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?”
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.
Read Luke 20:27-40 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In this journal entry, we will again be discussing a passage that has some very interesting connotations. To set up this portion of the discussion, we will focus on a short phrase that is often overlooked, then later, when we visit this passage again, we’ll look a little deeper at what this means for us.
The one foundational idea that I learned while reading this passage comes from verses 34-36, “Jesus replied, ‘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. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.’”
The foundational idea that I saw while reading this is the distinction between people living in “this age” and “the age to come”. The distinction relates to marriage, and whether people get married or not is one of the strongest ways to determine what “age” we live in. This is big foundational idea that I saw: Our current period (age) in the timeline of history is defined by the presence of marriage.
In my own life, I can verify that I am married to my lovely bride Suzie. We gave ourselves to each other in marriage. This act tells me that we are still living in the current age and are still waiting for the age to come.
However, the definition of marriage as God established it in the Garden of Eden is under attack in society. It is under attack by how it is defined, as well as whether or not it is even necessary. If marriage is what is used to define our current period of time, and marriage is removed or redefined, then it will be much more difficult to determine which biblical age we live in.
This is a challenging implication, and in the context of this passage and this foundational idea, I can understand why certain groups are so determined to keep it unchanged and necessary.
I am not going to step into the political debate on this subject, except to say that because it is even a debate, we have another way to say that we are living in the “current biblical age”. Jesus has promised that in heaven, marriage is not going to be present – at least as how we define it here on earth. I can only imagine, like most other comparisons between earth and heaven, that if earthly marriage is replaced by something, it will be even better than we can imagine.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.