A little girl walked into a pet shop. She went up to the shopkeeper and asked in a sweet little voice, \u201cExcuse me, mister, do you have any bunny rabbits?\u201d<\/p>\n

The shopkeeper bent way down and put his hands on his knees so he would be on her level, and asked, \u201cDo you want a white rabbit or a black rabbit? Or maybe that cute little brown bunny over there?\u201d<\/p>\n

The little girl thought for a moment, put her hands on her hips and said, \u201cMister, I don\u2019t think my python really cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our subject this morning is one of life\u2019s universals. Like those rabbits, it makes no difference whether we are black, brown, yellow or white. It makes no difference whether we are rich or poor, well-known or hardly-known.\u00a0 Eventually, the grim reaper comes for us all.<\/p>\n

Some of the Sadducees came to Jesus with a question regarding the subject of death. One of the differences between Pharisees and Sadducees is that the Sadducees did not believe in life beyond the grave. That is why they were sad, you see.\u00a0 So it\u2019s obvious they\u2019re trying to entrap Jesus.<\/p>\n

The Sadducees were a wealthy and powerful Jewish sect. They controlled the priesthood and the temple. The Sanhedrin was the governing body over the Jews in the Roman Empire. The Chief Priest of the Sanhedrin and most of its members were Sadducees. The Roman government supported the Sadducees and kept them in power because the Sadducees preferred Greek customs over Jewish ones.<\/p>\n

The Sadducees based all their religious beliefs on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. According to them, there was no evidence in the Torah for an afterlife, or angels or a resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees believed that all of God\u2019s plans and covenant promises were for this current life, and that death was the end of everyone\u2019s story. They had no use for a hereafter.<\/p>\n

Listen to their question. \u201cTeacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man\u2019s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus replied, \u201cThe people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God\u2019s children, since they are children of the resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, marriage is an earthly phenomenon. It is, first of all, a union of the flesh. But the same rules do not apply to a spiritual state. There is no marriage in heaven. So, if your first spouse has died and you have remarried, relax. You won\u2019t be married to either one in the next life. This is one of the places where Islam and Christianity part ways. You won\u2019t be someone\u2019s seventh wife.<\/p>\n

Having answered their question, Jesus turns the table and gives a very definite affirmation of life beyond the grave, just to make sure the Sadducees understand which side he\u2019s on: \u201cIn the account of the [burning] bush,\u201d Jesus says, \u201ceven Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord \u2018the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u2019\u201c Then Christ says conclusively, \u201c[God] is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s good news, isn\u2019t it? Everybody, whether they are on earth or are in heaven, is alive to God. There can be no equivocation at this point: Life continues beyond the grave. We need not fear about those who have departed from this life. For they now live with God.<\/p>\n

But we live in a death denying culture.\u00a0When was the last time you heard that someone \u201cdied\u201d? Generally, they have \u201cpassed away\u201d or \u201cpassed on\u201d or \u201cexpired,\u201d like an old carton of milk.<\/p>\n

John Killinger once told of a woman who was approaching the end of her life. She expressed her feelings like this, \u201cI am ready to go, but I am not ready to leave.\u201d And many of us can relate to that. Life is a wonderful experience. And that is<\/em> how we ought to feel about it.<\/p>\n

Others of us are willing to let go of our own lives, but not willing to let go of those we love. Perfectly understandable. Jesus did not condemn Mary and Martha for the tears they shed at the death of their brother Lazarus. In fact, Jesus cried, too. It\u2019s hard to let go of loved ones.<\/p>\n

Have you heard about a product called LifeGem? LifeGems are very special synthetic diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are made by compressing carbon, the primary element of all diamonds, to pressures approaching the pressures that produce diamonds deep inside the earth. The twist here is that the carbon LifeGem uses happens to come from cremains, the ashes left from cremating a human body. In other words, rather than putting the ashes of a loved one in an urn or scattering them someplace, LifeGem will compress those ashes into a high quality diamond which you could wear around your neck or on your finger. Prices start at $3,000.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s one way of dealing with the death of a loved one, I suppose, as long as you can afford it. I personally would rather see the money used, say, to endow a memorial in the loved one\u2019s name, but you can see how this could be appealing to some people. We want to hold on to those we love.<\/p>\n

A better way of dealing with death, however, is to recognize it as a time of transition.\u00a0It\u2019s a trip that all of us will make one day. We don\u2019t need to be morbid about it. In fact, this will be the most exciting trip we\u2019ll ever take. It\u2019s a time of transition. Death is but a journey from this world to the next.<\/p>\n

The Sadducees tried to negate the very reason for Jesus\u2019 life and mission and being. The Sadducees did not know a God who could love us this much, the Sadducees did not know a God who could restore what was corrupted, the Sadducees did not know that God had a plan for the restoration of the world and for ultimate justice and peace and healing of all the wounds of our fallen state. But a child of the resurrection knows that through death God has provided a way for us to be born again into a living hope.<\/p>\n

If death is our ultimate end, then there is no purpose to life except to maximize our own enjoyment for our very brief time on this planet. If death is our ultimate end, then we are born dying. But if we are children of God and children of the resurrection, then we know that death is not the end of us. It is the end of injustice and suffering and evil and pain, and the gateway to new life and freedom and the love of God. It\u2019s an occasion of great and lasting joy.<\/p>\n

Speaking of great joy, when Antonia \u201cToni\u201d Larroux died, her adult children wrote an interesting obituary. It read: \u201c(Her memorial service) will be led by The Rev. Curt Moore of Orlando, Florida, a questionable choice for any spiritual event, but one the family felt would be appropriate due to the fact that every time Toni heard Curt preach she prayed for Jesus to return at that very moment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The obituary continued like this: \u201cOn a last but serious note, the woman who loved life and taught her children to \u2018laugh at the days to come\u2019 is now safely in the arms of Jesus and dancing at the wedding feast of the Lamb.<\/em> Anyone wearing black will not be admitted to the memorial. \u00a0She is not dead. \u00a0She is alive.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

That<\/em> is the ultimate message of Jesus to the Sadducees – and to us. You are not dead. You are alive. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. God made you to be eternally alive. God\u2019s nature is to love you and provide you with abundant and eternal life – even when that life requires God to take the penalty of death on our behalf through Jesus\u2019 death on the cross. And God\u2019s final plan is to restore all of creation back to God\u2019s original plan, a world of justice, peace and wholeness. The road does not end at the cemetery. For God is the God of the living \u2013 and we are children of the resurrection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little girl walked into a pet shop. She went up to the shopkeeper and asked in a sweet little voice, \u201cExcuse me, mister, do you have any bunny rabbits?\u201d The shopkeeper bent way down and put his hands on his knees so he would be on her level, and asked, \u201cDo you want a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n