This is going to get a little postmodern and confrontational this morning. The idea that Christ is a myth was invented by the late Victorians with their acceptance of modernism and materialism. This led to a new problem: that the gospel contains miracles and the resurrection.
It also led to a clear split. Those who believed the creeds kicked the modernists out: or they devolved the churches they belonged to into something akin to the Unitarians: the form of religion but no power. However, the post modernists have decided that there is no true, for all is distorted by power structures, and therefore the question of the accuracy of the gospels is moot.
They see it as a useful narrative. They are functionally Sadducees: and as such they love power and hate to think of a real God. God incarnate hit them out of the park.
18Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ 20There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; 21and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.”
24Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”
God is not the a God of the dead, but the living. Those who are dead in Christ live on in him. Therefore we can say with Paul.
16So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling – 3if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord – 7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
We need to recall that the Sadducees were the party of power. They were the elite: they were those who compromised with the Romans. They made up the majority of the ruling council (Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem. The Pharisees were much more interested in the common people. They did not want to compromise the word of God. They disagreed on much within Jewish theology.
And the Sadducees died out when the temple fell. The Talmud and modern Judaism descends from the teaching of Rabbis who were Pharisees — some of whom, such as Gamaliel, are mentioned in the NT.
The modern version of narrative theology has merged with the idea that there is a feminist theology, or a queer theology, and that this politics of identity should be mirrored in the church lest we be racist, sexist, misogynist and whatever other shibboleth is being used this week. This is wrong. In Christ we are one, despite the divisions in this fallen world. Paul taught in a time when the majority of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were slaves: he taught that they slave and free were one. In a society where most people were Greek, he said there was no difference between Jews and Greeks. And when men and women had quite different roles he said in Christ we are equal. He opposed the divisions, for he looked ahead to a time when these divisions will cease.
So we need to oppose the liberal heresy. We need to remember that there is a resurrection, and what we do now about the Cross of Christ determines what will happen to us: for without Jesus we will make our own hell for eternity.