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Preached on 10-10-99

MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage." (Lk. 20:34,35)

AS MEMBERS OF THE NEW CHURCH we are taught that marriage is not limited to life in this world, but that ideally marriage will last and grow to all eternity. It is a beautiful teaching, confirming what many people instinctively feel -- that true love is indeed everlasting. People in love talk about loving each other forever and ever. Songs and poetry speak of everlasting love. Even though, sadly, many marriages do not last a lifetime, let alone to eternity, still, the vision persists. There is a feeling and an inner recognition in most people that if love be true, it will never die. And this is of course the case. If marriage love is founded upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that love will never diminish, but will last and will indeed grow and increase forever and ever.

We should realize, however, that though many people many be affirmative to the idea of eternal marriage love, Christianity has, traditionally, taught that there is no such thing as marriage after death. And such a view appears to be supported by the teaching of the Gospels. In Luke the Lord says that "those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage."

It is a teaching which, at first sight, appears to contradict the teaching of the Writings. Of course, if we are confronted by this teaching, we can reply that it is meant to be understood according to the internal sense. However, if this is all that we have to say, it can sound as if all we are doing is accepting those teachings in the Bible we wish to accept, and explaining away those we do not accept.

It would be a mistake, though, to feel that we are somehow using the internal sense to explain away things we don't accept. Though some people might claim to accept the literal truth of the Old and New Testaments, the simple fact is that they must be interpreted or explained in one way or another. If the Scriptures are accepted as literally true, they appear contradictory. For example, we are taught in Exodus that Jehovah repents (Ex. 32:14), whereas in the Book of Numbers we are told that He doesn't repent (Num. 23:19). And so, even those who claim to take the Word completely literally will, in fact, interpret it in such a way as to avoid ending up with contradictions. Another indication that the Old and New Testaments are meant to be interpreted is the way in which much that is said is so obviously symbolic in nature. And then there is the teaching of the New Testament itself that when the Lord spoke, He always spoke in parables. We read in Matthew that "without a parable He did not speak to them" (Mt. 13:34). The New Testament itself thus teaches that the Lord's words had within them a hidden meaning.

Why, though, did the Lord speak in such a way? The Lord Himself explained the reason to His disciples. He told them that "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (Jn. 16:12). Certain things could not revealed because people were not yet ready for them. It is therefore plain even from the literal sense of the New Testament that there is a hidden meaning behind the Lord's words. There were things which people at that time could not yet bear. But the Lord promised that one day these things would be explained. He said that "when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (Jn. 16:13).

So it is that when the Lord spoke of marriage in heaven, there was a deeper truth hidden in what He said -- hidden because His listeners were not yet ready to receive it. He was accommodating what He taught to the state of people at that time. Indeed, in teaching about marriage, the Lord said, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given" (Mt. 19:11).

When we consider the Lord's teaching that those attaining to the resurrection "neither marry nor are given in marriage," it is thus very important that we consider who it was that the Lord was speaking to. The words of our text were spoken in reply to a question from the Sadducees. The Sadducees had asked the Lord a question. They presented the hypothetical case of a woman whose husband died, and who then married the man's younger brother. This brother then died, and was replaced by yet another brother. The Sadducees asked the Lord what would happen if, in the end, seven men, all of them brothers, had the same woman as their wife. In the resurrection, in the life after death, whose wife would this woman be?

It might sound a straightforward enough question until we realize that the Sadducees were a group who openly denied that there was a life after death. They weren't really asking a question at all, but challenging the Lord. Also important to note is the fact that in their challenge to the Lord, the Sadducees were not talking about marriage, as we would understand it, but about what is called the levirate. The levirate is the term given to the custom established in the Israelitish Church of ensuring that a childless widow did not remain childless, so that a dead man's name would not die out. Normally, under the law of Moses, a union between a man and his sister-in-law was considered a form of incest (Lev. 18:16). However, when a man died without having left children to carry on his name, then, in such a circumstance, his brother would take the widow as his wife. The first-born of this union would then be counted as a child of the deceased brother (see Dt. 25:5-6).

Now to our ears, such a custom sounds alien, crude and distasteful. How could such a thing be countenanced in the Lord's Word? It was not, though, something that the Lord willed. However, because the Israelites viewed marital conjunction simply as a way of satisfying their physical desires, and as a way of perpetuating their family name, He permitted this practice at that time.

Knowing this, we can come to understand better the question asked of the Lord by the Sadducees. They were in fact challenging the Lord about the life after death. And they used as an argument the practice of the levirate. They were talking not of marriage, but of a purely carnal relationship for the purpose of raising offspring.

Now in answering the Sadducees, the Lord said two things. He said first that those in the resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage. And then He taught, very clearly, that the dead are raised. "But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him" (Lk. 20:37,38).

The Lord's answer was in fact a direct response to the Sadducees. They said that there was no life after death. He told them that there was. And it is a sad fact that this part of the Lord's answer has generally been ignored, whilst the other has been interpreted quite literally. Much of Christianity has maintained that there will be a resurrection only at the time of the last day, even though the Lord here clearly teaches that there is a life immediately after death. Instead, the focus has been placed upon what the Lord said about marriage in the resurrection, and the general conclusion has been that in the resurrection men and women become sexless beings.

