Luke 20:27–38
The Question about the Resurrection
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, 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 any more, 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.’
Reflection - God of the Living!
What an awesome thought... the thought of God being the God of the living. Awesome in several ways. First it brings an eternal sense of hope and happiness and joy. Because we can rest assure that God is the God of the living.
I can remember a time in my early childhood to teen years where there was talk all around and some in the Church about the expression that God is dead. I'm not sure of the source or the reason for this expression. At the time, I thought it was somewhat politically motivated because of the Cold War and the fact that so many people were living in a hopeless state, given in to the idea that the world was doomed to nuclear destruction as nations released the horrible power of nuclear bombs upon each other. If this capability were given to man then surely... God was dead.
In some respects this idea of hopelessness seems to morph itself throughout the ages. Today, we blame the economy and every evil thing of this world on the President of the United States it seems. We have been doing this no matter what party has been present in the White House. The ills of the country of the United States and it seems the ills of the world were all the fault of the President of the United States. Maybe this feeling of hopelessness has spread to Congress and perhaps all forms of government, state and local, and policies of the government like Obamacare and such, I'm not sure. But people tend to live in this state of hopelessness, that seems from my viewpoint, to be a state that is self imposed because they buy into all of the rhetoric of the day.
God is not dead! God is not the God of the dead... or maybe God is? We have no need to live our lives in a hopeless state of being. We have a promise given to us. We have a God that comes to us right when we were dying to save us. God sent Jesus into this world to save all of us who were dying from our sinfulness. We were saved by the actions of God in flesh, in Jesus, to live a new life. God is the God of the dead in the sense that he came to all of us who were dying to save us from ourselves, our sins, and the death we deserve. God came in the flesh, in Jesus to live and to die himself in our place for our hopeless attitudes and our surrendered resolve that surely God must be dead. God came to us in the flesh of Jesus to save us! We have a God of the dead that brings us back to life in him to make us and recreate us as living, joyful, hopeful, fulfilled Children of God! God is the God of the living. He has been throughout all time. And after a few days, as Jesus flesh lay in that tomb, Jesus was resurrected to new life. Jesus is our God and the God of the living, giving us eternal hope and joy in him.
It's time we realize what God has done for us. It's time we live the lives of the living and not live the lives of the hopeless, blaming Presidents, Congress, or Cold Wars, or Obamacare, or anything else for our state in life. No matter how it seems, we live with and for a God of the living! It's time to realize the blessing that God has given us and live like it! It's time to turn to God and repent for our negativeness and give thanks for the joy only God could give us in this life in which we find ourselves and live in hope. It's time that we accept the illness, the sin, the poverty our whatever we happen to live with and realize that we live for a God of the Living not a God of the Dead and that, in the last, we live a resurrected life of eternal blessing and joy. It's time to get over ourselves and get over our pity party and live life for the Living God of the Living!
Prayer
God of the Living... Thanks! Thanks for your gracious saving act of Jesus upon that cross that died for me while I was dead to bring be back to new life, to a resurrected life in you. Thank you for this life you have blessed me with. May I live this life in joy to you and for all you give to me. My my actions reflect the love and joy of the living in all that I do or say. May my actions be actions for the living God and not actions that propel the doom and gloom of the evil that surrounds us in this place. For you are the God of the Living... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment