, he is prodding his critics to expand their vision. In effect, says William Willimon, Jesus is saying to that group of critical Sadducees, “Your questions betray your limited point of view, your narrow frame of reference. The resurrection is not just some extension of your world. It is a whole new world, the world as God intended the world to be.” It is a world in which the woman of your story is “a child of God, not a piece of property.” It is a world in which each of us lives as children of the resurrection.
Joel D. Kline, Life in the Real World
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What’s the Right Side Like?
A little girl and her father were walking on a clear, starry night. She turned to him and asked, “If the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what will the right side be like?”When it comes to answering that question, we’ll just have to leave it up to God, won’t we?
Randy L. Hyde, Seven Weddings and a Funeral
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Missing the Point
One New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was the float represented an oil company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas (C. Neil Strait, Minister’s Manuel, 1994, 315).
They had the entire resources of heaven at their disposals. They were entrusted with the oracles of God; however, in Luke chapter 20 the parade of Chief Priest, Elders and Sadducees come to a sudden halt when they cut themselves off from the resources of God who was now in Christ.
Brett Blair
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A Theological Curveball
A certain minister has made it a policy for many years to refer "six-year-old theology questions" to his wife. Since she has taught very young children for many years, he says, she has a much better grasp than he does of how to address the questions which little kids ask.
The other day, a first-grader brought a drawing of a skeleton into class where she teaches English as a second language. The titled across the top of the drawing read "Inside of Me." It was designed to teach children that everyone has a skeleton inside of them. He unfolded it proudly and showed it to the class. One little girl from India was astounded at the thought that she and others had this scary-looking skeleton inside them, and so she pressed the issue a bit farther. "Even you got one of these inside you, Mrs. K?" The teacher replied, "Yes, I have one, too."
The next question was the theological one. "Even God got one inside him?" Now in a class made up of children from many different countries, cultures, and religious backgrounds (most of them not Christians), you can imagine that this question had the potential for major theological debate. I doubt if I'd have had the presence of mind to give the answer the teacher did; but, as usual, her expertise in six-year-old theology saved the day. "If God needs a skeleton, I'm sure he has one," she replied. "God has everything he needs." This apparently satisfied the theological curiosity of the class, and they got on with the lesson.
Asking questions is an essential part of learning. If we don't know something, we look for someone who does and we ask. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. We learn by asking questions about what we don't know.
Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company
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Hypocrisy
With tongue in cheek, Mark Twain spoke of the two-faced life we all live: I am constructed like everybody else and enjoy a compliment as well as any other fool, but I do like to have the other side presented. And there is another side. I have a wicked side. Estimable friends who know all about it would tell you and take a certain delight in telling you things that I have done and things further that I have not repented. The real life that I live, and the real life that I suppose all of you live, is a life of interior sin. That is what makes life valuable and pleasant. To lead a life of undiscovered sin! That is true joy.
Mark Twain in a speech to the Society of American Authors, November 15, 1900
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Heaven
Dr. W. A. Criswell, the beloved pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, was once asked, "Will we know each other when we get to heaven?" His answer, "We won't really know each other UNTIL we get to heaven."
Michael Green, Illustrations For Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1993, p.184.
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Passing Through
If there is one belief that the men and women of our world need today it is the belief in the resurrection. Why? Because it is the effective antidote to the infectious disease of materialism.
The story is told of an American tourist who paid the 19th Century Polish rabbi Hofetz Chaim a visit. Astonished to see that the rabbi's home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked,
"Rabbi, where is your furniture?"
"Where is yours?" replied the rabbi.
"Mine?" asked the puzzled tourist. "But I'm only a visitor here. I'm only passing through."
"So am I," said Hofetz Chaim.
Father Ernest Munachi Ezeogu
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Who’s Stupid Now?
There is an Italian legend about a master and servant.
It seems the servant was not very smart and the master used to get very exasperated with him. Finally, one day, in a fit of temper, the master said: "You really are the stupidest man I know. Here, I want you to carry this staff wherever you go. And if you ever meet a person stupider than yourself, give them this staff."
