Note from Jesus
Dear Disciple,
The verses for today involve a group called the Sadducees. They were trying to trap Me in something they could use to turn people against Me. They were also looking for an excuse to arrest Me. Their question was a tricky one involving Yibbum or Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). It was a principle of the law that Moses gave My people. Levirate marriage was a law to protect a widow who had no family to take care of her when her husband died. However, the real issue in the verses below is not so much Levirate marriage as it is the Sadducees’ attempt to trap Me. They didn’t believe in the resurrection, so they made up this crazy scenario to try to show that believing in the resurrection from the dead was foolish. So I replied to their crazy question with two answers that silenced them.
One of My answers to their question was that the resurrection life is glorious — life like the angels (or “heavenly messengers”) live. This new life really shouldn’t be compared with the life lived on earth where there is marriage and giving in marriage. Relationships among My disciples after the resurrection will be elevated to a new level of glory. They will enjoy the full blessings and privileges of being “children of God and children of the resurrection” with new, immortal bodies that are not subject to death and decay (1 Corinthians 15:50-58). The resurrection life for My disciples will be glorious and beyond comparing to the best your world can offer.
My other answer was that the Father revealed in His statement to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6) that there is this resurrection life. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, the Father said that He is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By Moses’ time, they were all dead, but God isn’t God of the dead, but of the living. So all live to God.”
My main point in this discussion with the Sadducees was that there is a resurrection life. So what do I want you to take away from the reading today?
First, notice that I could use the trick questions of those who hated Me to teach the truth of the resurrection. They could not trick, trap, or defeat Me with their silly religious arguments. Such arguments are not worthwhile. You should avoid them (2 Timothy 2:23-26; Titus 3:9-11).
Second, the resurrection life is more glorious than you can imagine when compared to your earthbound life — you will share in My glory and the glory of the angels of heaven (Luke 20:36; Romans 8:18; Colossians 3:4; cf. Luke 9:26).
Third, We — Father, Son, and Spirit — rule over all people whether they are alive on earth or alive after death. All people “as mortals are appointed to die once and then to experience a judgment… before the throne of the Anointed, the Liberating King, to receive what is just for our conduct (whether it be good or bad) while we lived in this temporary body. … [E]very knee will bow, … every tongue will confess” that I AM Lord “to the glory of God our Father” (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 2:10-11). For you, a child of the Father and My disciple, the resurrection will be a glorious event — a time of victory, deliverance, and celebration (2 Timothy 4:8). As the apostle Paul wrote:
On that day when He [Jesus] comes, all the saints in heaven and on earth will celebrate the glory of His power, and all who believe will stand and be amazed — this includes you because you believed us when we testified on His behalf.
(2 Thessalonians 1:10)
Because of My resurrection, you can know that your resurrection is certain and glorious. Don’t let a so-called bunch of “religious experts” cloud your mind with doubt. Their deceptive trick questions are not aimed at getting to the truth but are asked to make themselves look better.
Verses to Live
The Sadducees’ question was intended to trap Me, but notice how I turned the situation around and used their duplicity to silence them and to teach about the resurrection. I want you to know and to believe with great assurance that resurrection and glory await all who are My disciples!
Another group came to test Him [Jesus] — this time from the Sadducees, a rival party of the Pharisees, who believe that there is no resurrection.
Sadducees:
Teacher, Moses wrote in the Hebrew Scriptures that a man must marry his brother’s wife and the new couple should bear children for his brother if his brother dies without heirs. Well, once there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and then died without fathering children. The second took her as his wife and then he died childless, and then the third, and so on through the seven. They all died leaving no children. Finally the woman died too. Here’s our question: in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since all seven had her for a while? Will she be the wife of seven men at once?
Jesus:
The children of this era marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain the resurrection of the dead in the coming era do not marry and are not given in marriage. They are beyond mortality; they are on the level of heavenly messengers; they are children of God and children of the resurrection. Since you brought up the issue of resurrection, even Moses made clear in the passage about the burning bush that the dead are, in fact, raised. After all, he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By Moses’ time, they were all dead, but God isn’t God of the dead, but of the living. So all live to God.
Religious Scholars:
Teacher, that was a good answer.
After this no one had the courage to ask Him any more questions.
(Luke 20:27-40)
Response in Prayer
O Father, I do not fully understand the glory that awaits me. I confess that. However, the glimpses of this realized grace, this eternal glory that makes even life’s happiest moments pale in comparison, lead me to awe and amazement. I pray that You, dear Father, will help me keep my focus on living for Jesus until I share in His glory. In His name, I pray. Amen.
‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware.
© 1998-2024, Heartlight, Inc. ‘A Year with Jesus‘ is part of the Heartlight Network.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.