Listen to the audion of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-8-2025
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 have children 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’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Today’s reading continues a series of discussions between Jesus and various factions of the Jewish religious leadership. In this case, it’s a conversation between Jesus and some members of the ancient Hebrew party known as the Sadducees. So it probably makes sense to start out by reviewing who the Sadducees were and what they believed.
The Sadducees were one of the two most prominent Jewish religious groups at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. They were rivals of the Pharisees, who were the other main faction within the Jewish leadership. The Sadducees were close allies and supporters of the leadership of the temple in Jerusalem. They also came almost exclusively from the oldest and best families among the Hebrew people.
The Sadducees were known to believe that there was no resurrection – that after this life we just go to ‘the place of the dead.’ That put the Sadducees in conflict with the Pharisees, who did believe in the resurrection. This theological dispute was at the heart of a story that appears in the 23rd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. A Jewish mob dragged the apostle Paul in front of the Roman authorities, and was accusing him of various crimes. But when he saw that there were both Sadducees and Pharisees in the mob, Paul shouted out that he was being harassed because he believed in the resurrection. That caused a big argument to break out between the Sadducees and the Pharisees who were present, and the Romans had to step in and break it up.
It’s important to keep this theological controversy in mind if you’re going to see the point of the Sadducees’ question to Jesus. The resurrection is what this story is all about. Since they didn’t believe in the resurrection, the Sadducees were apparently trying to present a situation that would make the whole idea seem ridiculous.
The question they posed to Jesus involved a Hebrew custom called “levirate marriage.” The phrase comes from the Hebrew word levir, which means ‘brother-in-law.’ Under this custom, if a man died without having fathered any children, his brother was supposed to marry the widow and father children by her. Those children he fathered were considered to be the dead brother’s offspring. It’s strange from our perspective, but the practice served the purpose of maintaining family stability and providing for the widows in their old age.
So there’s a logic to this practice, but the Sadducees’ question is kind of nonsensical. It’s questionable whether any woman in human history ever went through seven brothers from the same family. Genesis 38 tells the story of a widow named Tamar, who outlived two brothers from the family of Judah, but then the family refused to marry her to any more of their sons. It’s hard to imagine any family marrying seven sons to the same woman.
Which the pharisees probably knew perfectly well. Their hypothetical question seems like the ancient equivalent to the modern wise-guy riddle, “Can God make a rock so big even he can’t lift it?” Both are pseudo-clever mind games, not serious theological questions.
And that’s exactly how Jesus treats the Sadducees’ question. He refuses to dignify it with an answer. Instead, he takes advantage of the occasion to make a couple of points that are much more worth thinking about.
First of all, Jesus says that marriage is an institution of this world, not an institution of the heavenly kingdom. That no doubt makes some people uncomfortable, especially people who have lost a beloved spouse and look forward to being reunited with them in heaven.
Obviously, nobody knows for sure about the details of heaven. But my suspicion is that people who are reunited in the heavenly kingdom really will experience the joy of that reunion. But it might seem less consequential than they might expect. I say that because my sense is that the main characteristic of that kingdom is the loving and joyful presence of God. It seems to me that holy presence will matter vastly more than any human relationship.
A critical characteristic of human marriage is that it’s between two people and excludes all others. I think God might have created us with a critical need for that exclusiveness in order to provide for the birth and nurture of children within a stable earthly family. In heaven, when the need for child-rearing is no longer present, I suspect that the need for exclusivity in human relationships might be gone as well. The important thing will be the inclusion God extends to each one he welcomes into his own heavenly family.
The other thing that seems really important about this passage is that Jesus seems to emphasize the truth of the resurrection (in verse 32). He points out that God says he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not that he was their God. If he is the God of the living and not the dead, and if he is the God of those great prophets, presumably they are alive with him now in their resurrected state.
So this passage might seem a little puzzling at first reading, but when you look closely, Jesus both confirms the reality of the resurrection and also tells us that for those permitted to share in it, it will be a state of joyful communion that transcends anything we might experience in this world – even the joys of marriage.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the way you have created us to need loving relationships with one another. But we thank you also for the promise of a heavenly kingdom in which we will be consumed with the joy of eternal communion with you. Let our lives bear witness to our faith in that great promise. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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