So time went by, and often in the marketplace the servant would encounter some pretty stupid people, but he never found someone appropriate for the staff. Years later, he returned to his master's home. He was shown into his master's bedroom, for the man was quite sick and in bed. In the course of their conversation the master said: "I'm going on a journey soon."
"When will you return?", asked the servant.
"This is a journey from which I will not return." the master replied,
The servant asked: "Have you made all the necessary arrangements?"
"No, I guess I have not."
"Well, could you have made all the arrangements?"
"Oh yes, I guess I've had time. I've had all my life. But I've been busy with other things."
The servant said: "Let me be sure about this. You're going on a journey, from which you will never return, and you've had all your life to make the arrangements, but you haven't."
The master said: "Yes, I guess that's right."
The servant replied: "Master, take this staff. For at last I have truly found a man stupider than myself."
Richard J. Fairchild, To See or Not to See – The God of the Living
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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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Sermon Opener: Really! - Luke 20:27-38
The ultimate insult kids dish out today is to look down their noses and snort, “Poser!” A “poser” is a “wannabe” who will “never-be.”
A “biker poser” wears a leather jacket, biker boots and drinks coffee from a Harley-Davidson mug, but has never ridden anything more powerful than a John Deere on a Saturday afternoon.
A “rocker-poser” has the tough, trashy tattoos, the black T-shirts, but doesn’t know the difference between a fret and being fretful.
A “nerd poser” can talk a “geek streak,” has high scores on video games, but can’t write a single line of computer code.
In short, a “poser” talks the talk, but doesn’t “walk the walk.”
In the infancy of Christianity, those first generations of disciples, those first followers of the person of Jesus, engaged in dozens of fierce theological arguments over the basics of Christian faith. One of the most repeated and seemingly reasonable arguments was the assertion made by various groups that the resurrection was “real” yet “not real.” The gist of all these various claims was that Jesus’ appearance on earth, his life and ministry, his death and resurrection, did truly occur. But that Jesus himself only “appeared” to be human during all these events. In reality, from his “birth” through his “death,” Jesus was wholly and fully divine. Jesus, in other words, was never truly human in any essential sense. Jesus was a poser…
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Misleading Questions:
1. Luke 20:1-2 Chief Priest and Elders question Jesus about his Authority
2. Luke 20:20 Spies are sent to catch him in a slip of the tongue
3. Luke 20:27-33 Sadducees
All are insincere tricks but Jesus proves to be more than a match for his adversaries.
With the third misleading question, the Sadducees try to expose the resurrection as a ridiculous theological concept by posing an impossible scenario and thereby trap Jesus in his thoughts: A woman is married seven times to a series of brothers who father no children and she survives them all. In the resurrection whose wife is she? Jesus reveals that the question is built on a false premise since the institution of marriage ceases to exist with the advent of the age of resurrection.
Score now: Jesus 3 religious leaders 0.
Brett Blair
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Games People Play
The 1960's pop singer Joe South wrote a song that had these words:
Oh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean
And they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Till they're covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limousine
Games…we love to play games. Board games, video games, computer games, word games, mathematical…the list goes on and on. As human beings we are fascinated by our games. Games are good—for games can and do provide physical exercise and mental stimulation as well as develop coping skills, management skills—not to mention providing a respite from the pressures of everyday life. We all love games—some of us too much. It has been said of Americans that we “play at our work and work at our play.” Yes, there are times when even the best of us take our games too seriously.
There are games we play that we should not. These are the games that we use to avoid life, to avoid dealing with the harsh realities that life can bring us. Back in the sixties Eric Berne wrote Games People Play—an analysis of the ways in which people relate to each other and why we do so. His basic thesis is that “games are substitutes for the real living of real life.” We play games because we do not want to get down to the real human business of honest to God interaction. We would rather live at a superficial level of societal games than to talk about who we are and what we feel.
