The Rising

OPENING PRAYER:

Heavenly Father, I come before you with all my confusions. I need correction and encouragement, stimulation and assurance.

READ: Matthew 22:23-33

Marriage at the Resurrection

23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Footnotes

[a] Matthew 22:32 Exodus 3:6

Matthew 22:23-33

REFLECT:

Personalize the words of Ephesians 1:18-21 as you prepare to meet with God through his Word.

We don’t often think of Jesus agreeing with the Pharisees, but he did agree with them about the reality of the resurrection. The Sadducees, however, did not. The farcical scenario they present to Jesus here (vs 25–28) is intended to use the law of Moses to make a mockery of his belief in the resurrection. Imagine their reaction then, when Jesus states that their question makes a mockery of their knowledge both of the Scriptures and of the power of God (v 29)!

In regard to the power of God, the Sadducees fail to appreciate that at the resurrection God will transform and renew all things – including human beings – making marriage unnecessary in the new creation (v 30). With regard to the Scriptures, they have failed to see that God’s introduction of himself to Moses at the burning bush – where he speaks of the dead patriarchs as though they were living – presupposes the reality of resurrection (vs 31,32).

Again, the wisdom of God is at work in Jesus, to counter and correct. The pattern of his response to the Sadducees suggests a pattern for our own experience of God. The greater our familiarity with Scripture, the greater our familiarity with the God who is revealed therein. The greater our familiarity with God, the greater our awareness of his power.

APPLY:

Where in your past experience have you witnessed God’s resurrection power? Ask him to act in those situations where you long to see that at work in the present.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Gracious Lord, I love your Word and thank you for it. Increase my sensitivity to your voice as I listen for you to speak to me from your Word.

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