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Matthew 22:23-33 NIV
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
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Three years ago, we held a memorial service for my fourth sister. It was another experience of saying goodbye to a loved one after already having sent off my parents. During the preparation of the funeral, people often dress the deceased in their favorite clothes and surround them with the things they loved most in life, as if there were life after death. The mummies of Egypt, the Terracotta Warriors of China, and the beliefs of Muslims all reflect humanity’s desire to extend this inevitably decaying physical life. Indeed, physical death is not the end of life; it is the beginning of eternity. The author of Hebrews says, "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). This judgment determines whether one will be in God's kingdom or in hell after death, and all will be resurrected to face judgment. When the Lord Jesus returns, "The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done" (Revelation 20:13). The outcome will be eternal life or eternal death. The saying "When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out" is a self-deceiving notion. Humans are created by God in His image and likeness; they do not simply disappear. Resurrection is inevitable.
Among the Jews, only the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, yet they were the powerful elites of the time, exploiting their position. They relied on the Romans to control the Jews. Their power was entirely based on people's misunderstanding of the temple, which they used as a tool to manipulate the ignorant. The arrival of the Lord Jesus severely threatened their interests, authority, and credibility. They were at odds with the Lord Jesus and could no longer tolerate Him, determined to get rid of this "thorn in their side." They had previously tried to trap Him with the question of paying taxes, attempting to use political means to eliminate Him, but they failed (Matthew 22:15-22). Now, in front of everyone, they tried to stump Jesus with a question that even the Pharisees couldn’t answer. Their goal was to discredit Jesus' authority and make Him lose the trust of the Jewish people. If He couldn’t prove the resurrection, He would be exposed as a fraud, and the Jews would rise up against Him.
But the Lord Jesus responded directly and bluntly, saying, "You are mistaken." He didn’t beat around the bush or spare their feelings. He struck at the heart of their error, accusing these self-proclaimed experts of the Scriptures of not understanding the Scriptures. He delivered a fatal blow by pointing out that they didn’t know the power of God. They didn’t believe that God could bring something from nothing, that He could raise the dead. The new life of the resurrection is one where death no longer exists, and the marital relationship, which was for the purpose of procreation, will no longer be necessary. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, the number of the saved will be complete, and since there will be no death, there will be no need for reproduction. There will only be the relationship of brothers and sisters in an eternal family with the Lord Jesus as King and Head. Moreover, Jesus clearly explained the concept of resurrection based on the Pentateuch, which the Sadducees believed in. In Genesis, God repeatedly introduces Himself as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." The use of the word "is" indicates the present tense, not the past tense. God is the God of the living, not of the dead, and those who believe in Him are alive, not unconscious corpses. This wise answer left the Sadducees, who had been plotting to "murder" and "kill with borrowed knives," speechless, forcing them to come up with another plan. The crowd was astonished, and their understanding of the Lord Jesus deepened, leaving a stronger impression in their hearts. In a few days, all of this would become reality, and then they would truly know that the Lord Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah. God's arrangement for all these events was to bring His sheep back to His fold. A person who does not believe in resurrection is without hope and is truly pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:19). It is believed that some Sadducees turned back, repented, and came to the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, 'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame'" (Romans 10:9-11). Do we believe in the resurrection? What is our hope? Do we have the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ?
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