In our text, the Sadducees were playing games with Jesus. On the way to the cross, Luke says that Jesus' critics engaged him in a number of examinations. Of course, his critics aren't really looking for answers. His critics are not earnest inquirers, but rather sly, cool and calculating interrogators who are seeking to entangle Jesus in his answers.
Mickey Anders, Beyond the Boundaries
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Like All the Others
Many of you know Charles de Gaulle as the famous French WWII soldier, statesman, author. What you probably did not know was that Charles and Evonne deGaulle were the parents of a very mentally handicapped child. She was a treasure and a great concern to them both. No matter how bad things were in France, Charles would always make time for he and his Evonne to have time with their daughter. Almost every night after they had put her to bed, Evonne would ask, "Charles, why couldn't she have been like the others?"
As predicted, the little girl died in her youth. There was a private graveside service. After the priest had pronounced the benediction, everyone began to leave, everyone except Evonne. Charles went back to her and said, "Come, Evonne. Did you not hear the blessing of the priest? Now she is like all the others."
That is the promise and the power of resurrection!
Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com, adapted from unknown source.
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Philosophers and Pessimists
When it comes to talking about the hereafter, I like the words of St Paul: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, What God has prepared for those who love him."
Resurrection is not some natural right that we are given. It is a remarkable gift from the grace of God. Gratis! Some Greek philosophers believed that we are, by nature, immortal spirits. The human body and life on earth are but crude prisons that we endure like caged eagles. For them immortality is our right, which is restored at death as we escape to our true element.
Pessimists on the other hand said we die like any animal and that is it. Look at Ecclesiastes and you will find this emphatic despair.
But Christianity said two things:
To the pessimists Christianity answers: "No! You are wrong. There is a gift of life after death." Death does not snuff out the candle of our soul.
To the Greeks: "No you are wrong. The body is not a cage; it is a good gift to be used in this life. Death is real to be sure but it is not an escape, a loophole by which we escape the sentence of living on earth. God gives us the gift of life: Earthly life and Resurrection life: Both are Gift! Both are Grace!"
Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com. Adapted from a sermon by Australian Pastor Bruce Prewer.
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Marriage
Five-year-old Suzie told her mother the story of Snow White which she had heard in school. Prince Charming had kissed her back to life. Suzie concluded: "And do you know what happened then?"
"Yes," said the mother, "they lived happily ever after."
"No," responded Suzie, with a frown, "...they got married."
Traditional Humor
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Heaven and Earth
There are a lot question the Bible doesn't answer about the Hereafter. But I think one reason is illustrated by the story of a boy sitting down to a bowl of spinach when there's a chocolate cake at the end of the table. He's going to have a rough time eating that spinach when his eyes are on that cake. And if the lord had explained everything to us about what's ours to come, I think we'd have a rough time with our spinach down here.
Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker, 1993, p.184.
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The Dogmatics of Aluminum Foil
I sometimes marvel at Jesus' patience with the dogmatism and intolerance of the religious leaders. They argued about inconsequential matters and made people follow laws that they themselves could not keep. Here in Luke 20 they are arguing with Jesus, asking him about marriage in heaven. What is so obvious in this scene is that it's a set up. They don't even believe in heaven, the afterlife and resurrection. They're just asking these question to trip Jesus up and Jesus sees their trivial behavior so plainly. Let me give you a little illustration from the realm of cooking.
This story comes from a Houston Chronicle Editorial column:
Ask any great cook about aluminum foil and you're bound to get an opinion on which side is "best." Some swear the shiny side must always be on the outside of a baked potato, while others condemn such nonsense and emphatically claim exactly the opposite. Meanwhile, the manufacturer stays amused and gives a good lesson in dogmatism and tolerance. When foil is made, it is rolled. One side of the foil gets shiny because it comes in contact with the heavy roller. The other side stays dull because it never makes contact with the roller. Both sides produce the same results! Surely you don't have any church members who could benefit from this little lesson on tolerance. (Hints From Heloise, The Houston Chronicle, August 1989)
Brett Blair
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Doubt is not the opposite of faith, fear is.
