No Other Options 11-6-22
No Other Options
Job 19:23-27a; Luke 20:27-38
Job 19:23-27a
O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
Luke 20:27-38
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 anymore, 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.”
Prayer – God of grace, your presence with us during tough times in life, is of unspeakable comfort and reassurance with us particularly when it feels like there are no good options. We think back on our lives, and we all recognize that there are so many times in the past when we couldn’t have made it had not you been walking with us. For your healing, comforting, hopeful presence with us during our difficult days, we give thanks. As we think of the days to come, we can’t say for sure what lies ahead for us. There are sure to be days of difficulty and sadness, as well as times of joy and gladness. We don’t know what the future holds. Yet this we know: you walk with us into whatever future awaits us. You have been with us in the past, and you are with us here today in the present so we have confidence that you will not leave us to our own desires and devices in the future. Thus, we are able to think about tomorrow with expectancy and confidence, knowing that whatever tomorrow brings, you’ll be there – amen.
It has been close to 20 years ago I was paged to the Women’s and Children’s unit at our hospital in Richmond, VA. A couple had come in for an elective abortion – her baby was suffering from severe developmental disabilities and would likely not survive the whole pregnancy and if so, would die shortly thereafter. Part of the challenge for this couple is that they were Catholic, and they wanted to speak to a priest. They felt like they had no other options. It was fortunate that I happened to know the Bishop for that diocese and so I called Bishop Sullivan because he would know which priest to call who would be pastoral rather than doctrinal. He told me who to call and I did. Father Michael came and helped this young Catholic couple caught in a tragic situation where they didn’t feel as if they had any other options other than to terminate their pregnancy.
I’ve had the dilemma of “we don’t have any other options” on my mind because in our passage this morning, Jesus’ critics hope to put him in a situation in which he must choose between limited options. These critics have dogged his every step, putting questions to him, like, ‘Should we pay taxes to the oppressive Caesar, go along to get along; or, should we rebel, refuse to pay taxes and risk annihilation by Caesar?’ It’s a trick question meant to force Jesus to choose when there are no good options. Damned if you do; damned if you don’t. Gotcha.
This is the only time in Luke’s gospel that Jesus has a debate with the Sadducees. Perhaps, unfairly, Luke introduces the Sadducees by noting what they deny rather than what they believe. Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection. Their disbelief could be attributed to their rather narrow approach to biblical interpretation. They recognized the authority of only the Torah, the Pentateuch. The Pharisees, and presumably Jesus, recognized the Prophets and the Psalms as scripture upon which they based their hopes for a better future that included the resurrection of the dead.
Behind this debate is a deeper and bigger theological question of ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ This is a debate about God, about what can be expected of the God of Israel. Is God going to set things right or not? Will the future life just be some kind of eternal extension of this life? Certainly, the Sadducees believed that God was just, but they believed that God’s justice occurs in the here and now, not in some future world. The Pharisees and presumably Jesus believed that God’s purposes will be continued to be worked out so that God will ultimately, finally get what God wants, even if that working out occurs in some future realm. God will not be defeated by the powers of sin and death – in the end, God’s boundless love wins.
Scholars figure that this debate about the resurrection is being narrated by Luke around 100 CE. Israel was still digging out after Rome’s brutal crushing of the Jewish Revolt which occurred around 70 CE. Jerusalem and the temple are in ruins. In the Roman destruction, all hope for a triumphant Israel had been squashed. Rome had triumphed, get used to it. That is the way it always is, with the strong prevailing over the weak. Don’t indulge in false hopes or wishful thinking – this seems to be the position of the Sadducees.
The Sadducees probably fancied themselves as realists who thought it best to double down and get to work adjusting to the current realities rather than hoping for some fuzzy future hope that somehow, someway, God would eventually set everything right. The Pharisees, on the other hand, said that though the hopes and dreams of Israel suffered a devastating loss and the immediate future looked bleak, God will eventually triumph. The name of that future hope was the resurrection of the dead.
In our passage this morning, Jesus is confronted with an absurdly complex case from the law in which there were not any good options. In a patriarchal world, women who were widowed were given some modicum of protection by passing them from one brother to another if there was a death of the husband. Without going into detail, Jesus says there may be no good options in the moment, but in the age to come, the age of the resurrection, earthly institutions like marriage will be rendered irrelevant – no longer will women be regarded as the property of men. It’s as if Jesus is saying, ‘Don’t make the mistake of thinking that there are no other options by simply considering this world only. Our hope lies in God’s eternal options even when we can’t imagine that God will show grace.’
As I remembered that young Catholic couple who I visited that Thursday morning, I am grateful beyond measure that Bishop Sullivan was the Bishop at that time and knew of a priest who would lead with grace and not dogma. That couple knew their child was going to be horribly disabled and would suffer immeasurably if born only to die very soon after birth. That couple knew that terminating their pregnancy went against Catholic teaching and still felt as if they had no other options. Fortunately, the priest who visited with them offered them grace and comfort and assurance rather than strict church teachings – the priest, I believe reflected Jesus in that no other options moment.
As I consider our passage this morning I have also reflected on our contentious, divided country. Both sides of the political debate have staked out their beliefs and ideologies and from a look outside the political realm perspective it seems that our country has few options. It’s that old adage, ‘if you are not for me, then you are against me.’ That adage more often than not reflects a lose-lose proposition rather than any possible win-win for our country. It is difficult to find other options when the sides are so divided and there appears to be no willingness to find a middle path. Perhaps, like some of you, I’ve wondered more than once if a distant island or land may be more suitable for me in the middle of our current context.
Unfortunately, life sometimes throws us scenarios, situations, complex moments when there are few, if any, options. A loved one is facing end of life, the doctors have said there are no more treatments, your only option is hospice. And on more than one occasion I have heard a patient or family member say that as long as there is life there is hope. The question at that moment is what does one hope for – a miraculous disease curing miracle or no prolonged suffering where comfort and quality of life is the focus. Or it might be the 16th inning of the World Series and the manager has used all of his utility players and the bases are loaded with one out and all that is left on the bench is a pitcher who hasn’t swung the bat in 10 years or the guy who has struck out 7 times during the game. There appears to be no other options for the manager and yet he decides to give that hasn’t batted in a long time pitcher a chance and he lays down the perfect squeeze bunt to win the Series. Or it might be a church that has experienced steady decline before Covid and now faces even fewer members who are active – what do we do to ‘save our church?’ Do we spend money on new ideas to try and draw people to our church or do we simply spend whatever money is left in the treasury until the balance is zero and close the doors with a sense of gratitude for the years of shared ministry?
Sometimes we are faced with no other options. Sometimes we have to make hard decisions on which path to take. And like our passage this morning, like the story of the young couple facing all the questions around abortion, like a church facing an unclear future, when it appears that there are few options, Jesus somehow, someway shows us a different path – a path of resurrection. What we must understand is that sometimes death, or something like it, must occur in order for there to be resurrection. But death doesn’t have the last word – God does – that is the whole meaning of resurrection. Resurrection comes in a variety of packages, a variety of sometimes unseen, unclear paths – but it comes. And when it feels like there are no other options, resurrection seems like a glorious, grace filled assurance that death, dying, doesn’t have the last word – God does – thanks be to God – amen.