Matthew 22.23-33

“When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask Andrew why he did it,” said my friend.

“Today, Papa went to be with Jesus,” my dad choked through tears.

“I know she’s watching over us,” assured my cousin.

“It’s a big big house…a big big yard where we can play football,” claimed a song of my childhood.

“I’m going to hang out at the rock worship party in heaven,” I proudly told my friend after a concert.

Heaven. The afterlife. What is it?  What do people do?  If I just picture some things people have said throughout my life, I figure that I’ll be playing football with Jesus and a bunch of dead people behind a big house in a big yard with Aerosmith performing the halftime show.  

We all have questions about heaven, the life after the resurrection, and what we’ll be doing.  I think it’s natural.  I hope today’s passage helps us understand this a little bit better.

As we look at the story, I’d love to tell you about the people Jesus argued with:  the Sadducees.  How they didn’t believe in the resurrection and angels.  How they only accepted the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  How they were power hungry and in control of the Jewish political symbols like the temple and so with no afterlife or resurrection in their worldview, they could be as greedy as they wanted.

But I imagine most of you reading this won’t care about that as much.  Instead, when you read this story, something Jesus says in response to them jumps out at you.  Read the story.

23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” 

29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” 

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. 

I’m guessing that verses 23-28 just seemed like another typical Jewish controversy with Jesus.  They believed one thing, he believed another, so they tried to shame him.  

If you’re like me, you probably loved verse 29 and how Jesus called them out for their lack of knowledge and faith.

But then, you read verse 30.  “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven,” Jesus said.  Like mine, your mind flashed a photo of your spouse before your eyes, and you winced at the thought of eternity without him/her.  If you were real honest with yourself, you might have even questioned God’s goodness.  Those natural questions about heaven started reeling. 

There is a problem is at the root of the Sadducees’ question, though (actually there were many problems!):  they don’t know the scriptures.  They alluded to Deuteronomy 25:5-10 which calls for a man to marry his dead brother’s widow so that the family name will carry on and the widow will be protected and cared for.  After all, that was what marriage was for them:  protection, security, and family honor.  Jesus’ response doesn’t say that she won’t know them, recognize them, or have a special bond to her husband, but he does say that she will be like the angels in that God will be her honor, security, and protection.  Their lack of knowledge of the scriptures prevented them from understanding marriage and resurrection in proper context.  

We need to be careful not to hear Jesus answering a question they weren’t asking:  will I be married to my spouse in heaven?  Often people hear these words of Jesus and think that they won’t know their spouse in heaven.

While I wish I could tell you exactly how it is going to be after the resurrection, I can’t.  But here’s what I know:  Jesus wasn’t saying that we won’t know people.  Jesus wasn’t saying that marriage (or sex) is bad.  Jesus wasn’t preparing his followers for a resurrected life without company.  

As certain as I am that this wasn’t what Jesus was saying, I know Jesus was assuring us that there is hope.  There is hope because God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living!!! 

May the words Paul penned in light of this hope challenge you today:

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58).

Jeremy Hyde