Anglican theologian, Verna Dozier
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An Unmoored Boat on an Outgoing Tide
John Updike, in his novels, portrays the spiritual bankruptcy of so many modern Americans who deceive themselves into thinking that disbelief is an intellectual achievement. In his book, "In The Beauty of the Lilies," the major character ends his life in disbelief and Updike says when the character dies, "He slipped away as an unmoored boat on an outgoing tide." Interestingly, this character is a Presbyterian minister, Clarence Wilmot, Princeton-educated, he has all the right credentials, but is lacking one essential one. Rather than depend on God's Holy Spirit to lead him into the mysteries of faith and revelation, he falls prey to the temptation that comes to us all. He substituted MORALISM and RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY for a genuine encounter with God, a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. When God failed to answer his questions with the answers he expected, he began to lose faith. He takes the easy way out. He no longer raises the questions. He is relieved when he finally admits he no longer believes. He is comforted. He leaves the ministry and begins peddling encyclopedias to poor people who need better jobs more than they need facts. He has absolutely no passion for anything except for sex, which becomes a substitute for God.
Julian M. Aldridge, Jr., Asking The Right Questions!
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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
You are middle-aged or older if you remember when the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was first released. It was an exuberant, fast-paced musical about seven brothers on the frontier of the United States who were all looking for brides. Such "commodities" were rare in their part of the world. But, of course, in the end each brother got his bride.
The story in our lectionary passage for today is about one bride for seven brothers, but the end of the story is not as happy and upbeat as was the movie. The story is part of a "knock-down, drag-out" debate or argument between Jesus and some of his most powerful opponents. It takes place in the temple court in Jerusalem during the last week of Jesus' earthly life.
J. Will Ormond, Good News among the Rubble, CSS Publishing
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"WE NEVER DID IT THAT WAY BEFORE!" has been called the seven last words of the church
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When an Answer Is Not Required
Not every question requires an answer. Sometimes the hope is that there will be no answer. Questioning can be "posturing," that is, taking a position rather than soliciting information. By the questions raised, information is given as well as asked. Often playing to the audience of listeners or bystanders, questions are intended to manipulate others while vindicating the posture of the speaker. One needs only to listen to a congressional hearing or a political debate to watch masters of an art most of us practice. Isn't it so!
Watching a televised presidential news conference recently, one could not be sure whether the President of the United States was answering reporters' questions or dodging interrogatory missiles. Not at a loss for words, the president did a creditable job of bobbing, weaving, dancing and counter jabbing.
Like a skilled prizefighter, dancing and bobbing, Jesus has been ducking hostile questions, weaving through discussions, and jabbing back with knockout punches throughout this 20th chapter of Luke's gospel. Three times thus far in this chapter, hostile questions have been raised, sometimes as open challenges and sometimes with feigned sincerity. Each time Jesus has turned these combative questions to his advantage.
Theodore F. Schneider, Until the King Comes, CSS Publishing Company
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Love the Questions
Remember Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet? An aspiring poet from America wrote the famous poet Rilke in Germany with questions about his art. In one of his replies, Rilke writes, “Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language….Live the questions now. Perhaps then someday far in the future, you will gradually...live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, translated M. D. Hurter Norton, W. Norton and Company, Revised 1954, 1962
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What Can We Do to Be Partners with God in Mission?
At a church-growth workshop the leader, Bill Easum, who himself grew a church from 29 members to over 2,400 members, said that too often the questions churches ask themselves are questions that are motivated by a desire to maintain whatever is comfortable. That's why some wag has said that the seven last words of the church are "We've never done it that way before."
Bill Easum spoke of the three greatest sins of the church, and one of them was, "We're more in love with our traditions than we are with our missions." If we are intent on preserving the patterns of church life we've grown comfortable with, we'll soon discover that God has moved on and left us behind. God is always out there ahead of us, leading us into the future, and if we want to be working hand in hand with God, we have to be willing to ask the right questions. Not, "What can we do to preserve what we find comfortable?" but "What can we do to be partners with God in mission?" The first question leads to a church that is dead and declining; the second to a church that is alive and dynamic.
Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company
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Tradition!
A new husband watched curiously as his bride prepared to place a ham in the oven. Before putting it in to cook, she took a knife and carefully trimmed off both ends of the ham. The husband asked, "Why did you do that? I’m not an expert at cooking hams, but I don’t think I ever saw anyone cut off both ends of the ham before cooking it."
The wife answered, "You know, I don’t really know. I never cooked a ham before, but that’s the way my mother always did it." Her curiosity aroused, she telephoned her mother and asked her why she always cut off both ends of a ham before she cooked it.
"Now that you mention it, I don’t know, dear," her mother replied. "That’s just the way your grandmother always did it. Other than that, I honestly don’t have a clue."
Determined now to unravel this mystery, the young bride then telephoned her grandmother and asked her why she always cut off both ends of the ham before she cooked it. "Well, sweetheart, " her grandmother said, "the first oven we owned wasn’t big enough to put a whole ham in, so I had to cut the ends off to make it fit. After that, I guess it just became a habit!"
You see? That’s traditionalism – when we do whatever we do without knowing why we do it, but continue to do it anyway because that’s what we’ve always done! Does that make sense?
Johnny Dean
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Tradition Must Leave Room for Revelation
The apostle Paul, in his letter of encouragement to the struggling young church at Thessalonica, wrote, "Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions we taught you, either by word of mouth or by our letters" (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Tradition is important. But tradition has to leave room for revelation, because the Spirit blows where it wills, right? That has always been a problem in the church, from day one to this day. We don’t seem to want to leave any room for revelation when we’re talking about tradition.
A well-known theologian has commented, "Any church that is alive lives on the edge of heresy," meaning that its members won’t refuse new ideas or new programs or new challenges simply because there are those in the church who say, "WE NEVER DID IT THAT WAY BEFORE!" and want these to be the final words on the subject matter. These have been called "the seven last words of the church," and in many cases they have been.
Johnny Dean
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Historical Information about the Sadducees
It is generally thought that their name came from Zadok, who was the high priest under David, or possibly a later Zadok. The group by this name first appeared in the 2nd century BC and disappeared in the 1st century AD after the destruction of the temple in 70. There would be no need for temple priests if there were no temple.
According to Josephus as reported by the Harper's Dictionary of the Bible, "the Sadducees are said to reject the immortality of the soul, to attribute all human activity to free will and none to fate (or providence), and to reject other traditions, especially those of the Pharisees."
The article goes on to state:
The Sadducees were influential with only a few wealthy families and not with the people, who followed the Pharisees' interpretation of the law.... [they] were boorish in their social interactions,... they encouraged conflict with rather than respect for their teachers, were more stern than the Pharisees in recommending punishments for crimes, and ... aroused Herod's suspicions because they supported the Hasmoneans against him. From this data many commentators have surmised that the Sadducees were mostly priests and wealthy, powerful community leaders who sat in the Sanhedrin, were greatly hellenized (i.e., influenced by Greek culture), and cultivated good relationships with the Romans. [p. 891]
Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes
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Defending Your Life
The Hollywood version of life after death is portrayed in Albert Brooks' movie, "Defending Your Life." Brooks plays the part of Daniel Miller, an advertising man who is killed by a bus. He finds himself in Judgment City along with many other people. They are ushered into the city with all the efficiency of a bus tour. Newly arrived persons are taken to what appears to be hotels and told to sleep because they are tired from their transformation. Their assignment is to spend one week in Judgment City reviewing their lives. A defender is assigned to Daniel Miller who explains the process to him. In a courtroom they will review nine days of his life. Then the judges will decide whether or not he will move ahead or return to earth and attempt to live a better life. The episodes shown on the giant television screen of Daniel Miller's life reveal a man who is often fearful and afraid to take action. The prosecutor recommends that he return to earth to work on conquering his fears.
