A Gospel About the Living Rather than the Dead
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A Gospel About the Living Rather than the Dead
Herb Montgomery | Novembrer 7, 2025
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Luke:
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” (Luke 20:27-38)
Our reading this week involves a long-standing disagreement between the Pharisees and the Sadducees regarding the resurrection. Luke’s Jesus aligns with the Pharisees in this argument by affirming the idea of a resurrection, but then escapes a Sadducean trap set for those who believed in a resurrection. The style of the story they told Jesus reflects the style of the debates of rabbis at the time Luke’s gospel was written and is consistent with the way Jesus typically responds to tricky questions in Luke’s stories. At that time, Pharisees did not teach that a person went directly to a heavenly abode at death as some Christians would later come to teach. Jesus’ Jewish society was far from univocal on what happens to a person after this life. Luke’s gospel also includes the story of the rich man and Lazarus, a story that reflects a view of the afterlife influenced heavily by Jewish Hellenism. In our story this week, Jesus sides with a Jewish idea that says all dead people, regardless of the type of life they lived, rest at death in Sheol, the inescapable abode where those who have died have no conscious existence. This belief later evolved into a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous on a day in the future when all injustice, oppression, and violence would be put right (see Daniel 12:2).
The phrase that jumps out at me most in our reading is “God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” The contrast between focusing on the living rather than on death and dying could have many possible applications today. To be sure, managing people’s fear of death has been a significant preoccupation for many religions. In the Christian faith, for example, the promise of heaven is powerful because it can be comforting. But focusing solely on personal salvation and the afterlife can replace focusing on Jesus’ teachings that call us to heal and put right the world around us while we live. Christianity teaches not only about the life to come but also about how Jesus followers are to live here and now. Justice in this life is not a secondary concern, but is central to Jesus’ teachings in the gospel stories.
One of Jesus’ core messages was the importance of loving one’s neighbor and caring for the least among us. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes this clear when he says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). This passage defines following Jesus as action. It suggests that a genuine embrace of Jesus’ vision for society (“the kingdom”) manifests in acts of compassion, justice, and love toward others. A life focused only on securing a place in heaven or what may happen to us when we are dead risks neglecting Jesus’ call to be salt and light in our world while we are living (Matthew 5:13-16).
Being “salt and light” in our world here and now means Jesus followers are to influence the world positively by reflecting Jesus core ethic—love of neighbor—through their actions. Loving one’s neighbor in this life can express itself in many ways. It can include opposing unjust economic systems that plunge people into and keep them in poverty. It’s unacceptable that anyone should be hungry in the richest country in the world. The U.S. growing wealth disparity continues to worsen every day. Love of neighbor can also include seeking justice, which leads to peace, in other areas, too: justice in regards to racism, xenophobia, ableism, gender disparities, LGBTQ rights, and more. Working to shape our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone is how Jesus followers testify to the power of Jesus’ gospel of love. To be clear, these actions don’t earn our individual salvation, but they are the ways through which we bring social salvation into being.
When Christians focus on doing justice in this world, they embody Jesus’ kingdom of God on earth. Jesus often spoke of the “kingdom of heaven” not as a distant place but as a present reality breaking into our world. Every act of kindness, every instance of compassion, and every effort toward justice manifests God’s just future and invites others into it today. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation while we wait for death but in active engagement with the world while we are alive. After all, God is the God of the living and not the dead.
Focusing on our present life also guards against societal complacency and selfishness. A heaven-only paradigm can lead to an inward-looking faith concerned more with personal, individual assurance than community responsibility. But from the very beginning, Christianity has been a communal faith, one where love for God is not in competition with love for neighbor but inseparably connected, one manifesting the other. Following Jesus means working toward justice now as an act of obedience to the love of God, and, in tangible ways that benefit both ourselves and others, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
While the hope of heaven has historically been central to Christian belief, it still should never overshadow Jesus’ call to follow Him in how we relate to our world while we are in this life. Working toward a just world here and now is therefore central to discipleship. Through actions Jesus modeled himself in the gospel stories, Christians not only witness to the truth of Jesus’ love of neighbor but also bring hope, healing, and justice to a world in need. Jesus didn’t live to simply tell us God loved us. He spent his life teaching and modeling for us how to love one another.
“We belong to a mutually beneficial web of connection, well-being, and love. At the root of this connection is empathy; the result is kindness, compassion, respect, and understanding. When religion doesn’t center on this mutuality, it can become one of the toxic narratives that, in the end, dismantles self-love.” (Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Fierce Love, p. 30)
The questions about the afterlife that we encounter in this week’s reading are a distraction from focusing on living just lives while we’re alive. It’s interesting that these questions came from the Sadducees, the wealthy and elite class of Jesus’s society who had the most to lose if the masses embraced Jesus’ economic call for wealth redistribution such as through the Torah’s year of Jubilee (see Luke 4:19). Could this question, part of a debate between the Pharisees and and Sadducees, have been meant to distract from the concrete, economic elements of Jesus’ gospel? Could this have been another example of that age old political tactic of seeking to sow division among the masses over a peripheral topic to divide their support of Jesus?
Jesus’ response that God is the God of the living and not the dead calls each of us today to focus on uniting in our focus on the life in front of us, and shaping our current world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone today rather than on endless metaphysical debates about what may or may not happen to us in an afterlife.
Jesus’ mantra calls to me this week to focusing today. What difference can we make now?
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What difference does focusing on this life make in your own Jesus following and justice work? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
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My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 2 Episode 45: A Gospel About the Living Rather than the Dead
Luke 20:27-38
“While the hope of heaven has historically been central to Christian belief, it still should never overshadow Jesus’ call to follow Him in how we relate to our world while we are in this life. Working toward a just world here and now while we are alive is therefore central to discipleship. The questions about the afterlife that we encounter in this week’s reading are a distraction from focusing on living just lives while we’re alive. It’s interesting that these questions came from the wealthy and elite class of Jesus’s society who had the most to lose if the masses embraced Jesus’ economic call for wealth redistribution such as through the Torah’s year of Jubilee? Could this have been another example of that age old political tactic of seeking to sow division among the masses over a peripheral topic to divide their support of justice? Jesus’ response that God is the God of the living and not the dead calls each of us today to focus on uniting in our focus on the life in front of us rather than on endless metaphysical debates about what may or may not happen to us in an afterlife.”
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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