Luke 20:27-40
Th Living God and the Resurrection from the Dead
27 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. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
34 Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But 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, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But 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.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
39 Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection when we die and go to heaven...The Sadducees placed a special emphasis on the first five books of Moses (the Torah)...They believed the Bible, our Old Testament, was the only authority on matters of faith and life...Sadducees flatly rejected the Pharisee teaching that oral tradition was equal to Scripture in authority...So they ask Jesus a question about something they believed in which was out of the first five books of Moses...The question was about an old Levirate Law found in the book of Leviticus...The Leviticus law says that if a man and woman get married and they do not have any sons, when the man dies widow is supposed to marry his brother...The widow, in those days, could not take care of herself and normally had no income or land and not many rights, and most likely no job, when compared to a man...Woman had no way financially to take care of herself...Widowed women would become poor, destitute, unprotected and would need to look for their daily bread and needs each and everyday...They might even become homeless...So the the Law of Moses in Leviticus was written to protect the widow, the poor and the orphan and this would help protect them from the cruelty of the world...So the question from the Sadducees about the resurrection is a good one if they really want to learn about the resurrection...
But since the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection after our deaths, we do no really know the intent of their question...Their belief in the afterlife was much different than Jesus' belief in both the resurrection and the afterlife...As we know He personally would be raised again after His Own death, and He tells us the story about heaven in His Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus...Jesus knows that eternal life is more, much more than an just more years of living and an addendum to our present earthly life...We no longer will die after our resurrection...If we believe that Jesus resurrected, then as Job says, I know my Redeemer lives, and that is part of the good news of the gospels...Whenever a parent or friend gets sick and dies, we know that there is much, much more for them...As St. Paul wrote that it will only take the time of a second for our resurrection (after our deaths)...We will be changed quickly in a blink of an eye...This will happen when the last trumpet blows...The trumpet will blow and those who have died will be raised to live forever...And we will all be changed...
We will be in eternity, in the Kingdom of God...It will be more than we can ever imagine...It will be the best of times...Love will fill our hearts...There will be new beauty to explore...God's Glory will be there and so will His Son...“For we will be like angels, children of God, children of the resurrection.”...We are children of the Living God and His Grace through our faith helps us get to heaven...Jesus teaches us in the time of the resurrection, we are nether married or given in marriage...We will be like angels, children of God and children of the resurrection...Then He tries to explain it in their way of understanding by referring to the story of Moses and the burning bush...So Jesus replied to the Sadducees, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage...But 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, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels...They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection...But 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.’...He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”...
Jesus uses the Three Patriarchs to explain that we have a Living God...Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are referred to in present tense, not the past tense....They still live...In the resurrection from the dead Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are neither married nor were they given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels...So according to Jesus and His belief and knowledge, they are living in the resurrected life or what we like to call heaven...Just as the widow woman will still be alive and not married and in heaven, when she finally dies...