Matthew 22:23-33

²³ The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,

²⁴ saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’

²⁵ What if there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother.

²⁶ the second did too and the third, down to the seventh.

²⁷ The woman died after them all.

²⁸ So at the resurrection, whose wife will she be out of the seven? Because they all had her.”

²⁹ But Jesus answered them, “You have mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

³⁰ Because at the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in the sky.

³¹ And when it comes to the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:

³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³ And when the crowd heard it, they were amazed at his teaching.

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the whole package

The Sadducees thought that the resurrection was a ridiculous fairy tale. They were sure that they could get Jesus to slip up and admit that. But Jesus not only affirmed the reality of a future resurrection, he implied that to disbelieve at this point was to deny the veracity of the Scriptures, and to deny the power of God.

1. The resurrection is going to change us. It will make us immortal, like the angels, and it will make us different in other ways as well. Like the angels in the sky (not like the ones who fell) we will be totally the Bridegroom, so there will be no marriage. Like other gifts that are part of this present age, marriage is proper at this time, but it will not be proper for eternity.

2. In this context, Jesus brings up a text where God says he is “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jesus is not saying that these Old Testament saints are really alive somewhere. That would be a denial of the very thing that he is asserting. The text is evidence that these three will be raised from the dead because to God they have not ceased to exist. Their future lives are sure because the LORD is their God.

3. The Sadducees claimed to believe in God, but they rejected the resurrection. Like many today, they wanted to affirm some kind of religious faith, but to purge it of all those silly, improvable notions. They were theists, but they had stripped God of any personal significance. Jesus rejected their teachings and exposed their mockery. Real belief in God accepts the whole package – even the things that cannot be observed or proven.

LORD, give us the wisdom to hold fast to all that you have revealed about yourself.