Flashback Episode — Defining the Age to Come: Luke 20:27-40

Of all the times Jesus received challenges from the religious leaders, one time stands out in my mind as incredibly fascinating. While Jesus usually received His challenges from the religious group known as the Pharisees, there was another group known as the Sadducees who were even more conservative. The Sadducees only acknowledged the writings of Moses as scripture, and in their minds, while other authors might be significant from a historical point of view, Moses’ writings came first.

In today’s world and culture, we might be tempted to think that those in the first century were more unified, but this was not the case. In Judaism, there were many different sects, or denominations, and each group had a different way of thinking. The most well known sect was the Pharisees, and second to them were the Sadducees.

When the Sadducees came to Jesus with a challenge and question, their goal was building up a belief they had that clashed with all the other Jewish groups. Since they only followed the writings of Moses, they saw nothing credible in Moses’ teaching that pointed to a resurrection, so in their minds, a future resurrection was not in God’s plan.

Let’s read what happens from Luke’s gospel, in chapter 20, from the New International Version. Beginning in verse 27, Luke tells us that:

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally, the woman died too. ³³ Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Let’s pause briefly because I want to draw our attention onto this illustration. From the way the scenario is introduced, it is difficult to determine if this was a hypothetical illustration, or if this actually happened to a group of seven brothers.

The Sadducees tip their hand when they bring in the resurrection theme in their ultimate question. This scenario and question were the ultimate brainteasers for convincing others of their way of thought – and it wouldn’t be surprising to me to learn that the Sadducees had used this scenario and question to discredit the idea of resurrection.

But Jesus has a response for them, and Luke’s version of Jesus’ response is amazing to me. Picking back up in verse 34,

³⁴ Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷ But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” ⁴⁰ And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

When we look at Jesus’ response in this passage, we can separate it into two parts.

The first part of Jesus’ response hits the surface challenge of marriage at the resurrection. Jesus says that “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels.” (v. 34-36a)

Jesus’ first portion of His response challenges the assumption that marriage would be included in heaven. This was the first error of the Sadducees. When marriage is taken out of the equation, then their logic begins to fall apart.

But not only this, Jesus shares something powerful in this first half of His response. In this response, Jesus uses marriage as a litmus test of what age we are living in. In Jesus’ response, if marriage is present, or if it is even an issue, then we know we are living in the same age as Jesus – specifically in the age before the resurrection. However, there is an age to come after the resurrection, and that age will not have marriage. To conclude this first portion of His response, Jesus reminds us that those who have been resurrected who are like the angels “can no longer die” or in other words, they will be immortal like God.

To shift focus onto the second issue in the Sadducees question, Jesus subtly changes the topic from marriage to resurrection by stating in the second half of verse 36 that “God’s children … are children of the resurrection.”

After changing the focus off of marriage, which is something that is reserved for this age of time, Jesus challenges the core idea of what the Sadducees believed – specifically that Moses did not support the belief of a future resurrection. Jesus continued in verse 37 and 38 by stating that “in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

Because Moses uses the present tense when talking about God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had long since died, this is all that is needed to draw our focus onto God. In how this classic Jewish phrase is worded, we see Jesus shift the idea off of the past and onto the future. Since God is immortal as well as outside of time, there would be no reason to focus on historical figures and their relationship with God unless these figures have a future life in mind.

Jesus concludes with His key counter-challenge to the Sadducees in verse 38 by saying that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” However, while Matthew and Mark finish their statement there, Luke includes an additional phrase. Luke’s full phrase says that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

Some might be quick to take this last phrase and use it to support the idea of an immortal soul. However, everything Luke includes up to this verse says something completely different. In this key point, Jesus focus’ us onto God’s perspective where everyone is alive, but this is because God exists outside of time. God can step into and out of time as He sees fit, and He can fast forward and rewind the movie called history whenever He wants to.

While the cast in history, which includes you and I, changes as the years go by, everyone is alive to God because He can move to any period in history that He wants to. For God, everyone is alive.

However, history in the context of this passage refers to the first age, which is defined by marriage. Jesus firmly supports the resurrection being the start of the second age, and that only those who are children of the resurrection, which is another way of saying that they died and were later resurrected, are given a future life in the age to come.

It is like God, who sees all of this age called history, gets to decide from everyone who lived throughout history whether to bring them into His sequel. His sequel is commonly called the New Heaven and New Earth, and it is the place where, and time when, sin, death, and according to Jesus, marriage won’t exist anymore.

However, we shouldn’t be sad that marriage doesn’t exist in the next age. If the things of today are a shadow of what is to come, then I know God has something even better in mind for us that will make marriage not be significant or even a topic of conversation.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do when opening these challenges, intentionally focus on growing your relationship with God first. Of all the things that matter when our lives in this age are over, our relationship with God is the most important thing in this life, because our relationship with God in this life is what opens up the way for us to experience the next age with God.

Also, death, resurrection, and what happens when you die is a sensitive topic for many people. Because of this, I suggest you pray and study this subject for yourself. Read the different sides of the debate on the state of the dead, and then look at the context of all the proof verses in the Bible. Only after this will you be better equipped to make up your mind on this topic. Don’t take my word, or anyone else’s word for what happens at death – choose to take God’s Word after having prayerfully studied it for yourself.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!