God of the Living: Beyond the Edge of Knowing
Reflections on Job 19:23–27a and Luke 20:27–38
There’s a question that haunts humanity. Not just in times of crisis, but quietly, persistently, throughout our lives:
What happens when we die?
Will we still exist? Be remembered? Loved?
Beneath those questions is more than fear. It’s longing — for connection that death can’t sever, for assurance that our lives matter, for love that endures.
This week’s lectionary texts — one from the anguished voice of Job and the other from a sharp exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees — offer no simple answers. But they do offer something better: Presence, trust, and the invitation to live now in light of something eternal.
A Cry from the Ashes
In the Book of Job, we meet a man stripped bare. His possessions are gone. His health has failed. His reputation lies in ruin. His friends offer only hollow answers.
And yet Job says:
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth… and in my flesh I shall see God.”
This isn’t doctrine. It’s not a theological proposition.
It’s a cry — a howl of defiant hope — that even if everything else fails, even if he dies in disgrace, he is still held within Divine regard. Job uses the Hebrew word goel, meaning “kinsman-redeemer” — the one who steps in when all else is lost. The one who restores, reclaims, and defends what is precious.
In other words: I may not understand the why. But I am not forgotten. I will be seen.
Jesus Refuses to Debate Death
In Luke 20, the Sadducees — who didn’t believe in resurrection — try to trap Jesus with a farcical legal scenario about marriage and the afterlife. Their question isn’t sincere. It’s a way to dismiss resurrection altogether.
But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He reframes everything.
“The children of this age marry… but in the resurrection… they cannot die anymore. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Jesus refuses to explain how resurrection works.
He simply declares who God is: not locked in past, but fully alive in the now. Not limited by death, but brimming with life. Not concerned with legal systems and control, but with relationship and belonging.
The Thread that Connects Job and Jesus
Both Job and Jesus insist that death is not the final word.
Job proclaims that even in death, he will see and be seen by God.
Jesus insists that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive in God — not because of what they accomplished, but because God is the God of the living.
In both cases, the invitation is clear: Let go of the need for control. Let go of simplistic binaries. Let go of the ego’s craving for certainty.
Instead, step into the deeper truth:
You are not defined by what you do. Or by what you've lost. Or by how well you perform.
You are not your résumé, your title, or your grief.
You are a child of God, held in the pulse of divine Love.
Resurrection Isn’t Later. It’s Now.
We often think of resurrection as something that happens after death.
But Jesus shows us: it’s something we’re called to live into right now.
Every time you choose love over fear.
Every time you risk hope when cynicism feels safer.
Every time you resist the systems that tell you you’re not enough — and instead trust the quiet voice that says, You are mine —
that is resurrection.
Not a return to what was.
But a transformation into who you really are.
Living at the Edge of Knowing
The God of the Living invites us beyond the binaries. Beyond the systems. Beyond the edge of what we can explain.
You don’t need to have the answers.
You are not asked to solve the mystery.
You are asked to trust the Presence who holds you.
To say yes to Life.
To say yes to Love.
To be alive, here and now, in the One who is always Life.
Amen.