In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the excerpt from Luke’s Gospel that you just heard, (Lk. 20:27-38) Jesus’ fate is being sealed. You see by the time the Saducees come to question Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, one gets the distinct impression that the wheels of the power structure in Jerusalem are turning, and the political machinery is churning. There is consternation in the city because of one man: Jesus of Nazareth. Swept into Jerusalem on the tide of popularity among ordinary folks, Jesus has already cleansed the Temple of profiteers, all the while having denounced the leaders of the Jews. Luke has set the stage for a political shake-up.

But there is simultaneously consternation going on on another level at this point in the narrative. As he journeyed to Jerusalem, Jesus predicted three times that he would suffer and die there and rise again. Indeed his passion begins after only one chapter following this episode. This morning’s Gospel presents us with Jesus’ last opportunity to sell out, to avoid that passion altogether. Jesus has the opportunity in this encounter with the Saducees to win their favor and protection. Ironically, at this point in Luke’s telling of the story, if Jesus had denied the resurrection of the dead, if he had sold out, there probably would have been no passion, no death, and hence no resurrection. Further, the Saducees provide Jesus with a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why the Resurrection of the Dead is impossible, all he has to do is agree, and the nightmare that he has foreseen would simply vanish.

So in this encounter with the Saducees, we are presented with the image of a man for whom both political power and certain suffering and death are within easy reach, a man in the midst of a city and a people ripe for a change in leadership.

Yet Jesus in this urban, politically-charged environment remains the same person that he was in the countryside and on the road to Jerusalem. Undistracted by the city’s illusions of power and the allure of intrigue, he continues on the same journey that brought him to Jerusalem: the journey to the cross and the grave. He uses the Saducees’ question not only to rebuke them, but he also uses it as an opportunity to describe to everyone what awaits not only him, but all who follow him. "…They cannot die anymore," he says, "because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection."

Jesus not only acknowledged the resurrection, he focused on it, not as a concept or ideal, he focused on it as a reality, a reality that he would bring about, a reality in which he was already participating.

I submit that we who are gathered here find ourselves in much the same position as the one in which we find Jesus in today’s Gospel. We stand on this side of the grave on a journey that will inevitably lead to it. We are never absolutely certain how far along we are on that journey, but sometimes the grave seems much closer to us than others. These times of heightened uncertainty in which we have been living since September 11^th might make us on some level feel rather closer to the grave than we’d anticipated. And as in Jesus’ encounter with the Saducees, we sense consternation in the world around us and consternation within about what lies ahead of us and how our lives will be changed by it. And of course, all this begs the ultimate question, "what happens after the grave?" because the answer to that determines how we will proceed toward whatever lies ahead: Whether we will proceed in fear or in faith.

If nothing lies beyond the grave, then we should batten down the hatches and focus self-preservation and assume a defensive posture. But if we accept the vision that Jesus presents today as a preview – if you will – and at Easter as a living truth: that those who follow Him to the grave, "cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection," if we receive these words, we can only proceed toward the grave, however far or near it is as Jesus himself did, in sacrifice: in sacrifice to the Father, in sacrifice for our fellow human beings here present, and generations yet to come.

Therefore, hear this! Hear this Good News: Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and those who follow him will rise and be children of the resurrection as well. And we can and do participate in and draw closer to that future reality in the sacrifices that we make between now and then.

That is Good New isn’t it? It’s bad news for those who rely on the fear of death to forward their agenda, because the Resurrection that Jesus proclaims today robs death of its power as the ultimate reality, and opens up for us a new reality that doesn’t include fear at all.

Yes, the Resurrection of the Dead is bad news for terrorists, but it is good news for us!

Thanks be to God!

Amen.