The Sadducees' Question

Luke 20:27-38

Sometimes when a witness is testifying in court, an attorney will try to trick them into saying something that is damaging to their side.  That way the trial may swing in this attorney’s favor. Jesus had many enemies among the Jewish religious leaders. Many members of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the two main Jewish religious groups of that day, hated Him, and wanted to trap Him in His words.  Though they both wanted to bring Jesus down, since these groups didn’t care for each other, they didn’t join together to accomplish this goal. Frequently in the Gospels we read of various Pharisees arguing with Jesus. In today’s passage we read of an occasion where some of the Sadducees tried to challenge Jesus with their arguments.

As a religious group among the Jews in Jesus’ day, the Sadducees were a more religious elite group than the Pharisees, tending to be wealthier, and also had many members from the Jewish priesthood.  They did not accept the oral traditions found in the Talmud, nor did they believe in either the resurrection or angels. They were a more intellectual group than the Pharisees, though they were less popular with the common, everyday folk than the Pharisees were.  After the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the Sadducees died out. The Pharisees beliefs became the foundation for Rabbinic Judaism.

The Jewish leaders feared Jesus’ popularity.  They did not want to see all of the people flocking to Him and being taught by Him, rather than by themselves.  They also feared that the Roman authorities might get suspicious of the crowds Jesus was attracting, so both groups wanted to bring Him down.  On this particular day, the Sadducees came to Jesus with a trick question. They posed a hypothetical situation where a woman married a man, who died soon afterwards, with no children.  According to Jewish law, if the man had a brother, he would have to marry her and raise up children in his name. This was called a levirate marriage, and is described in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.  This was to insure that the family lines were kept intact, and the widows cared for. In this hypothetical scenario, the woman marries a man who dies, and his brother marries her. He dies, too, so she marries a third brother who dies, then a fourth, all the way through seven brothers.  The Sadducees, in a mocking way, ask Jesus whose wife she would be following a resurrection, which they didn’t even believe in (vs. 28-33).

Jesus’ response teaches us several things.  First, marriage is an institution that God gave for man to enjoy here on earth (vs. 34).  However, in heaven, the marriage institution does not exist. The relationships that we have here on earth are not the same that we will have when in heaven (vs. 35-36).  Jesus did not say that we would not recognize our spouses in heaven, but we must not think that heaven is an extension of our life here on earth, as we now know it. Relationships will be different from what we are used to here and now.  I have known several people whose spouses died, and they remarried, and then that spouse died, and they remarried again. Will they have three wives in heaven? No! Though there is perfect love for everyone in heaven, the relationships are not the same.

Another thing that some people believe, is that when we die we become angels.  People sometimes like to say and believe that their deceased mother is now an angel in heaven, or their deceased child is now an angel.  That may be a warm, fuzzy, comforting thought, but it is completely contrary to what the Bible teaches. No where in the Bible does it say that the dead become angels.  No one becomes an angel after death.  What Jesus is saying in verse 36 is that we are now eternal, like angels are.  Angels do not die, nor do they have marriages or bear children.

Finally, as the passage wraps up, Jesus instructs the Sadducees, proving to them through the Scriptures that there is, indeed, a resurrection (vs. 37-38).  When speaking to Moses at the burning bush, God used the present tense when He called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:2-6). God did not say He was, but He is.  I AM, not I WAS!    As Jesus said, God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  No one is annihilated when they die. All people still exist after death, and will be for eternity, either in heaven or hell.  If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior yet, now is a good time to call upon Him, and be sure that your eternity will be with Him in heaven.