While in Judgment City he meets a woman named Julia. Julia brings out the best in Daniel. The last scene of the movie shows Daniel boarding a bus back to earth. Julia has boarded another bus to an unknown destination. Daniel sees Julia and runs toward her bus, clinging to the bus window for dear life. At that moment Daniel is able to conquer his fears and is allowed to join Julia. In typical Hollywood fashion, they both are advanced to a better life.
"Defending Your Life" is only one of several recent movies that deals with the subject of life after death. Earlier this year LIFE magazine featured articles on the same subject. Both believers and unbelievers are asking questions about life on the other side. And devout people will forever want to know what heaven will be like. Will the streets really be paved in gold? Will we recognize our relatives and friends? Will they know who we are? Will we be able to watch our loved ones who are still living? We search for answers.
One day a group of Sadducees approached Jesus with a question about life beyond the grave.
King Duncan,www.Sermons.com
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The Completely Accurate, but Totally Absurd Answers
In the children's classic, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, Milo, Tock and Humbug are traveling to the Lands Beyond. They are greeted by the twelve-faced Dodecahedron who is a specialist in problems. "I'm not very good at problems," admits Milo. "What a shame," sighs the Dodecahedron. "They're so very useful. Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days? All you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one foot tail." "Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled Humbug. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, "but if you did you'd certainly know what to do with him."
"That's absurd," objected Milo. "That may be true," he acknowledged, "but it's completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense you'll have to make it yourself."
The Sadducees' question was that kind of question. It was a test. It was a trap. Jesus, though, saw this as an opportunity to set the record straight. In heaven, he explained, there is no need for marriage, "because they are like angels and are children of God."
King Duncan, quote from Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 20.
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We’re Not Paradise People
Humorist Garrison Keillor in his delightful descriptions of the people in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon tells how difficult it will be for some of us to deal with that kind of perfection. He writes, "My people aren't paradise people. We've lived in Minnesota all our lives and it took a lot out of us. My people aren't sure if we'll even like paradise: not sure that perfection is all it's cracked up to be. My people will arrive in heaven and stand just inside the gate, shuffling around. `It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be,' we'll think. We'll say, `No, thank you, we can't stay for eternity, we'll just sit and have a few minutes of bliss with you and then we have to get back.'
"We were brought up to work, not complain, accept that life is hard, and make the best of what little we have, so when we come to the grandeur and grace of an eternal flower garden ringed by mountains beside a pale blue coral sea under the continuous sun, we naturally say, `Oh, no thanks, it's too much, really, I don't care for it, just give me some ice, please.'"
All of us will be a little like that. Heaven will be far more wonderful than we can ever imagine.
Garrison Keillor, quoted by King Duncan
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Fear of Dying
Warren Buffett, a financial investment genius and the second-richest man in America, has his doubts about life beyond the grave, and it worries him. Buffett admits, "There is one thing I am scared of. I am afraid to die." His biographer Roger Lowenstein, writes: "Warren's exploits were always based on numbers, which he trusted above all else. In contrast, he did not subscribe to his family's religion. Even at a young age, he was too mathematical, and too logical, to make the leap of faith. He adopted his father's ethical underpinnings, but not his belief in an unseen divinity." And thus Warren Buffet, one of the most successful men in the world, is stricken with one terrifying fear--the fear of dying.
On a lighter note, Buffett once said, "What I want people to say when they pass my casket is, "Boy, was he old!"
Buffett is not alone in his doubt and his fear. Even though the majority of people in this country --and even in the world -- believe in God and believe in life after the grave, there has always been a minority who finds this too great a leap of faith to take. And the natural response to such doubt is fear.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com
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He Only Needed It for Three Days
A pastor was talking to a group of young people about the high cost of dying. "People today waste thousands of dollars on coffins and monuments," the pastor said. "Jesus was so unconcerned by His death that He had to use a borrowed tomb."
