Luke 20:27–40 (ESV)
27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, 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 to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
This is one of my favorite passages to share with people who are struggling with grief and loss. This passage comes on the heels of Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees who were looking to trap Jesus in His words. Now it’s the Sadducee's turn.
The Sadducees lived near and cared for the Temple in Jerusalem and while Jewish, they were different from the Pharisees. They were the aristocracy of the Jewish people, a conservative group both politically and theologically, and they didn’t believe in the resurrection. They thought that resurrection was a dangerous idea and denied that it was taught in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy.) For them, the notion of the resurrection was a threat to their position and power, and they willing to do anything that they could to stop that idea from spreading. But the truth is that the idea of the resurrection was already pretty popular in Jesus day, and it was one that was supported by the Pharisees who believed that God would raise His people to new life when God’s kingdom arrived, ushering in the New Age that every Jewish person was waiting for (which they themselves were missing in the presence of Jesus).
The irony here is that the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus with a question about the resurrection. They offer a story of an extreme circumstance to in order to try to trap Jesus. Of course, Jesus gave them a pretty hard correction in their thinking. First, Jesus corrected them on the resurrection. While the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, they were basing their question on the assumption that the resurrection meant the dead return to the same kind of physical existence, but Jesus let them know that life in the resurrection will be different - a new life which no one has ever experienced, a transformation to a different state that is recognizable, one that can only be guessed at on our part. Jim Edwards in his great commentary put it this way, “We can no more imagine heavenly existence than an infant in utero can imagine a Beethoven piano concerto or the Grand Canyon at sunset.”
Second, Jesus corrected the Sadducees on their biblical ignorance. They had no real clue as to who God is and His power. Speaking from Exodus, which the Sadducees accepted as authoritative, Jesus points to Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush where God describes Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is the God of the living and not the dead Jesus goes on to tell the Sadducees.
The point in all of this is the consideration of what happens after we die. What comes next? Nothing? Something? What? We who have Christ have the promise of something amazing, a new life in Christ, and a hope for the future. A promise that is attested to by Jesus Himself when He rose from the dead. Jesus didn’t just teach about the resurrection, He Himself is the resurrection.
For us, we must wait and see. We don’t know every detail about the resurrection, in fact, I would be hard pressed to give details about what life with Christ will look like after death, but I know that it will be incredible. We will see God face to face, and it will be awesome because our God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
And so for those of us who have suffered loss and wrestle with grief, we have a living hope in Jesus.
I often think of the passage below when I think of this passage from Matthew. Jesus is speaking to His disciples:
John 14:1-7 (ESV)
14 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers!
Scott