Thursday Devotion: Luke 20:27-38

Now: We have life.
Then: We have life abundant.

Now: We are alive.
Then: We truly live.

Now: We have friends and family.
Then: We are friends and family.

Now: We know Jesus.
Then: We KNOW Jesus.

There will come a time in everybody's life when there is no more life to live--we die. It is the circle of life, and we're all on it--no escape. However, the question that we often ask ourselves is what happens then? What comes next? Now, depending on who you ask, you'll get a lot of different answers: reincarnation in the east, spiritual possession/haunting from the science fiction, or maybe food for worms from the non-religious/atheistic crowd.

Unfortunately, the Sadducees thought they were going to get one of these answers when they cornered Jesus and inquired about the resurrection. They presented a hypothetical, like we're all used to, but he didn't flinch. He reports to them that the life post-resurrection is nothing like this current life. There is nothing that compares, so you don't really need to worry about it. It will be so much greater than you can ever imagine.

Now, they were silent... they thought he had them trapped, but he answered their question without a blink of an eye. However, my question for you is this: Are you content with whatever comes next? Jesus says that it will be great, everybody is alive, that it is a huge party and everybody is invited. However, what if it isn't? It's the hypothetical returning again... What if there were no streets of gold? What if there weren't long lost friends and relatives waiting? What if it was just you and Jesus sitting in a room? Is that enough? Is that worth the journey? It should be...

Luke 20:27-38 New International Version

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally, the woman died too. ³³ Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
³⁴ Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷ But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^{[a] 38} He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”