Marriage in the Resurrection

Setting and Overview
After Jesus refutes the Pharisees and their attempt to trap him on the issue of paying taxes to Rome, the Sadducees come to Jesus with their own attempt to trap him. Just as they would have likely clashed with the Pharisees on the issue of taxes, and thus been hesitant to join them in questioning Jesus on the issue, the Pharisees did often clash with the Sadducees on the issue of the resurrection, and so it is no surprise that they don’t join the Sadducees in the Sadducees own attempt to derail Jesus’ influence. Despite the different challengers and different topic, however, this encounter largely follows the pattern and purpose of the ones that preceded it, and the outcome will look very familiar as well.

Exposition
The Sadducees were generally the wealthiest of the Jewish sects, and were the most ready to curry Roman favor for their political advantage. Whereas the Pharisees were more associated with the synagogues, the Sadducees were more associated with the temple and the priesthood, but they had less popular support than the Pharisees. Not only did they reject the oral law, contrasting them significantly with the Pharisees, but they also held the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) to have higher weight than the rest of the Old Testament and paid little attention to scriptures that did not come from it. That approach affected their rejection of the resurrection, and Jesus will reflect that in his answer to their challenge. Their challenge begins with quoting Deuteronomy 25:5, which deals with levirate marriage (Genesis 38:8, Ruth 4:1-12) and which actually predated the Mosaic law. They reference it as a command of Moses however, because it was uncommon in the day and they wanted to pose their question on the basis of its continuing authority. Levirate law required that if a brother died without an heir, that another brother would marry the widow to carry on the first brother’s line. The Sadducees posed a scenario where that law resulted in one woman being married to the seven brothers but not leaving an heir. In that case, they were asking, whose brother would she be in the resurrection? Their assumption was that there was no good answer, and since the command to levirate law was authoritative, they assumed that meant that the resurrection could not be true.
Before Jesus answers the question, he addresses the reason for their error. They not only don’t know all of Scripture (not even the Torah!) but they limit God’s power to their imaginations. The latter means that they assume that the resurrection would have to follow the patterns of this life, including marriage, even though the ideal picture of marriage in the Old Testament is between God and His people (Isaiah 54:5, Jeremiah 31:32-33, Hosea 2:14, 19-20.) Furthermore, they are ignoring the scriptures that speak clearly of a resurrection. To prove his point for that, he doesn’t use the typical Pharisaic references from the later books of the Old Testament (Daniel 12:2, Isaiah 26:19), but rather quotes right from the Torah (Exodus 3:6) with a passage they would have known well yet failed to apply. This response apparently silences the Sadducees (Matthew 22:34), but it impresses the crowds and pleases the Pharisees (Luke 20:39), for a moment showing the divide between these disparate groups opposing Jesus.

Examination and Application
Even though we accept all of the Bible as authoritative and can read it with a knowledge of the resurrection of Christ, nonetheless we are also prone to miss the truth of Scripture and the power of God. In doing so, we miss the wealth of the hope that we are offered, which should give us strength to obey even in times of difficulty. Marriage is one facet of what we can miss. While marriage is a great gift, it is never meant to be the ultimate gift. That is why marriage in the New Testament is presented as a picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33) and while those who are single are called to demonstrate no less devotion to Christ than that seen in the most devoted marriages. For all that we don’t know about our eternity in our resurrected bodies, we know that it will be eternity with Christ (II Corinthians 5:8, John 14:3) and it will be far better than this world can ever be (Philippians 1:23.) Therefore, we would do well to pray for ourselves and others, that God would grant us increase knowledge of the wealth of His promises to us (Ephesians 1:15-21) and that we would live faithful and joyous lives in anticipation of eternity with him.