But in answering the Sadducees, the Lord wasn't teaching primarily about marriage. He taught about life after death, for this was the thrust of the question posed by the Sadducees. In the process, He did, of course, touch on the subject of marriage after death. But He did not reveal much -- for the time was not yet. People were not yet ready. Only later, in the Writings, does the Lord reveal in fullness the subject of marriage in heaven, including, as we read in our third lesson, what actually does happen after death when somebody has had more than one spouse in this world (CL 47b).

But, we might ask, why did the Lord have to say anything about marriage to the Sadducees? Rather than say there are not marriages in heaven, when later He was to reveal that there are, why did He not simply say nothing, instead of making what seems to be a misleading statement?

It was not intended to mislead, though. The Lord was talking to those who would have misled themselves whatever He told them. Instead, it was a statement made in such a way that, whilst veiling the truth for those who could not bear it, it nevertheless contained the truth about marriage after death within its internal sense.

And the truth is this: that marriage, when viewed in its essence, can indeed be entered into only on this earth. The Lord is not talking about being married, but about getting married. And getting married, that is, the essential preparation for marriage, can occur only in this world -- before we enter the spiritual world. "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage." There are, of course, weddings in heaven. People who have remained single in this world can meet their eternal partners in the world to come. And even someone who has been married here on earth may end up having a wedding in the other world with someone else, if there was no internal conjunction with his partner in this world.

But though there are weddings after death, the essential preparation for marriage must occur here on earth. If a man or woman is to live in a state of happy marriage in the world to come, the essential of this marriage must have already been acquired in this world. The only exception is when people die in childhood, for then it is that special provisions apply.

If a person is to be prepared for marriage after death, then here in this world, within the adult mind, truth must be conjoined with good. A thirst for the truth must develop, and a hunger to do what is good by obeying this truth must also exist. And these two must be joined together in life, in order that something spiritual might begin to grow, and the man might begin to leave behind the selfish tendencies we all inherit. This joining or marriage of good and truth cannot commence in the other life, in the eternal age to come. "But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Lk. 20:35; see CL 41).

Therefore, though we might dream of heaven, this dream will be empty if we think that, in some way, everything will instantly become perfect after death despite what we do here and now. There is no instantly blessed state awaiting us after death. It awaits us now. If we do not seek after the truth, and seek to think from principle, and if we do not then seek to live according to this truth, there will be no true resurrection for us -- only an awakening to an eternal deadly existence in hell.

True happiness takes root only in the search for what is true, and in the doing of what is right. This is especially true of marriage. There can be no state of marriage after death without an understanding of and performance of our responsibilities here on earth. Married people must honor the vows upon which they entered, and respect them here on earth. Sometimes it happens that the eternal partner eventually provided by the Lord is not one's earthly partner. But this is not for us to speculate upon. What we can know for certain is this -- that without a life of dedication to the obligations and duties of marriage here on earth, there will be no true marriage in the world to come. As for single people, their marriage in the world to come will also depend upon their conduct and upon their meeting whatever responsibilities they may have here on earth.

Marriage in heaven, and not just marriage, but every other aspect of heavenly life, is primarily spiritual. It is based on the conjunction of good and truth -- on living a good life according to the truth. There is no other heaven than this. To think that heaven will in some way satisfy our selfish whims, our selfish longings, is an idle dream.

The Sadducees had a completely natural idea of marriage. In their challenge to the Lord they talked of the levirate -- a way in which natural offspring might be produced, with no awareness at all of anything spiritual within marriage. Such a kind marriage does not exist in heaven. Heaven is spiritual, not natural. There is no merely natural marriage in heaven. Nor, for that matter, are natural children born from a marriage in heaven, which was the very purpose of the levirate. There is bodily conjunction in heaven, but no natural offspring. And so, a spiritual marriage in heaven is very different from a completely natural marriage here on earth, such as the Sadducees envisioned. Indeed, the Writings suggest the use of different words to differentiate marriage in heaven from marriage on earth (HH 382b).

If we think of marriage naturally and selfishly, as did the Sadducees, then indeed marriage, as we think of it, does not exist in heaven. Marriage in heaven, and heaven itself, are spiritual and unselfish, and proceed from the heavenly marriage of good and truth.

This -- the marriage of good and truth -- is the marriage that we are to enter upon as we go about our duties in this world. Whatever our duties might be -- responsibilities to our spouses, the raising of our children, the performance of our jobs, and so on -- if we search for the Lord's truth and do what is right, and perform our duties the best we know how, then within us, good and truth are wedded. This is the very essence of all spiritual marriage, and if good and truth are conjoined within us here on earth, this conjunction will endure to all eternity in the other world. By our life in this world we will have been prepared for heaven. Here on this earth we will have been prepared to live in the happy state of marriage in heaven forever and ever.

Amen.

Lessons: Dt. 25:5-9; Lk. 20:27-21:4; CL 47b