"Thy Kingdom Come"

What TV game shows refer to as "nice parting gifts," we used to call consolation prizes. But if you think about it, that’s really an odd term. It suggests that the loser needs to be consoled. Of course, a consolation prize it better than nothing, but at the moments in our lives when we really need to be consoled, "better than nothing" is probably a lot less than we need.

The Sadducees of Jesus’ day denied the resurrection, because in their view it would be absurd for the spirit, once it was finally liberated from that old evil body, to want to be back in the flesh, to have soul and body back together again. But think about it. What that philosophy does is make heaven to be nothing but a consolation prize.

God made human beings as body and soul, one person, never to be separated. He made the body and soul good, and he intended for us to live forever. When sin corrupted both, and made it necessary for us to die, God didn’t just redeem our souls and leave our bodies to be cast aside – dead, buried, and decayed. Christ’s death and resurrection has redeemed our whole person.

I don’t imagine there are many Sadducees among us, but we might be surprised how many Christians think that in heaven, we’ll just be souls floating around without flesh and bones. For those of us who like touching and hugging, being fully ourselves and fully with our love ones, that kind of heaven would only be a consolation prize.

Christ gives us better. By his death and own bodily resurrection, we will rise at the last day, body and soul reunited, to live with Christ the way God meant from the beginning. No consolation prize, but rather real consolation, real comfort for us when we and our loved ones face death.

The Sadducees that come with a question for Jesus are not simply a group of well-intentioned me who are trying to understand a difficult teaching. Luke clearly identifies the Sadducees as "those who speak against" the resurrection. They are guilty of unbelief. They don’t believe in the resurrection in the first place, so they come to Jesus looking for a chance to discredit him and give credence to their unbelief. They are trying to mold and shape the teaching of God to suit their own ideas.

"In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as a wife." This is not a question seeking the truth. It is a probe, seeking weakness in Jesus’ teachings. The Sadducees would like nothing better than for Jesus to falter.

In essence, the Sadducees are asking "How does God’s kingdom come?" At the same time, they are asking "How do we make the kingdom of God be the way we want it to be?" Because they deny the resurrection of the dead, they don’t believe what their own Father in heaven has taught them. And it would not be a real stretch to say that since they don’t believe this, then they don’t believe anything their Father tells them.

The Sadducees are trying to do what we try to do today. They were trying to shape God top suit their own will and desires. They were trying to put God into a box. They wanted God to do stuff the way they want it done. The Sadducees don’t want a god at all. They wanted someone or something that would give their agenda credibility.

Maybe that’s why Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father, rather than just some generic god. A father has a specific role. A father is a specific person. A father stands for specific things. Jesus says that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. Jesus is saying that God is Father to all. He is God and the kingdom is his.

The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself, without our prayer. But we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that it would come to us also. But what, just exactly are we praying for? How does God’s kingdom come? Luther wrote in his Small Catechism that "God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace, we believe his holy Word and lead Godly lives here in time and there in eternity."

The kingdom of God comes to us by faith worked by God the Holy Spirit. We can’t manufacture or create this faith. In fact, the wisdom of God seems silly to us. We wonder why we don’t need to add something of our own to what Christ did to help us earn salvation. How can we be saved? How can people rise from the dead?

The Israelites flourished while they were in captivity in Egypt after Joseph died and the Egyptians kind of forgot that they had earlier been invited guests. In that captivity, they prayed for a release from that bondage. They tried to bring about God’s kingdom, but to no avail.

God in his mercy, in his time and his way, delivered Israel from their bondage in Egypt. Likewise, God in his time and in his mercy delivers us from our bondage to slavery and sin.

The Israelites had all kinds of laws that Moses had given them concerning inheritance and marriage. The continuation of family lines was important. The covenant of Israel, God’s plan of salvation was dependent on the propagation of their race. That’s why God slew Er and Onan, a story recorded back in Genesis 38, for refusing to provide sons who would rise up and inherit the land. If no heir existed, then that portion of the inheritance would be lost to someone else.

In these latter days, Christians have fallen into a similar trap. Our heavenly Father has given us everything we need to support this body and life. He gives us his kingdom, and by his Holy Spirit he brings us into his kingdom. These are works of his grace and mercy. Yet we Christians have begun to believe that continuation and expansion of God’s kingdom depends on us.

We create for ourselves holy numbers and holy examples to hold up before our heavenly Father as evidence of our great work. We become Sadducees ourselves when we do things like that and ignore the grace of God and attempt to expand our Father’s kingdom by our own power.

The Sadducees were trying to appear concerned about keeping God’s Law to the letter, while they questioned God’s grace. They believed that the resurrection was such a foolish notion that they could easily disprove it with one example. The seven brothers all kept the Mosaic Law by trying to propagate the race. Yet they were all unsuccessful. If all of them had been married to this woman in this life, how would anyone be able to determine whose wife she would be in the next life, if such a thing could possibly exist?

"The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity." (Luther’s Small Catechism, pp19-20) God’s kingdom comes despite our efforts, not because of them.

God’s kingdom comes without our prayer. God’s kingdom comes by his power alone. God’s kingdom comes to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born, Wise Men from the East sought him. They looked for the King of the Jews. When Jesus was on trial, his enemies accused him of claiming to be a king. Pilate asked him if he was a king, and Jesus proclaimed that he was. At Jesus’ crucifixion, the charge against him was nailed to the cross, as he was nailed to the cross. The chare read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews" (Mt 27:37).

From those wounds caused by the nails, flowed the holy and precious blood of God’s own Son. The kingdom of God had come and been among us, but the world did not recognize it. As the Sadducees refused to believe in the resurrection of the dead, the people who gathered to mock our Lord as he hung on the cross, Jews and Gentiles alike, refused to believe He was a King.

Yet, their unbelief did not make this Kings death any less real. Their unbelief did not make this Kings death any less effective. Their unbelief did not stop the King or his kingdom from coming.

The Father graciously expands his kingdom through Word and Sacrament. Some don’t believe it’s possible that God’s kingdom can come in such simple and humble ways. Yet, this is how the Father has promised that his kingdom would come. By Word and Sacrament, God the Holy Spirit creates, nurtures, and sustains faith.

This is how the Father’s kingdom comes and how the kingdom grows. Faith receives the baby Jesus. Faith beholds the Lamb of God, slain on a cross. Faith beholds Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism, in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, and in Holy Absolution. Faith looks to the resurrection of the dead because Jesus rose from the dead.

Faith beholds the gracious work of the Father, who causes his kingdom to come by the Holy Spirit. Amen.