The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
Jesus, we see this all the time. Every election is like this. Candidates are trying to take each other down. Political ads shout ridiculous attacks that clearly are like throwing Jello at a wall and waiting to see what might stick. Your antagonists do the same pushing people’s buttons. This time it involved the afterlife and marriage. We have to ask though, what you know about these things? Tell us, for we need to get a handle on this ourselves.
What Happens When You Die?
Ahem, so you want an answer in 1500 words or less? Will these eleven verses be sufficient? Nah, but here’s some clues to follow.
First, there’s two thoughts. One is you die and you’re dead. The other is you die but something else goes on. Nothing new here. In fact, the former was what the guys believed who that day were trying to trap Jesus when they asked one of those ridiculous questions.
They were some of the Sadducees, religious leaders who are believed to have authority over the Temple. That’s important because a few days earlier Jesus had an angry fit and threw out some moneychangers with a whip no less.
He didn’t make these guys look good in the process. No surprise, they weren’t looking for just a friendly debate. It’s no effort to see their subterfuge was meant to bring him down.
Give Jesus credit. He didn’t crudely laugh in their faces or call them out. But any good Jew could see through it. The Sadducees didn’t believe in any kind of afterlife. They based their thoughts only on the Torah, the first five book of the Hebrew scriptures. No where in these writings is there an indication of life after death or what others called resurrection.
Those “others” were another group of religious leaders, the Pharisees, who believed resurrection meant that life goes on for those who are believers in God. Jesus, by the way, was in agreement with them on this tenet of religion. Not that all the Pharisees were happy with Jesus either, but the two weren’t at odds on this at least.
Until Death Do Us Part
Now this is what will make you dizzy. The Sadducees posed a hypothetical example. Suppose a man died and had no children. According to the dictates of the Torah, his widow would become the wife of the man’s brother and have a child by him. (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) They considered this as a way for his name not to die out. Thus, even if death was final, persons would live on, so to speak, by the progeny produced for them. But in their example, the widow is married to each of seven brothers, all of them dying with no offspring. Their question: “whose wife will she be in the resurrection?”
Shake your head over this one if you feel Jesus was wasting his time with these guys. However, they were not as empty-headed as they look. The answer they considered accurate was she wouldn’t be the wife of any of the brothers because there is no afterlife, no resurrection. Oh yeah, they knew ahead of time where Jesus stood on questions about what happens when you die. Thinking he would disagree and confirm she would be “married” in the afterlife, they could toss him out of the Temple as roughly as he had done.
What’s It Like When We Die?
Now this assumes life goes on in some respect. Here a distinction has to be made. There’s the afterlife, where the sense of soul continues. Then there’s resurrection, not just a spiritual existence, but being in the presence of God. Jesus clarifies it’s not like anything known in this life.
As for marriage, Jesus affirms the institution is only for those living this side of death. Life with God is on another level, being raised from death above what ever is known of life on earth. It’s both a new life and a new kind of life. There is no marriage as there is no death. It’s behind the traditional marriage vow “until death do us part.”
The Trouble with Jesus is he doesn’t make death sound like a big family reunion but being fully with God. Whatever kind of love a person has known in relationship, particularly the highest form of human relationship in marriage, will be transformed by the full experience of God’s love beyond what can be known in the here and now.
So That Means…
Jesus doubled down on these two-bit lawyer-wanna-be pretenders. They had used the sacred writings of their people to put Jesus in his place. He returns the shot with one of his own.
“As to whether the dead will be raised…,” he throws back at them for that’s their real problem with him. He references Moses, the great leader and prophet, who had an experience of God in a burning bush. (Exodus 3:1-6) The patriarchal fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were long dead. But Moses stated the Lord was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the present tense.
Jesus concludes, “He is the God of the living, not the dead. They are all alive to him.” Alive to God, in God’s presence, full existence in resurrected form.
So you silenced them with their own weapons. They didn’t dare ask any more questions. Guess you walked out of that Temple feeling pretty good about it all.
Likely about as good as you can knowing behind you are those who would soon see you dead. After all, if there is no resurrection, once dead he’d be gone forever. He was the one they wanted silenced.
Named 2024 Notable Book Award by Southern Christian Writers Conference!
The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings
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