I’m sure the Sadduccees thought they had Jesus cornered, in Matthew 22:23-33. You may remember – the hypothetical woman, married to seven men in this life (widowed each) – which one will she be married to in heaven?
I remember showing this to a Mormon on a plane once – it piqued her interest, not least because Mormonism claims eternal marriage. Mormonism is half-right – marriage will exist eternally, but only one marriage – that of Christ and His Bride, the Church.
This points to why Jesus begins his response with the fact they don’t know the Scriptures, though their hypothetical situation came right from the Bible. Not everyone who quotes the Bible does so knowing Scripture. Satan can quote Scripture, but only does so in the most vulgar way possible – to lie and destroy (see Matt. 4, for instance).
He aspires to destroy the work of God, and thereby thwart the power of God. Thus Jesus implies that they are lying to themselves, and in doing so, are ignorant of the power of God. Because in the resurrection, no one will be given or taken in marriage, because all in Christ will be like the angels in heaven (v. 30). Jesus does not comment further on this, but he seems to imply that marriage will be unnecessary, because angels don’t congregate in families – they have one Father, one family, bonded together in His loving glory.
So then, as angels exist now, so will we be like. Their present existence is the “real”; our present susceptibility to sin and death is the temporary. Being bonded together in the glorious, loving family of God was always the permanent, the “real”.
Jesus then brings the mic-drop moment:
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.”
Everything turns on the fact that this verse is in the present tense. If there is no resurrection, how could God be, right now, the God of the patriarchs, who have all died?
The point should bring us to praise: at this moment, we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). The resurrection has already begun, because it began with Christ. Easter is about a Father glorifying Himself by lavishing His beloved Son for all eternity with love, and through him, His Bride.
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