SOME OF THE Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally, the woman died too. 33Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
34Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
39Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” 40And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Original Meaning
THE NEXT NEW angle in challenging Jesus is a theological one.1 The protagonists are the Sadducees.2 They raise the issue of the resurrection, which finds them on the opposite side of the Pharisees, for the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. As a priestly aristocrat movement, they accepted the first five books of the Old Testament as carrying supreme authority and disliked the oral tradition of the Pharisees. They tended to be rationalistic and were by and large wealthy.3 Yet despite their differences, when it came to Jesus, they joined the Pharisees in trying to bring him down.
The Sadducees had a standard question they liked to pose on the resurrection to try to show how ludicrous it was. Drawing on levirate marriage (Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5; Ruth 4:1–12) and assuming that a man was to be a husband of one wife in heaven, they constructed a “Whose wife will she be?” dilemma.4 The questioners begin by noting the levirate custom and then walk Jesus through the story. Each of seven marriages of a particular woman ends childless (the absence of a child triggers the levirate process). The story has a touch of humor, since one gets the feeling that it is death to marry this woman! Finally the woman dies. The question now emerges, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” After all, there are seven candidates. The Sadducees do not really want an answer, for they are convinced that the dilemma shows the lack of logic in a resurrection. They also assume that the afterlife is like this life.
The question is a crucial one for several reasons. (1) Some Jews did believe in a resurrection. (2) Jesus has predicted his own resurrection to the disciples. (3) Resurrection is at the center of what became the Christian hope. So for all the humor in the query, the question must be seriously addressed.
Jesus replies at two levels. (1) He notes that the afterlife is not like this life, in that there will be no marriage in the era to come. Since people will live forever, there will be no need for marriage and producing progeny to replenish the earth. Relationships will operate on a different plane in heaven.5 People will become like angels, who do not eat or marry (cf. 1 Enoch 15:6; 51:4; 104:4–6; Wisdom 5:5, 15–16).6 Those worthy of resurrection, the children of God, will be children of resurrection.
(2) As a more subtle point, Jesus implies that not everyone will be resurrected. He speaks of those “considered worthy of taking part in that age.” Therefore, some risk being excluded from that era.7 This second point does not relate to the question, but raises the issue of who gets to receive the resurrection to everlasting life.
To solidify his argument, Jesus makes one final point from the Pentateuch, the one section of Scripture the Sadducees trust. Jesus notes how God said to Moses that the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Ex. 3:2–6). God is the God of the living, not the dead. So if God is still God to the patriarchs as he speaks to Moses, long after their deaths, they must be alive or present somehow in the midst of God.8 God is the God of promise for these patriarchs. For them to share in the realization of the promise, they must live to see it.
In other words, Jesus’ reply takes two forms. The Sadducean marriage dilemma misunderstands the afterlife, since marriage does not occur there. Thus, the problem the Sadducees pose is a pseudo-problem. And Scripture does teach resurrection in the Torah in how it mentions the patriarchs. If God makes promises to them and the afterlife is known (cf. also “Abraham’s side” in 16:22), then resurrection seems an appropriate deduction. This is a fundamental doctrine of hope.
The reaction to Jesus’ answer is instant. Some, no doubt of the Pharisees, like his defense of resurrection. Jesus also silences his opponents, so that they do not want to ask him any more questions. On his own ministry’s authority, on politics, and now on theology, his enemies have been soundly rebuffed. This entire encounter makes a basic point: Jesus knows more about God’s will and where he is going than his opponents. He may be outnumbered a few thousand to one, but he can be trusted to teach the way of God.
Bridging Contexts
ALTHOUGH THIS CONTROVERSY deals with a unique problem as far as the Sadducees were concerned, the topic it treats is a fundamental one: Will people be raised from the dead? The resurrection is a central teaching of the Christian faith because on it hangs three central issues: accountability before God, judgment, and eternal life. Without a resurrection, death would be the end, our accountability to God would be limited at best to this life, and judgment and eternal life would become meaningless concepts. The most eloquent defense of resurrection as a central Christian truth surfaces in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul talks about how Jesus’ resurrection is the proof for our own future resurrection. It has often been said that death is the great equalizer, since we all must die. Yet resurrection is the great opportunity, since we all have a chance to enter into eternal life.
As for a second bridge into our era, we often think that ancient people were unsophisticated, gullible, and nonempirical, believing in gods and spirits at every turn. But some in the ancient world were skeptical of spiritual teaching, just as moderns are. The Sadducees were “modern” people in an ancient time, questioning both the existence of angels and the resurrection. They were committed materialists, dedicated to pursuing life on this earth. In a sense, they speak for a common attitude today.
One major difference between this passage and our era adds to the shock of Jesus’ answer for us. In the ancient world, marriages were arranged and were often a business issue in order to associate families. That is still true in some parts of our world today. But in the West, with our notions of romantic love, individual choice, and dating practices, marriage has become more personalized. That means that some of the basic reasons for marriage, such as providing a home where children can be raised and nourished, have a less visible priority to more relational concerns. This is not to say that marital love did not exist in biblical times (see Song of Songs and Eph. 5:22–33). But the romantic aspects of love have a more central role in our modern perception. Thus, when Jesus speaks of the end of marriage in heaven, it almost comes as a shock to our ears.
But we must remember that the quality and purity of relationships will extend far beyond what marriage provides today. Sin will no longer cloud our relationships, and the quality of personal interaction in a world will be directed fully by the presence of God. The absence of evil and the presence of God make marriage as a supportive and protective institution superfluous. For those who hesitate at this remark because their marriage has been good, just remember, heaven will be even better.
Contemporary Significance
THE TWO BASIC applications of this passage revolve around the reality of resurrection and the resulting accountability we have to God. These applications emerge when we assess the slogan of a particular advertisement years ago that summarizes twentieth-century popular philosophy: “You only go around once in life, so grab for all the gusto you can get.” This saying, theologically, is an example of a mixed bag.
That you only go around once in life is good theology. Belief in reincarnation creates a certain absence of responsibility, for if I do not do well in this life, I can recover in the next one. Life is not like elementary school, where a person can repeat a grade if failure occurs. The Bible knows nothing of return visits in new forms of existence. So the proper response to that reality is vastly different than the view of the advertisers. Rather than grabbing for all the gusto one can, the uniqueness of our journey means that we should pay careful attention to our one chance to walk with God. We should live as we have been created to live. The reality of resurrection and the prospect of being “considered worthy of taking part” in it means we should be careful what we believe and how we respond. Jesus is challenging the Sadducees to realize that there is more to that life than what exists on this side of death. You only go around once in life, so grab for all of God’s goodness you can get.
Regarding the resurrection, we do not just go to heaven when we are raised from the dead; we are transformed (1 Cor. 15:35–58). Life after the resurrection takes place in a transformed community, where sin no longer exists. We live in a world so full of sin, including our own, that it is hard to appreciate how wonderful such an existence will be. Yet God assures us that he will make us like himself. It is not just where we are going that makes the hope so great, but who we will be when we get there.