A Life in Exile

The religious leaders were fed up with the radical rabbi in their midst, and Matthew tells us in the twenty-second chapter that on the same day the Pharisees had failed to trap him over the topic of taxes, the Sadducees tried another approach. Of course, it was a topic they didn’t even believe in—the resurrection of the dead—but what did that matter?

The Question

I’m not a fan of word problems in math, and this is what this question from the Sadducees is for Jesus. They start with the premise of the Law of Moses, but then give a scenario that could never possibly happen. One woman passed among seven brothers? Well, here is what they asked.

“Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”

Matthew 22:24-28 CSB

The Response

Jesus wasn’t having it. He cuts them off at the knees by telling them they don’t know the Scriptures, but then he goes a step further in his rebuttal by telling them they don’t know the power of the God they claim to serve. Hear for yourself:

Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Matthew 22:29-32.

Both the Pharisees and Sadducees tried using the Law of Moses against Jesus, but though they may have known the Law, they didn’t know the God behind it. This is the reason, Jesus continually goes further back than the Law, as we’ve seen before. He went back to Genesis in last week’s passage, and this time, he’s going back to Exodus—not after the Law was given, but before—the burning bush.

The God who revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 3:6, is the God who has the power to raise the dead. That’s why he could tell Moses that I am the God of his fathers, not I was. There is no past with God’s relationship with man because those who know him live on after death.

Mark includes an added remark by Jesus on the matter when he tells them, “You are badly mistaken.” (Mark 12:27). Their idea of heaven was all wrong because in the resurrection earthly marriage has no hold on us. If they had been paying attention, Jesus had already told the parable of the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), which alluded to the fact that we will be married to Christ in the resurrection, not each other.

The Point

Luke, in writing to Gentiles, makes this encounter and teaching even clearer in his account. After repeating what Matthew and Mark had written, he includes a few more phrases of clarification.

For they can no longer die, because they are like angels and are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection. Moses even indicated in the passage about the burning bush that the dead are raised, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to him.”

Luke 20:36-38, emphasis added.

Those who die in Christ are children of the resurrection and are living to God. When my husband died, I went to see my aging father. What was his comfort to me in the midst of my grief? “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The truth the God of all power shared with Moses through the wonder of a burning bush continues to speak to us today.

Though the Sadducees did not understand the power of God, Abraham did. The great chapter of faith in Hebrews makes clear that Abraham was willing to be obedient to God’s command to sacrifice the son of promise because he knew God was powerful enough to raise him from the dead.

He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.

Hebrews 11:19

This is the point. The things of this earth pale in comparison with the knowledge that we have a God who is powerful enough to raise the dead in Christ to life everlasting. He made that clear from the beginning. Don’t neglect the lessons of the Old Testament.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Learning from the Past post, click HERE, or start the series from the BEGINNING.