Die Once Live Twice
In Luke 20:27-38, Jesus encounters a religious group called the Sadducees, who had their own opinions about sainthood and the afterlife. Jesus shared the truth with them that we Die Once Live Twice: for those in Christ, Saints Militant here and Saints Triumphant in heaven. November 18, 2007
When Pope John Paul II died two years ago, over a million people filed past his plain cedar coffin to pay their respects. About four million flooded into Rome to attend his funeral or to watch the service on giant video screens placed across the city. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people – maybe even billions of people – watched the funeral on television. In Rome, a cry began to spread through the crowd, “Santo subito … santo subito.” The phrase also appeared on hand-painted signs held up by worshipers at the funeral. Santo subito. Translation: “Sainthood immediately.” The fans of John Paul II wanted the Vatican to cut through its normal red tape and pronounce the pope a saint right away. He’s clearly a saint, they say. So let’s make it official. Now.
According to Time magazine (April 3, 2007), the new pope, Benedict XVI, has moved as quickly as possible to get his predecessor into the ranks of the holy ones. He started by waiving the normal five-year waiting period to begin the process, an exemption that had previously been granted to Mother Teresa. Although there are still a number of steps to take, it looks like John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood – the fastest in history.
The current record is held by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei. He was canonized in 2002, just 27 years after he died. But Vatican-watchers predict that John Paul II will blow this record away. Some are anticipating that the pope will be made a saint by the year 2010.
In the Bible today Jesus encounters a religious group called the Sadducees, who had their own opinions about sainthood and the afterlife. Specifically, they didn’t believe Jesus when he said that the souls of dead people continue living either in heaven or in hell, and will later be joined with their bodies risen from the dead on Judgment Day. These men thought they set the perfect trap for Jesus based on an Old Testament regulation called “the Levirate Law.” This law stipulated “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.” This allowed the family name to continue, and was an Old Testament law of God expressly intended to maintain the Hebrew race as the cradle of the coming Savior. Now, what if this happened, and the second man died, and then the third and fourth and up to the seventh, so that this woman legitimately would have had seven husbands before she also died. In heaven, the Sadducees mockingly ask Jesus, “Whose wife will she be?” They are confused about sainthood and make fun of the afterlife, but Jesus doesn’t let them have the last laugh.
Before we listen to Jesus’ response, however, we need to realize that what Jesus says to the Sadducees about sainthood he also says to us. Because we have mocked him just the same. We like to skirt around his commands by coming up with exceptional scenarios we are convinced apply to us. We label people, some of them closer to God and others not as close to God like a Vatican council deciding on the fate of a dead person – saint or no saint? We limit the grace of God when we promote the idea that heaven is a privilege only for those whose resumes look good enough because they held membership in the Wisconsin Synod.
Listen now to Jesus’ response. Listen for words in his response such as “good work” or “Vatican council” or “Wisconsin Synod” and you will hear none of them. Jesus promises that “those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection of the dead … are God’s children.” Are you considered worthy? Jesus’ very own promise defines “worthy” for you and it has nothing to do with your good works or church membership or success stories in life being approved by a council, a committee of angels, or even your own conscience. Nor does it involve your mistakes or disobedience. You are considered worthy because you are God’s child. Like children have special privileges in their own home that they don’t enjoy elsewhere, you have the privilege of sainthood right now because you are God’s child. He gave spiritual birth to you in your baptism and adopted you into sainthood already as an infant! You are already a saint. Right now! Pre-approved by God “who chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4,5). God chose you before you ever did anything right or anything wrong. God set you apart to be special. To be holy. Not through your work but through the work of Jesus. “Saint” means “holy one” and that’s what all believers are to God. The communion of saints. Congratulations! You are a saint!
To the mockery of the Sadducees, Jesus masterfully replies that in our second life, our eternal life in heaven immediately after we die, none of us will be married. Why? Because in heaven we will no longer be fruitful and multiply. We will not be making babies in heaven. Instead, the final number of believers who enter heaven by faith will be fixed forever. None will die or perish. None will be added. All will live eternally like the angels, “since they are children of the resurrection.” As saints on earth we struggle with sin and temptation, but as saints triumphant there will be no more sin and temptation and each of us will be married to Jesus enjoying the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb. Die Once Live Twice.
Jesus concludes by going beyond the intent of the Sadducees’ question as he seals up his argument with more words from Scripture. He explains that the souls of saints like you and me who die aren’t just left “floating around” or in some fictional waiting room like purgatory. When a saint dies, the saint immediately begins his or her second life. Jesus proves that by pointing out that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob all died, and later God spoke to Moses at the burning bush. At the bush, God said to Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). If Abraham and Isaac and Jacob would have been lost out there somewhere, or had ceased to exist after they died, they wouldn’t have been connected to God. But, the very fact that God, at that moment, was their God indicated that these saints were alive and well. They were living their second life. Die Once Live Twice.
Take comfort in these words of Jesus today. Put your fears of death to rest. Death isn’t an end, but a beginning. For the believer, already a saint of God in this first earthly life, death isn’t a rickety trap door dropping into nowhere land but a divinely engineered pearly gate opening into everlasting life. God continues to be the God of all saints, whether we are living on this earth or, once we die, living forever in heaven, as the Bible promises in Romans 14:8-9, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Die Once Live Twice. Our God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. All who belong to him by our baptism are alive and well. We are saints forever.
Gracie Allen, the wife and comic partner of comedian George Burns, was a brilliant and perceptive women who left a message to be discovered by Burns after her death. That message has become the motto of some churches today and it said, “Never put a period where God has placed a comma.” We tend to think of death as a period, an end. But it is a comma, a momentary pause and continuation. We are saints now. We remain saints in death. We will live as saints in heaven immediately after death when our souls enter eternal life. And on Judgment Day our decomposed bodies will be recognized by Jesus who returns to the earth, reconstituted by Jesus with his resurrection power, and reunited to our souls where we will be saints with our own physical bodies forever with Jesus in heaven. Let me also suggest, taking off from Gracie Allen’s advice, that we never put a comma where God has put a period. God has promised that you are forgiven, you are his child, nothing will separate you from his love, all pain and frustration in this life is his servant not his master. Period. No more discussion needed. Then here we go and put a comma there and follow it with … “but …” That’s why Jesus speaks the way he does today. That’s why we set aside this day of the church year called “Saints Triumphant.” When God uses a comma, he has another chapter ahead in our lives, another boyfriend or girlfriend, another chance, another forgiven sin, another job, another life. When God uses a period, there is nothing else to say. It’s done. Since, then, you live as a saint even now, then live like a saint now with a life of blameless behavior and decisions that please God.
Unfortunately, many people think of sainthood as being an honor granted by the Vatican after a long and complex ecclesiastical process. Before sainthood can be granted to John Paul II, the church will have a trial-like procedure, with a specially appointed lawyer actually arguing against the canonization. Medical doctors will also have to testify that his healings are true miracles, unrelated to any scientific intervention. This is way too complicated. According to Jesus sainthood has already been granted to any believer. No miracles required – at least by you, there are plenty of miracles performed by God that make you a saint.
So consider yourself santo subito. Saint right now! That makes you ready to Die Once Live Twice. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on November 18, 2007
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