Proper 27 C
Christians are not Rational
St. Luke 20:27-40
10 November 2013 – Redeemer
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This is all there is so make the most of it. The end is near. So the Israelites believed in Egypt. They were insignificant. Egypt was an Empire. They were slaves. Pharaoh was their Master. They were weak and powerless. He had soldiers, chariots, and might. That is what they saw. That is what they believed. Born a slave. Live a slave. Die a slave. The end.
What they didn’t see was something happening in their distant homeland. One of their own named Moses was out tending sheep in the wilderness. Moses thought he had escaped Egypt. Then he saw something which made no sense – a bush was on fire, but it wasn’t burning up. How can that be? Moses approached and out of the bush the Lord called, “Moses, Moses.” Moses was no longer free. The Lord took him captive by His Word and sent him back to Egypt. Israel was slaves, but the Lord would free them. Egypt was powerful, but the Lord would humble them. Pharaoh’s army was mighty, but they would die by the hand of the Lord. The children of Israel would not see their end in Egypt. They would be free to live. They would worship the Lord at Sinai and be brought into the promised land.
How often do we fall into the Israelite sin? We look around at our slavery to sin and death and say, “Well, this is it.” Eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die. No sense fighting it. I’m dying – that’s obvious with every passing day and every time I pass the mirror. Evil is greater than me, sin is with me – this is the way life is. The big name for this sin is “rationalism.” A rationalist lives for the here and now believing the end is coming and there is nothing greater than death.
The Sadducees of Jesus day were rationalists. They didn’t believe in angels and they didn’t believe in the resurrection from the dead. They had never been to cemetery yet where someone who was dead came back to life, therefore it can’t happen. The Sadducees loved Moses and the books he wrote, the codes and laws he left behind. They weren’t looking for a Savior because they didn’t believe any of this nonsense about life everlasting and the resurrection which Jesus proclaimed.
The Sadducees used their love of Moses to attempt Jesus’ downfall. There was a law which stated that “if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.” (28) In this way, the widow would be provided for by her children. The Sadducees took this reasonable law to a ridiculous level. “There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?”
What’s the likelihood of a woman marrying seven brothers and all of them dying before she has a child? It reminds me of the abortion argument which pleads that we need to keep abortion legal to save women’s lives and to care for rape victims. According to sources such as USA Today the combined number of abortions for rape victims and possibly to save a mother’s life is no greater than 3.8% (and that’s the highest number out there.) A good example of ridiculous is advocating the abortion of 3000 children per day in the US, to save 100 women from death or the supposed shame of giving birth to a child that resulted from rape. I’ve got a more reasonable argument. Let’s save 2900 lives by ending abortion in all cases except where the life of the mother is at risk. The problem we face is that my argument is labeled ridiculous and the pro-death argument is considered reasonable. But I digress. Back the sermon where the Sadducees are trying to trick Jesus.
Since the Sadducees loved Moses, Jesus uses Moses to prove and preach the resurrection. At the burning bush that didn’t burn up (an unreasonable event right there), the Lord spoke to Moses (also unreasonable). And when Moses asked the Lord what His name was the Lord gave this answer, “I am who I am.” Tell the Israelites, “the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” Then Jesus interprets that OT passage. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were long dead by the time Moses comes along. Abraham was buried alongside his wife. Isaac’s grave was at Hebron. And the Israelites had Jacob’s bones down in Egypt. But the Lord told Moses they weren’t dead – I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not was, but am, not used to be, but now. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive, even though they died. They are waiting for the resurrection.
So what do these rationalists have to do with you? The Devil wants you to be a rationalist. He wants you to look at life like an Israelite. The Devil wants you to believe that your slavery is normal – that sin and death are the way life is. He wants you to live only for the here and now as you wait for the end. He wants you to think that being a human is an excuse for the sins you commit and the trouble you have. He wants you to be a Sadducee who doesn’t believe in the resurrection. He wants you to think that the cemetery is where your life ends.
The Lord God of Israel is not a rationalist. He is not reasonable and sometimes He is even ridiculous. The Lord chose Moses – a shepherd who can’t speak very well, to go down and free Israel from her slavery. He sends Moses with His staff and his brother Aaron. How in the world is a one little shepherd with a stick going to take down Pharaoh? Well, ask Goliath how it went with David?
In a far more unreasonable event God sends His Son via the Virgin Mary to a world enslaved by sin and death. God becomes a man – subject to danger already in the womb. God sends His Son with nothing. This One Man will go against every sin, the devil and all His demons, and death itself. That’s ridiculous and it isn’t very rational either. What is God the Father thinking when He plunges Jesus into the filthy bath water of your sin in the Jordan? What is He thinking when He sends His Son hungry into the wilderness to do battle with Satan? What is He thinking when He lets a sham trial convict His Son without any evidence of any crime? What is He thinking when He turns His back on His righteous and holy Son and lets Him suffer all hell at the cross? What is He thinking? He isn’t thinking – not rationally anyway. He isn’t thinking because He’s loving and love isn’t reasonable. He loves you and all this He does so that sin and death aren’t your end.
This isn’t all there is – Jesus’ resurrection proves that. Sin is forgiven. Death is dead. Satan doesn’t have a case against you. So don’t live in fear of the grave or the end. Don’t live subject to your sins. That isn’t all there is. Laugh at the grave – tell your children not to spend too much on your casket because you won’t be there very long. Fight against your sin and tell the Devil off – because they won’t win the day. Christ won the day, the eternal day, when He rose on Easter morning. Don’t live like a slave to sin and death, live as a forgiven child of God, as one who is alive forevermore, as one looking forward to a body without aches and pains and sin, live like the person you are in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
9 November 2013 anno Domini