The Resurrection & Remembrance
Sermon preached remembrance Sunday in Portugal 13 November 2022
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Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
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Resurrection
You may think that this reading is a poor choice for Remembrance Sunday. A reading about a widow and seven deaths when we are remembring conflicts that led to countless deaths and many widows. But this reading is about the resurrection, about a Saviour who could defeat death and open the door to eternal life. As Christians we believe Jesus took on our human form – to be like us in every way, so that he could die our death and opened the door for us to inherit the eternal life he won for us with his life (that is the gospel in a nutshell). It all hinges on the resurrection.
1. Remembrance Yearns Reunion
2. Remembrance Offers Reassurance
3. Remembrance Requires Response
1. Remembrance Yearns Reunion
On Remembrance Sunday and 11th day of the 11th Month at 11am we remember the awful cost of war and we remember that freedom is costly
Think about this ……….If General Montgomery who fought in WW2, had been killed, then we would never have known him as a great statesman. On the other side if General DeGaulle had been slain in WW1 France would have lost a great President. If Churchill had fallen in the great London blitz we would have lost a Prime Minister. But these were the ones who survived to live out their potential and life dreams. What of those who did not make it through? We must remember this day how many potential doctors, authors, clergymen, and ordinary 9 to 5'ers had their lives and careers cut short through two World Wars and other wars. Then multiply that by all of the battles and all of the wars in history and we begin to realise how staggering the toll:
It is estimated that in Flanders 70,000 are still buried in the mud. Young men who never lived to their full potential. Souls who today would be great grandparents of people who long for such a thing as resurrection, they yearn for reunion.
David Tinker, Lieutenant in Royal Navy in Falklands War, He was 25 years old, married to his young wife Christine. On 22nd May 1982 he wrote "These last 3 weeks have seemed long enough and we don’t like to think any more into the future than the end of the day……. air attacks by these very fast jets coming in low is not very nice.... I guess this is all an experience I am going through if only to drive home for each generation how stupid war is. The trivia of life and the important things are all brought to mind by this. And how much the trivia are at the forefront of normal life and the important things put away, or not done, or left to do later and then forgotten. Here, certainly, the material things are unimportant and human things, values, and ways of life are thought about by everybody.” 2 weeks later David Tinker was killed in action when an Argentinean Exocet missile hit HMS Glamorgan the ship on which he was serving. His body was committed to the sea 160 miles east of the Falkland Islands on 12th June 1982. How young Christine yearns for reunion beyond the grave
Then along comes a bible reading that rubs salt in the wound and says marriage ceases after death. What does Christine Tinker think about that?
When Jesus rebuked the Sadducees hypothetical question about whose widow would she be. He said the reason was Luke 20:36 ‘they can no longer die.’ Strange statement until you realise there is no death and no procreation, ‘for they are like angels’ (v36). In the resurrection eternal life trumps death, wholeness trumps sickness, joy trumps sorrow, pleasure trumps pain. Remember Jesus is dealing with a trick question, Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection body.
Jesus answered them in a way they understood, no one dies up there so, procreation is not required. Consequently, marriage is not needed.’ (Romans 11:25 the number of the elect is complete at the resurrection).
Incidentally, this is reassuring to non-married people. All will be equal; marriage is till death and marriage ends because all its pleasures and plusses are replaced by something much better than we can imagine. It is right for Christine Tinker and for us to yearn for reunion, but that reunion at the Resurrection will far surpass anything we can imagine. 1 Corinthians 2:9, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.’ Pleasure we enjoy now will be surpassed then.
2. Remembrance Offers Reassurance
Wars don’t reassure us. The war to end all wars did not end all wars. What we have done in wars has not gained lasting peace.
Remembrance remembers young soldiers who never lived out their life’s full potential.
Our reassurance is in one who laid down his life at the age of 33 and yet he did live out his full potential and purpose. Our reassurance is that Jesus Christ suffered and died, crucified in his prime so that we can be free of the bonds of sin, sickness and death.
Hebrews 2v10 says he is the ‘pioneer of our Salvation, made perfect through suffering. What does this mean ‘made perfect through suffering?’
NB he was sinless and perfect - made perfect in suffering in this context means reaching his full potential.
Humber Bridge plans drawn up 1930’s worlds longest suspension bridge but it wasn’t until work started in 1972 and completed in 1981 that the full potential was realised. Hebrews 2 teaches us God so loved the world … He had a plan and Jesus fulfilled that plan ‘made perfect in suffering’ he lived his full potential and that is where our reassurance lies.
1 Timothy 1:15 says ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the worst.’ Hebrews 2v14 'He shared in our humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death (the devil) and free those who are held in slavery by their fear of death. V17 that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest… and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.'
That's reassuring, because of what Christ has done for us, that he came to earth God in the flesh, acting on our behalf, living a sinless life dying a sinner’s death. His resurrection destroyed the power of death Let us be reassured by the words of Hebrews 2v17 that Christ is our faithful, merciful High Priest offering himself for the sins of many. Reassuring: 'Do v Done' is a way of remembering the good news, i.e. it is not about what we do, it is about what Jesus Christ has done for us. You may say I live a good life, but 'It's not about what you do' or you may say ‘I've lived a bad life’. Again, 'it's not about what you do' - It is all about what he has done. The good news is that Jesus Christ (it says) ‘destroys him who holds the power of death,’ that is the devil.’
It is reassuring when we stand face to face before the Lord Jesus, he will be more interested in whether you know him than if you have been good or bad. That's because, he gave us the right to become ‘family’ John 1:12 (brothers and sisters, children of God) knowing him personally. So be reassured, that those who die believing whether it's their dying breath or a lifelong journey with God he will say to you, 'I know you', 'I know you.'
Remembrance Day is about reassurance, death cuts us off from people we love and that make us sad. But death doesn’t cut us off from God…
So remembrance Sunday offers Reassurance
3. Remembrance Requires Response
Resurrection is not some natural right that we are given. It is a gift by the grace of God.
Some Greek philosophers believed that we are, by nature, immortal spirits. The body just the earthly cage from which our immortal spirit rises. Sadducees said we wither like grass and die and that’s it. Ecclesiastes 8:16, ‘Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.’ There are a lot of people who live their lives like that. Ecclesiastes 1:11 shows this despair saying life is ‘meaningless.’
But Christianity replies: To the Sadducees: "No! You are wrong. There is a gift of life after death." Death does not snuff out the candle of our soul. To the Greek philosophers: "No you are wrong. The body is not a cage; it is a gift for this life.
Death is real, to be sure, but 1 Corinthians 15 says we gain a Resurrection Body. God gives us the gift of life: Earthly life and Resurrection life to come: Both are Gifts! Both are Grace!" We do not just flot away like spiritrs aftyer we die - it is better than that. Our minds can’t take it in.
But …….
Remembrance requires response - Death is not the end but the most important part of our life's journey is to commit ourselves to knowing Jesus Christ in the here and now. For me that's a daily thing, for forgiveness, in devotion…in worship in Psalms and spiritual songs. Responding by reading the bible so that he speaks to me and inspires me daily.
Responding so that if this is my last day I will be ready to meet him. So that when death comes in the resurrection, for each of us we will hear him say - 'I know you!'
CS Lewis wrote this about his conversion “I realised I was holding something at bay…. I felt myself being given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut – the choice appeared to be momentous but it was strangely unemotional – I chose to open (In Revelation 3v20 the Lord says, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock…). ‘Somebody’s knocking at the door, somebody’s ringing the bell - do me a favour, open the door and let him in.’
If this was to be the last day of your life, you will be ready to meet Jesus if you respond to his invitation to you today, open the door and let him in. Remembrance requires response.
Remembrance yearns reunion, Remembering offers Reassurance, Remembrance requires a response – do you know the one who described himself as the Resurrection and the life John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Does he know you? I hope you know him.
Modern Hymn writer, Matt Redman, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers when 2996 died, wrote
“How little vocabulary we have in church to respond appropriately in dark times of life. The Church and the world needs songs of lamentations.”
Blessed be your name, when I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness - blessed be your name
Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering -blessed be your name
Every blessing you pour out, I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be your glorious name
You give and take away…. my heart will choose to say
Blessed be your name
© Matt Redman