The Resurrection and Marriage
February 4, 2022
Commentary
The Sadducees were the Jewish religious liberals of that day. They accepted as Scripture only the Five Books of Moses and they denied the resurrection, angels and spirits (Acts 23:8). As a result they denied the very power of God (v. 27). These Sadducees asked Jesus a hypothetical question based on the law of the Levite marriage found in Deut. 25:5-10. (That being that a man was required to marry his brother’s widow if her husband had died (v. 28). They wanted to know if this woman lost seven husbands, whose wife she would be in the resurrection (vv. 29-33). Jesus statement does not mean that people will not recognize their partners in heaven. It simply means that we must not think of heaven as an extension of life as we now know it.
Jesus pointed out that there will be no marriage or childbearing in heaven. We will maintain our identities and know each other, but there will be no more death and therefore no need for marriage and children being born (vv/ 34-40). Our Lord’s resurrection body was the same as before His death and yet different! People recognized Him and touched Him. He ate food, but at the same time, He could walk through doors, change His appearance and vanish suddenly. In heaven we will share the image of Christ (I Jn. 3:2). We don’t know everything about our resurrection life but Jesus affirms that relationships will be different from what they are here.
Warren Wiersbe put it well when he said, “Resurrection is not reconstruction.” Our glorified body will be a new body. If God was powerful enough to give different bodies to the various things in creation, He is certainly able to give people new bodies at the resurrection.
Application
How do I answer people who may ask me absurd questions? Notice that Jesus did not ridicule them and neither should I. It is my job to be patient, loving and concerned about the souls of those who may be asking me questions.
Luke 20:27– 40 (NET)
27 Now some Sadducees (who contend that there is no resurrection) came to him. 28 They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died without children. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally the woman died too. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For all seven had married her.”
34 So Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are regarded as worthy to share in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection. 37 But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him.” 39 Then some of the experts in the law answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well!” 40 For they did not dare any longer to ask him anything.
Illustration: Ingersoll Tried to Prove Lazarus Didn’t Rise
I once heard a story about Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist of some decades ago. It is told that at one time he sought to show how the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus was just a trick to bolster His waning fortunes. To clinch his point, Ingersoll said to the audience, “Can anyone tell me now why Jesus said: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’” (John 11:43)? An old Christian in the back got up and said: “Yes! Because if He had not said ‘Lazarus,’ He would have had the whole graveyard of Bethany coming out to Him.” (The Possible Years, Concordia).