The Resurrection is a Reality

Many different Jewish groups tried to trap Jesus, but all failed. Just days before Jesus died on the cross, a group called the Sadducees tried their hand at setting a trap for him. These men were very materialistic, and they did not believe in life after death. Their belief was when you die, it was all over; there was no judgment and no resurrection. They argued that God never intervened in your life here, and there was no later life to worry about. Their beliefs sound like many in our culture today.

Knowing that Jesus believed and taught about the resurrection, they devised a trap to prove how ridiculous this belief really was. They started with a provision that Moses had allowed for families that would lose their name and wealth when the men died. Moses said that “if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.” Their story was that a woman’s husband died and left her childless (Luke 20:27-33). Each brother married her but with the same result—all seven brothers. Then they asked in heaven whose wife will she be? This was meant to mock the belief of a resurrection, and they were sure Jesus wouldn’t be able to answer to this riddle.

Jesus responded that there would be no marriage in heaven because we would be like the angels and there would be no death. There will be no funerals in heaven because there will never be anyone die there. Our bodies will have been transformed by the resurrection. Our capacity for life will transcend anything we can imagine (Luke 10:34-36). He stated that God is God of the living not the dead.

At my first funeral in Spanish in Argentina many years ago, I was very nervous because it was my first funeral in the language. It was for an elderly lady who had gone to be with the Lord. She was very poor, so she was given a state funeral, which meant that the plot and the burial were provided by the State. The whole experience was demeaning because the workers treated everything as just another body to be buried. The pine box that held her body was placed in the open grave—the fifth coffin to go in that one grave. The gravediggers were paid very little to dig common graves, and they were drunk. They dropped the box and stumbled around robbing the ceremony of the dignity that we tried to give it. I did my very best but felt very troubled that I couldn’t have done better. Later as I was reading about the resurrection, I gained a clearer understanding into what awaits the Christian on that great getting up morning.

Jesus will one day speak to that little lady in Tucuman, Argentina, because this is what he said, "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). We will all be resurrected to life or to death.

Paul writes about the way this woman was buried and the way she will be raised, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).

Like the Sadducees of yesterday, there are still those who don’t believe in the resurrection. As for me, I choose to listen to what Jesus says about the resurrection. In addition, the rest of the Bible is full of references to the resurrection. We will be resurrected! We will live for eternity. The question is will it be to eternal life or eternal death?