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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.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” (Luke 20: 27-38 NIV)
There's a song that mentions this group of religious Jews who do not believe in resurrection and the line in the song says, "That's why they're always sad, you see?" Okay, it was funnier back in the day. But, they, during Jesus' time, were dead serious about there not being any life after death. You and I know Christians who also believe in that way. I did my college internship with a Jewish woman who did not believe in resurrection saying, "The only way you live on is in the hearts and minds of those who love you." But here in this passage, the serious and devious opponents of Jesus, seek to trap Him with a complex quiz based on Mosaic law. If a man's brother dies and leaves a wife with no children, the man must marry the widow and ruase up offspring for his brother. And the quiz asks, what happens if there are seven brothers and no children? And the big question, Whose wife will she be, since she was married to seven brothers? But their trap reveals more about their limited imagination than about the reality of resurrection. They're trying to fit eternal realities into earthly categories, assuming that resurrected life is simply this life extended forever with all its same structures and complications. Jesus responds by exposing the poverty of their imagination: "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 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, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels." The Sadducees assume resurrection life is just this life with better health, but Jesus reveals it's an entirely different kind of existence. Marriage serves crucial purposes in this age—companionship, procreation, family continuation—but in the resurrection, these purposes are either fulfilled or transcended. People don't marry in resurrection life not because relationship becomes less important but because we enter into a kind of existence where earthly institutions designed for mortal life are no longer necessary. We'll be "like the angels"—not that we become angels, but that we share their deathless existence and direct relationship with God.
Jesus then addresses the deeper issue—not the mechanics of resurrection life but the reality of resurrection itself. He points to a passage the Sadducees claim to accept: when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, He identified Himself as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Jesus' logic is stunning: "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." If God is still, in Moses' present tense, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob centuries after they died, then they must still be alive in some real sense. God doesn't form covenant relationships with people only to let death end them. He doesn't identify Himself by His relationship to corpses. The present-tense declaration "I am the God of Abraham" testifies that Abraham still exists in relationship with God. Death doesn't sever what God has joined.
This passage confronts our tendency to domesticate eternal realities by forcing them into familiar categories. We often think about heaven as "this life, but better"—same relationships, same pleasures, same structures, just perfected. But Jesus invites us to expand our imagination. Resurrection life isn't this life extended; it's a qualitatively different existence where death has no power, where our relationship with God defines everything, and where earthly categories give way to realities we can barely conceive. The comfort isn't that everything will be exactly as we know it now, only improved. The comfort is that God is the God of the living, that His covenant love is stronger than death, and that those who belong to Him are alive to Him even when they seem dead to us. Death is real, but it's not ultimate. Relationship with the living God transcends the grave. Our task isn't to figure out all the details of resurrection existence but to trust the character of the God who promises it—the God for whom all are alive.
PRAYER: Loving God of the living, expand our imagination beyond what we can see and help us trust that Your covenant love is stronger than death and that resurrection life with You will be better than anything we can currently conceive. Strength our relationship with You, with those whom we love and need, and with those whom we need to meet and love; in Christ Jesus' strong name we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Reflect on one relationship or aspect of this life you're tempted to absolutize, and ask God to help you hold it with open hands, trusting that resurrection life will fulfill and transcend earthly loves in ways you can't yet imagine.
I love you and I thank God for you. You matter to God and you matter to me; show others they matter to you. Remember your uniqueness is an asset to God's kingdom - make the most of it!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
