Jesus at the SAT- November 14, 2010

Jesus and the SAT
November 14, 2010
James Hawley--First Presbyterian Church- Salina, Kansas


We need to start with a disclaimer. I am certain that one of my former math teachers is here this morning and I want to make it clear that she is not responsible for the following admission. I am not very good at math.

Once my daughter brought me her fifth grade math homework. The only problems she got wrong were the ones I helped her with. I am not very good at math.

I remember especially being terrorized by certain problems that were part of standardized testing, such as the ACT or SAT tests. These were the, so-called, story problems. Let me give you an example:
Billy has twelve sacks of groceries to deliver to five houses. If Billy leaves at noon and travels ten minutes to make his first delivery, and five minutes to make his second delivery, what time will he give up and go play pin-ball instead? (As an aside—this example is not solvable, so do not spend the next ten minutes trying to solve it)

These bad memories came back to me this week as I read again this confrontation between Jesus and the Sadducees. By way of context, this is the third such confrontation to which Jesus has been subjected since he entered Jerusalem near the end of his life. In the first place the scribes and Pharisees complained about his lack of authority to teach. In the second place the same combatants tried to trick him with the question about paying taxes to Caesar. This is the last of the challenges and, as Luke tells us, after this exchange no one dared ask Jesus anything else. But before we can get to that breath of fresh air we must first deal with this.

And it is a story problem that Jesus is confronted with. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. So certain are they that there is no resurrection that they ask Jesus a question designed to show the absurdity of resurrection. According to Moses as recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, if a man dies childless his brother should take the widow into his home for the purposes of generating the next generation. So in the Sadducees’ scenario, there were seven brothers, but not seven brides—only one bride. And each brother married the one bride but failed to bring forth a son. The Sadducees are not interest in that part. They are simply pointing out that—like an endless hall of mirrors—these brothers followed one after the other in marrying this same woman so that in the—ahem—resurrection, there will be mass hysteria when they have to sort out whose wife she will be. You can almost hear the giggles and the snickering.

But Jesus does not snicker. He treats the matter with the utmost gravity. Without hesitation Jesus points out that this is an apples and oranges situation. Certainly in this age the seven married the same woman according to the Law of Moses. But in the age to come, the resurrection age, the same rules do not apply. In fact, what we know of the current age—our customs, our behaviors, our attitudes—will be irrelevant in the age to come. And that is a good thing. For in their place will be such wonders and glory as cannot be imagined in this lifetime. There will be angels and children of God—whatever and however that will be—in the reality of the resurrection life. Jesus is short on specifics, but his over-arching message is important and comforting: Do not judge the life to come by the life here and now. They are entirely different things and the resurrection life is much to be coveted.

The Sadducees were one “denomination” of 1st Century Judaism, the Pharisees being another. The Sadducees were among the better off in society and had a very limited view of scripture. So limited in fact that their Scripture did not extend beyond the first five books of the Hebrew canon. These books are known as the Pentateuch (Pente is five in Greek) or the Books of Moses, because tradition said that Moses wrote them. Not only did the Sadducees reduce their bible to this amount, they took a very strict and literal understanding away from it. They were literalists. As strict literalists, the Sadducees believed there was no choice but to do whatever Moses said to do. But like many strict literalists, they were also quite selective.

Their particular example comes from the book of Deuteronomy. This book, the fifth of the five Books of Moses, is one long oration by Moses (with the exception of his death which is narrated at the end. How Moses wrote that part we do not know, especially if there is no resurrection).

Now Deuteronomy contains many interesting rules and regulations from the mouth of Moses. For example, and this is important in the spring, “if you come upon a bird’s next, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.” Or this, which I think may apply to some who are here. “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.” Or this one came up in my life this week. “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, set up by former generations, on the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. There is also a rule about forgiving all debt in the seventh year which is why we took out a six year mortgage.

Now do not misunderstand me. Rules are important. Rules are necessary. An established set of laws is the mark of a civilized society. My children have established very good rules and I do my best to follow them. The problem here is not entirely “the rules”. Jesus does not dispute the truth of the Sadducees claim that the seven brothers have an earthly duty. The problem here is a lack of vision. What we have here is more than a failure to communicate. We have a failure to dig more deeply and explore more broadly.

Or to put it another way—The Sadducees were only interested in the Law of Moses, but Jesus was interested in the story of Moses. Jesus’ response to the Sadducees is also taken from the Pentateuch. It comes from the book of Exodus. It is a reference to Moses standing before the burning bush and hearing the voice of God. The story of Moses begins where Exodus begins and extends for pretty much the rest of the book with a good thirty chapters or so devoted to a narrative of how Moses went from baby drifting in a basket on the Nile to VIP in Egypt to murderer and refugee to God’s chosen deliverer. This final promotion occurs at the burning bush where Moses not only receives is new assignment but also learns the name of God. God’s name is “I Am what I Am.” This is the burning bush that Jesus is talking about.

Out of the bush God invokes the lives of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Because God is the great “I Am” otherwise translated as the great “I Will Be”, to associate his name with the patriarchs is to list them among the living, not the dead. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead and gone. They are a part of God’s salvation history. Therefore, there is resurrection and—what is more—this evidence which Jesus produces comes from the Sadducees own scripture.

Jesus point, and therefore ours, is this: We must be cautious of allowing our limited understanding of Scripture stand for the whole of Scripture. We must guard against thinking our interpretations are the same for everyone. This is especially risky when we pick and choose from among Biblical scriptures—especially ones pertaining to law and regulation. The vast witness of Scripture is not law and regulation. Story is far more pronounced and far more common. Think about it. The only, and I mean the only, witness to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible comes in the form of a story, namely the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Story has so many advantages over rules and regulations. It is easy to take rules literally. Don’t run in the hall means don’t run in the hall. But in story we get something a little more complicated, and we should be grateful for that. Unlike rules—which are meaningless to us if they do not apply to us directly in the moment—stories intersect with our experience. Even if the stories we hear are not literally true—such as the Harry Potter novels, or the Chronicles of Narnia, or my seasonal favorite, A Christmas Carol. Although not literally true, they touch on the experiences which are so true—sometimes painfully true. Always redemptively true. Of young love, of competition, of courage and heroism, of coming of age, of the need for a wise mentor, of sacrifice and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. Are the stories of Jesus true? Of course they are. But think of all the stories Jesus himself told. Was there really a prodigal son? Was there really a Samaritan who helped a wounded man on the road? Does it matter? Jesus told these stories to illustrate the rules, to give flesh to them, to make the rules real and human. And the Gospel writers told stories about Jesus for the same purpose—so that Jesus would be understood not as the ultimate hall monitor, but the Word of God, full of grace and truth.

These stories of the Bible, and particularly of Jesus, are meant to illustrate, not whether it is acceptable to remove the boundary marker on a piece of property—but the greatest rule of all—the rule of love. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. And by the way, although the Sadducees may not have paid attention to them, these commandments come from the Pentateuch as well.

Let us pray:
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—we thank you for the stories that feed our life of faith. Help us to see beyond the rules to the love that lies behind, the love you have shown us in Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose story is the greatest ever told. We pray in his name. Amen.