Daily Lectionary: Numbers 20:1-21; St. Luke 20:19-44
“…but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” (St. Luke 20:35)
In the name of Jesus. Amen. Sadducees were different from Pharisees. Yes, they believed in the Torah, but they were opposed to the Pharisees and many of their ways. Sadducees did not believe in an oral code of law. They denied the resurrection and the existence of angels. It was really the Pharisees, not the Sadducees, who were Jesus’ strongest opponents.
Nevertheless, Jesus answers the far-fetched scenario of the Sadducees. Under the laws of levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5), a man must marry his brother’s widow and become her “substitute husband” in order to care for the woman and to provide an heir.
The Sadducees are trying to use this statute in a ridiculous scenario to deny the resurrection. They create a tale of a woman who has been widowed seven times, each time by another brother of her dead husband. Then she, herself, dies. Whose wife will the woman be in the resurrection?
Jesus doesn’t bite. Rather, Jesus points them to the reality of the resurrection. The Sadducees have confused the present age with the age to come. The age of resurrection will not be like this age. For instance, there will be no marriage in the resurrection.
Marriage is God’s good gift to His people. Through it we see a glorious picture of the relationship between Christ and His Church. Even though marriage was given pre-Fall, it has no part in the age to come. In that age, those who have received the Savior in faith will be in perfect communion with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. The resurrection has its ultimate significance in Christ and our relationship to Him.
Because things seem so concrete in this age, this promise about the age to come may sound disappointing to our sinful ears. But Jesus never disappoints His faithful! He has more for you than you can imagine in the age to come.
Just as you will no longer need the sun or moon in the new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:5), you will no longer need the joy and fulfillment of marriage, for all of your joy will be found in the Lord God and the Lamb Who was slain for your salvation. Nothing but eternal joy awaits you. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“Within those walls of Zion Sounds forth the joyful song, As saints join with the angels And all the martyr throng. The Prince is ever with them; The daylight is serene; The city of the blessed Shines bright with glorious sheen.” (LSB #672, verse 2)
Easter 2007 Reflections were written by the Rev. Joel Fritsche, Admissions Counselor at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO.