Born Anew

Luke 20:27-38

Sadducees were part of the aristocratic class and truly did not believe in the resurrection.  We often hear of how the Pharisees were in conflict with Jesus in the scriptures, and that is because they were generally the group more similar to Jesus and His followers.   The Sadducees did not uphold the prophets but only the books of Moses, the law.  This is in part because they were most interested in keeping the status quo in which they flourished as many of their people suffered under Roman oppression, waiting for their Messiah.   Here the Sadducees are determined to stump, Jesus with this rhetorical question about seven brothers and one wife.  The problem is their idea of the resurrection was more like an escalator into heaven, continuing this life on another plane (if they could imagine of an escalator that is).  Jesus answers not with a parable, but rather with a straightforward reasoning.  There are two parts to Jesus’’ response the first being that this age is not like the age to come and the second is that God is a God of the living not of the dead (as per their own scripture).  While Jesus clearly tells us that in the resurrection we are not simply continuing the life we know, but are rather like angels and are with God, this was an issue for some of the early followers.  In Corinth it was a worry as they knew of believers who passed away and were now decomposing in their tombs.  If they were to be resurrected how will the body go on to glory?  Paul makes it clear as Jesus did in 1 Cor 15: “There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.” And Paul admits it is a mystery later in the chapter: “What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”  This is important that we will be changed upon the resurrection; it is not simply a new realm, but something gloriously different, where we dwell with God, where we are with God.

The early Christians often recorded one’s death as their Birthday, this is in part because they did not have records of everyone’s birthday, but it was also a theological statement that upon death you are born anew into the resurrection.  This reminds me of my friend Mary Anne who can claim three birthdates, see she was born in Ireland 80 or so years ago, and her mother recorded the date in the family Bible.  Her father was to record the date in town about a month or so later when he brought sheep to market.  As she tells it, she believes, he may have visited the Public House prior to the Towne Clerk, and he remembered it was a Tuesday, but recorded the date later.  Then in sixties she emigrated from Ireland to the United States, and somehow through the bureaucracy gave her a third birth date.  While that may be a funny story, I believe it is true that we have three birthdays.  The first being the one our mother’s told us, when we are born again, and then the one to come when we are born anew.  Now some people are not as exacting about their born again date and others are, but that does not make it less true.  Some people grew up in the church and did not realize a change as some did, but the fact is that if you believe in Jesus you have been born again. 

Well this brings to mind the metaphor of the butterfly.  It is a wonderful metaphor the caterpillar eats and eats, and worries about the physical body, until it is time to get in the cocoon, and it is dormant (dead), and comes out changed as a wonderful butterfly.  This is a great metaphor especially that we are changed, but we are not caterpillars, we are not animals.  We know or better yet believe in the God of Love through His Son Jesus whose “birthday” on the cross brought us reconciled to the Divine.  Therefore we don’t just go eating and worrying about the perishable for we know that only the imperishable will inherit the Kingdom.  We are Born Again and celebrate our Born Anew by participating in the resurrection today.  Our belief does not allow us to simply wait to be Born Anew into the glory that is God, but we are to share this knowledge and belief with others, bringing aspects of Heaven upon earth.  We participate in the Bodily Resurrection by being the Body of Christ on Earth, for our belief puts one foot on earth and one in heaven, it is the already but not yet.  This is the mystery that we are changed by our belief and we are anticipating another change in a twinkling of an eye, but we know God as the God of the living and as we continue to live we live for God.