Matthew 22:23-33--Jesus Questions About the Resurrection of the Dead (Life After Death)

​Matthew 22:23-33 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.22.23-Matt.22.33
Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
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 offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for 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 astonished at his teaching.

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Some background is probably needed here to say that the Sadducees were Jews who believed in God but denied that He would involve Himself in any miraculous way in everyday life and also believed in an Annihilationist view that your soul ceased to exist at death (no heaven and no hell).  They also denied the existence of a spiritual world (angels and demons)--if they couldn't see it, touch it, feel it it wasn't real to them.  Sound like any people that you know today?  Solomon was right in Ecclesiastes when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun."  The philosophies of old just come back recycled and repackaged under new names, but the devil has been using the same lies since the beginning.

With this in mind and understanding, understand that this whole hypothetical they are about to ask is something they don't believe in because they believe in no afterlife.  They ask the question to make jest of the thought and how absurd it might be that that the covenant of marriage might be eternal and last not only in this life but in the life to come, especially since at the time it was not uncommon for a man to be married many times--sometimes even in accordance with the Law of Moses as God made provisions for the close relatives of the husband to take care of the widows and orphans.

The woman in this story seems to be a "black widow" in that ever man she marries dies and that she marries and is widowed by seven sons in a family.  The Sadducees question is whose wife she would be in the resurrection (the kingdom of God)?

Jesus answers them much like He would answer the Pharisees or the scribes or other teachers of the law when He asked them a "Have you not read...and have you not understood?" type question.  This time Jesus asked them if they didn't understand that the angels who were spiritual beings were neither male nor female and were not married or given in marriage but simply served God eternally.  Jesus said that men would be like the angels (not that we would be angels) in much the same way that we would be genderless and not married or given in marriage to each other in the kingdom that is to come.  We know one reason for this is because we will all be part of the Bride of Christ and will be married to Him in a covenant relationship that will last for all eternity.

Then Jesus uses the Scripture that the Sadducees would agree to (the Law) to say that God revealed Himself to Moses saying "I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" not, "I was the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."  This is something profound that we miss when we read this because God is saying that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive and He is still their God.  Jesus then summarizes that He is the God of the living, not the dead.

The crowds were in awe and astonished and marveled at this answer.  How had they missed something so obvious and profound?  It blew the whole worldview of the Sadducees out of the water, so to speak.  Those who are outside of Christ are dead in their trespasses and sins and they will experience a "second death" for all eternity if they die apart from God's salvation, but the power of the gospel is that Jesus is able to take that which was dead and make it alive not just spiritually, but one day physically so that we will live in the very presence of God and love Him, serve Him, and praise Him forever and ever.  God is truly the God of the living, not the dead.