Marriage in the resurrection? No way!

In this gospel message, we see another attempt to trap Christ in his words. Now, we are very familiar with the attacks of the Pharisees, but this attack is different - though the goal is the same: get Christ to say something blasphemous against the scriptures so the Jews would have cause to kill him. We have heard about the Pharisees attempting to trap Jesus with questions about whether to pay taxes, or which law was the most important. They were most concerned about the outward appearance of petty and had no concern at all about having the heart of God. The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection, but as our text indicates, the Sadducees did not. Jesus knew better, and would soon be resurrected himself, which he knew very well.

So again, we see some allegedly learned men attempting trap Jesus. This time it is with a bizarre hypothetical regarding a woman who had married seven times and each husband had died. In our world, this woman becomes the subject of a Dateline special. Or maybe the hero of a Lifetime movie of the week.

Now, this hypothetical scenario was designed to create an impossible puzzle for our Lord to solve. And they had scripture on their side...or so they thought. Indeed Deut 25:5 does outline what we refer to as the Kinsman Redeemer. This law taught that if a woman’s husband died, his nearest male next of kin was to marry her and care for her. You can read the book of Ruth to see this play out. This law was our Father’s merciful plan to make sure a woman would be taken care of when she had no one legally obligated to do so. As you know, Israel was a patriarchal society. Women had very few rights. If her husband died, starvation could very likely follow. She could not just go out and get a job. There was no Rosey the Riveter in that time.

The Sadducees have taken this loving commandment and twisted it to try and create a trap. In their very limited and deficient view of God’s kingdom, laws here on earth must also apply in the resurrection. If she had seven husbands on earth, which of them would be her husband in the next life? How could a woman have seven husbands? Or how would God choose which husband she should have? If Jesus could not solve this puzzle, then either the resurrection would be proven false, or he would be proven to be a fraud...or both.

The devil likes using tricks like this. He tempts us to place human reason and wisdom above God’s reason and wisdom. Too often, we hear God’s gracious command, we don’t want to follow it, and we imagine that God just didn’t understand my particular situation when he was drafting his rule book. Indeed, we can be so arrogant as to think that the master designer of the universe, who sees all and knows all, for all eternity - could not contemplate a situation like what I’m facing right now.

Continuing with our lesson - the Sadducees plot was not so clever as they had thought. As our Lord quickly explains, (Matt 22:30) “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven”. You will not become an angel. That’s ridiculous. What Jesus says here is that you will be in the heavenly kingdom and have no need for earthly customs, not even good ones like marriage. Marriage was created for us here on earth - As Gen 2:18 says “it is not good for the man to be alone”. And it is not. Our Father knows what we need in our circumstances and he graciously provides for us. Marriage is an intricate framework of family living, with roles crafted by God for our benefit. He could have designed any system he wanted, but he created this one - (Gen 2:24) “for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife”. As he did in the garden, so too, does he provide for us right now! But in the resurrection, we don’t need the kind of relationships we need here on earth. We will have the full communion and full presence of the Triune God at all times. I have an amazing marriage (love you, Teri!), but it is no match for that!

Before we dismiss the Sadducees as the laughable, hapless criminals in a cartoon or comic, we should examine ourselves. After all, it’s easy to take shots at the Sadducees in this story. Their question is asinine. But how often do we do the same thing? We might not have wondered this exactly, but when we wonder how might God help us in the situations we deal with - How can God make a mortgage payment, fix my relationship with my boss, or help the Cardinals win another World Series ring? Everyone wants that, right? We fail to consider his unlimited power and his unlimited love.

God loves you enough to make a house payment, job, or sports team a distant secondary concern. Yes, we have problems in this life and we always will. But he sent his Son to not only give you life eternally, but to give you life here and now! When we remember our baptism, we remember that God claimed us as his own, he set us apart from the sinful fallen world and said “I love you, and want you to be my child”. When we take part in his holy sacrament, we get a foretaste of the kingdom that is to come, and Christ fills us with his real presence, which grows our faith and forgives our sins. We begin to live, more and more, as God would have us live. Not because he has forced us, but because we love him and we really want to serve him.

God is indeed not the God of the dead, but of the living. We were once dead in our transgressions but have been made alive in Christ. He is our God! I can’t tell you exactly what life will be like when we get to heaven, scripture doesn’t give us all the details on that. But I can promise you there will be no tears, no sin, no lying, no hurting, no scheming, no jealousy, and no one will try to trap our Lord, nor will they try to trap you. You will feel the full love and fellowship not only of every believer, but of God himself!