Bringing Truth Into the Debate of Issues
“So Jesus said to them, ”The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are regarded as worthy to share in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.
But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him.”
Then some of the experts in the law answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well!” For they did not dare any longer to ask him anything.”
The Sadducees were trying to trick Jesus on one of their nitty-gritty divisive topics in order to discredit Him completely. If they could trip Him up on the whole “Who are you married to if the resurrection is true?” topic, then they wouldn’t have to listen to anything He said.
But Jesus doesn’t play those games. Instead of getting stupid with a controversy, Jesus stated the truth that didn’t fit in anybody’s box. Jesus does that a lot. Instead of giving a clear answer on a political issue or a law, He perplexes His listeners in order for them to seek to know Him better. He wants us to go beyond clear answers to the clear Answerwhich is Jesus Himself.
So never mind this resurrection marriage question, look at what Jesus says about what life will be like after we die.
- We won’t be married or ‘be given’ in marriage. It’s not a thing between us in Heaven.
- We’ll never die.
- We’ll be equal to angels. Note that it doesn’t say we’ll be angels. Angels aren’t dead people. We’re completely different creatures.
- We’ll be in the same state of life as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I want to give those guys a high five. (It is not yet known if that is an acceptable greeting in the afterlife, but whatever the cultural equivalent is around there.)
The Sadducees Couldn’t Argue With the Truth
The other thing that is great is that Jesus didn’t come at them with logic or emotional reasoning, but with a straight-up interpretation of the scriptures that they also believed. Giving answers from scripture always point people to Jesus eventually, because all of the scriptures point to Him!
I have a friend that used to say to people, “That’s fine for you to believe that, but that’s not what the Bible says.” If they took that bait, he’d be able to have an intelligent Bible study with them to get closer to the truth. If they didn’t, he knew to wait for another opportunity.
The truth is always the best Thing to talk about. However, we can bring What Is True into a conversation or a series of questions, let’s do it. He loves to show up that way.
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