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Tuesday, April 15
... in a ash, in a blink of an eye, at the last trumpet; for a trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed ... (1 Corinthians 15:52)
On Holy Tuesday, Jesus returns to the Temple to continue teaching the people. His enemies cannot arrest him, for he is too popular. He's not staying in the city at night where they can capture him under cover of darkness, so they must discredit him before the crowds.
The Pharisees, a political group that opposes Jesus' movement, ask him a trick question: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" (Matthew 22:17). If he says that it is not, the Roman soldiers standing guard will arrest him for insurrection. If he says that it is, the Jews who hate the Romans will reject him. Either way, they win.
After asking for a Roman coin, Jesus asks, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" (v. 20). "Caesar's," they reply. "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," he answers (v. 21). The Pharisees are amazed and leave in defeat (v. 22).
So a second group arrives, called the Sadducees. They want to prove the illogic of the resurrection and thus of Jesus' teachings. So they ask him their own trick question: a woman's husband dies, so she is married to his brother, which was the custom of the land. But he dies, and so on through seven brothers. Which one will be her husband in the afterlife (vs. 23-28)?
Jesus replies by citing one of their own Scriptures in which God says: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (v. 32, quoting Exodus 3:6). Not "I was" but "I am." He is God of the dead and the living. The Sadducees leave defeated while the crowd is astounded (v. 33).
A lawyer then asks Jesus to identify the most important of their 613 laws. If he names one, they will accuse him of rejecting the others. Jesus responds with the Great Commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself (vs. 37, 39). The lawyer is impressed.
In response to their rejection of him, Jesus foresees the day when their massive temple will be destroyed (Matthew 24:1-2). His prediction came true when Titus, the Roman general, burned and demolished the temple in A.D. 70. It has never been rebuilt.
Religious legalism rejected and crucifi ed Jesus. How is that fact relevant to you?
What God's word means
How will we be "changed" when Jesus returns for us (1 Corinthians 15:51)? When? Paul continues: in a ash (atamos, "indivisible," from which we get "atom"; a metaphor for the smallest measurable moment of time), in the blink of an eye (a metaphor for the fastest measurable movement, used only here in the New Testament). St. Augustine uses the second metaphor to make this point: The glance of our eye does not reach nearer objects more quickly and distant ones more slowly. Rather, it reaches both with equal speed. Similarly when, as the apostle says, the resurrection of the dead is eff ected in the twinkling of an eye, it is as easy for the omnipotence of God and his awe-inspiring authority to raise the recently dead as those long since fallen into decay.35
This transformation will come at the last (eschatos, "fi nal"; we get "eschatology" from this word) trumpet (an instrument often used to summon the people into God's presence; cf. Exodus 19:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). A trumpet will sound—note the assurance and certainty of Paul's statement. In that moment, the dead will be raised ("awakened, restored") incorruptible ("imperishable, undecaying, immortal") and we will be changed ("altered, transformed").
Isaiah predicted a day when "a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem" (Isaiah 27:13). Jesus used this metaphor when he taught that God "will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:31).
Why Easter matters
Our resurrection depends on Jesus' resurrection. Not on the religious zeal of a Pharisee, the intellectual sophistication of a Sadducee, or the biblical knowledge of a theological scholar. If he was raised, we will be raised. Since he was raised, we will be raised.
How to respond
Jesus' opponents were the most religious people in the land. On Holy Tuesday we learn that religion is not enough. Going to church or even preaching sermons and leading congregations is not enough.
God wants a personal, intimate relationship with every one of us. He wants to be King of every part of our lives, not just our religious activities.
But we are fallen people living in a fallen world. If we do not put him on the throne of our lives, intentionally and consciously, we are on that throne. Have you made him your King yet today?
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