10 November 2019
Haggai 1:15b-2:9; Psalm 145; 2
Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38
It has been said that only through death can one really begin to live. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”. Yet what Bonhoeffer is expressing has nothing to do with a physical death. It is, rather, as attributed to St. John the Baptizer, “[The Messiah] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
“But I must decrease” … seems to suggest
that in order for Messiah to have His proper place, John had to stand
down. “He must increase, but [in order for Him to
increase] I must decrease”. There is no
competition, no race to see who baptizes more, who can draw the larger crowd –
a debilitating race the modern Church has lost itself in. Once Messiah
was on the scene, it was time for the Baptizer to fade, to “decrease” … while
still very much alive. What’s more, John was ok with this.
It would be presumptuous to think St. John was
referring to his own execution as the means of “decrease” since he had yet to
even be arrested. So, the context is one in which some of John’s
disciples had come to him disturbed because all were going to Jesus to be
baptized rather than coming to the Baptizer himself; “The One … to
whom you testified, here He is baptizing, and all are going to Him” (John
3:26). John acknowledged it all as what must come to pass; and he
ended his discourse with, “He must increase, but I must
decrease”.
The Baptizer had his place, a very important and
necessary place - just as you and I do – but unlike many of us, John knew the
limit of his place and his time. He was the one appointed to prepare the
way for The Lord, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world” (John 1:29). Over and over, John had been
clear to all who would listen that he was not “the One”.
In a manner of speaking, even throughout his ministry,
the Baptizer had been sufficiently “decreased”.
He was not looking for his own “best life” because he always understood
his life was intimately connected to the Very Source of Life. Apart from The Lord, John had no life.
Sometimes it seems as though we become so fixated on
the Resurrection and what happens to us, we lose sight of the Life we
are invited into in the here-and-now. When
we think about the Resurrection, we think only in terms of what happens after
the physical death of the body – yet we still try to dictate our own terms.
“What happens next?”, the Sadducees and we want to know. So in the
kingdom of heaven, as Jesus teaches, “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” (Luke 20:35). In
other words, life as we now know it will come to an end – but Life itself goes
on in a whole other way, a way we can hardly conceive of except in our own
terms.
The Sadducees believed the five books of Moses were
the only authoritative books of Scripture. Because the Torah lacks a
defined doctrine of resurrection, it would be that in these books, those who
died were … well, dead. Even though The Lord refers to Himself as “the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” to Moses (Exodus 3:6),
it was maybe considered just a point of reference. So because these key
biblical figures no longer existed in their world, there was no longer a story
to tell except in terms of the Covenant.
Yet Jesus used that very reference as proof of “the
fact that the dead are raised” (Luke 20:37). Then in
the Transfiguration, we find Moses and Elijah very much alive (Luke 9:30).
So it must follow that The Holy Father would not define Himself in relationship
with persons who no longer exist. Or with death, for that matter; “for
He is God not of the dead but of the living, for to Him all of them are
alive” (Luke 20:38).
While this exchange should be a source of great
comfort in assuring us of Life in the age to come, it has been proved for some
to be a source of great conflict. A lady came to me years ago after a
service in which this passage from Luke’s Gospel had been
used. She had been widowed for over ten years, and she still missed her
husband. She had told me before that every waking day for her was a new
experience in grief.
So she asked me if this meant she would not be
reunited with her beloved husband in heaven since “since they
neither marry nor are given in marriage”. If you can believe it,
I was rendered speechless because this question was pretty new to me and caught
me completely off guard! She had been banking on her misery over the past
decade to finally be put to rest when she would be reunited with her
husband. To her, and perhaps to many, that is the very essence of heaven.
Admittedly, it is difficult for me to speak to that
kind of grief, not having experienced it myself. Yet it did grieve me to
know this Christian lady who had long ago professed faith in Christ was not
looking forward to meeting Christ; she only wanted her husband. She wanted the only life which gave her own
life meaning. I was not - and am still not - going to suggest for one
moment this woman’s thoughts are misguided, but I also do think she was asking
the wrong question.
Whatever we may choose to believe about the
Resurrection and life in the age to come, we must not be so narrowly focused on
our own terms of life that we miss what our Shepherd is trying to teach and
lead us to. He was not trying to one-up the Sadducees. They asked a
legitimate question according to their understanding of Scripture. Maybe
they were trying to set a trap for Jesus, but who among us has not wondered
from time to time what the “age to come” will look like?
But the point Jesus was making was not whether we are
still married or will be. In fact, marriage in the age to come is not
even on the table. He made a clear distinction between this age and the
age to come; “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”.
What can this possibly mean to us? In some ways, our conflict may be with the
terms. Because we are so wrapped up in this
life, a life we can modify however we wish, a life the terms of which we can
dictate, Christ cannot have His rightful place because we refuse to “decrease”. We “ain’t dead yet”, so we want to live … but
only on our own terms. Even when
we claim to have received Christ as Lord and Savior, we still have our own
terms in the backs of our minds.
What we must strive for is the “decrease” of self as
we “go on to perfection”, as we are sanctified in The Lord. It occurs to
me that the Resurrected Life is the one we can have now. Life in the “age to come” should not come as
a shock to us – it should be a continuation of the Life we have already chosen;
the Life in which Christ Jesus really is The Lord, the Boss, the Shepherd. Only when we “decrease” can He
increase. And when He increases, whether in this life or the Life to
come, only then can we really start living as we should – as He intended from
the beginning. Amen
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