A teenager raised her hand and said, "But Jesus only needed it for three days." Yes, he did, and that is good news for us who are his disciples.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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The Idea of Resurrection
The Sadducees thought the idea of resurrection to be silly. Maybe they had been influenced by Greek thinking, maybe they felt you could not build a good case for it based on the Scriptures. But they thought it silly and had come to the conclusion that Jesus believed in it. Since Jesus was a prominent teacher, they thought it would be fun and instructive to publicly humiliate him and so concocted their over-the-top scenario that exploited the old Israelite practice of levirate marriage to wonder what a woman who on earth had had seven husbands would do in the afterlife.
The set-up reminds you of the time someone wanted to get under the skin of C.S. Lewis. Lewis was fond of suggesting that in heaven, animals (and maybe even our cherished pets) could very well find a place. A person who thought that to be silly snidely asked Lewis “Well, what about the mosquitoes?” to which Lewis replied that God was clever enough to combine a hell for humans with a heaven for mosquitoes! (Or it reminds you of the famous line, attributed by some to Augustine: when a cynic asked what in the world God had been doing in all those eons prior to the creation of the universe, Augustine was said to reply, “He was making hell for the curious.”)
Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations
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The Road Stops Here
Pastor Edward Markquart of Seattle tells about a poem titled, “The Midnight of March 31st.” It’s a story about a drunken truck driver. Markquart imagines this driver trucking across Eastern Washington. Finally he comes . . . in his mind . . . to the end of the highway . . . [The highway] seems to stop at the top of a hill that he can’t see over . . . it is impossible for him to imagine that the road goes on. And so he pulls off the highway and into a tavern and shouts to everyone: “People, the road stops here. The road stops here. It doesn’t go any farther. That’s impossible.”
And everybody in the tavern laughs. They tell him that road goes all across Washington and even across the United States. But the drunken truck driver is convinced the road goes no farther than the hill he can’t see over.
Then Markquart adds these wise words, “By analogy, many people drive out of our church and they drive up highway #99 after the funeral, and they drive into Washington Memorial Cemetery, and the road pulls right up to a grave which is carved out of the ground on the top of a hill. And many people think: the road stops here; the road stops here; there is no more; it is impossible for the road to go any farther.”
But, of course, the road does go farther. Death is not the end of the journey. There is more beyond. A healthy approach to death is to deal with it as a time of transition. Death is but a journey from this world to the next.
King Duncan, adapting Josephine Young Case’s At Midnight on the 31st of March, an out-of-print title published in 1990 by Syracuse University Press (originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 1938)
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Looking Ahead to the Transition
Author King Duncan tells about a young man he met in the small town of Maryville, TN. Duncan had just finished speaking to a group on the healing power of humor. This young man came up to him to tell him about the death of his brother.
There were three brothers in their family. The family was quite involved in this small community and so, as youngsters, these three brothers were forced to accompany their parents to the funeral home for the receiving of friends whenever someone in the community died.
As the boys grew into their teen years, they began to develop biases about funerals. For example, there was one floral display that all three of them detested. Anyone who has ever gone to a funeral home in the rural south may have seen this arrangement. It is a wreath with a telephone in the middle of it and a ribbon fastened across it on which is printed the words, “Jesus Called.” These three brothers disliked this particular arrangement intensely.
To make a long story short, one of these three brothers died as a young adult after a prolonged illness. The family was devastated. He was so young and he was a fine young man. But now it was this family’s turn to receive friends at the local funeral home.
You may have guessed it. One of the floral arrangements that had been set up in the chapel for the receiving of friends was the one with the telephone and the ribbon with the words, “Jesus called.”
The two surviving brothers were enraged. Who could have sent this arrangement that they so despised to their beloved brother’s funeral? They quickly made their way to the arrangement to read the accompanying card. And on the card was the signature . . . of their deceased brother. He had sent the arrangement to his own funeral as one last joke on his brothers. In a flash, said this surviving brother, their tears turned to laughter.
What a gift this dying young man had given to his brothers. He had looked ahead to his journey of transition, and he had sought to make things easier for those he loved.
King Duncan,www.Sermons.com