Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “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. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection [Some manuscripts add "when people rise from the dead,"] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ [Exodus 3:6]? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Yet another attempt to trap Jesus. This time by the Sadducees. It is important to note that the Sadducees were a Jewish religious group that did not believe in either the physical resurrection or in angels.
So they come to Jesus with a trick question. They create a scinario about a woman who sequentially married seven brothers under levirate marriage law. Based on the levirate law found in Deuteronomy 25, a man was required to marry his deceased brother's childless widow to raise up offspring. So the question the Sadducees ask is: "Whose wife she will be in the resurrection?"
Jesus responds to them this way - don't you wish you could have been there to see the look on their faces?
Jesus says a number of things.
First of all, he tells them that they are mistaken, because they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. Talk about dropping a bomb on them!
Then he says, when people rise from the dead, "they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven". He is hitting them hard - two things you don't believe in, resurrection and angels, are now in play. An then he rubs it in a bit more. "Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses..." In other words, you guys don't know your scriptures!
Jesus moves the question from marriage to the reminder that God is an eternal God. He is a living God. And building on that quote from Exodus 3, Jesus points out that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, proving that the patriarchs are still alive and that the resurrection is real. Mike drop!
So what can we take away from this text? Let me suggest three things.
First, when you engage with the Scriptures, do so carefully and without ideological blinders, to the extent you are able. We all bring our preconceived assumptions to the text. But be careful to read the text on its own terms so you don’t miss what’s there.
Second, we serve a living and powerful God. And we can look forward to an eternity of life and intimacy with him. This life is not all there is. There is a resurrection coming for those who are in Christ, when we will get bodies fit for eternity. That will be a very good day.
Third, don’t try to take Jesus down with strawman arguments. You will lose badly and get embarrassed in the process. If you want to engage and challenge Jesus, that’s fine, but go to Him directly. He can take it.
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