The Resurrection Marriage Dilemma: Luke 20:27-40

Every so often, while moving through the gospels, we come across a passage that has the power to radically change someone’s perspective. The passage we are looking at for this podcast episode is one such passage for me.

A number of years ago, while studying this passage using Reflective Bible Study, I noticed a phrase in Luke’s version of this event that is not in Matthew or in Mark, and this phrase radically shifted my view about God, about death, about the future resurrection, and about the idea of perspective within the Bible. In other words, this passage pushed me to pay closer attention to the perspective of who is sharing the message within each Bible passage, and in Jesus’ case, we must pay attention to whether He is sharing from humanity’s perspective or from God’s perspective. While Jesus can share from either, it seems that Jesus usually draws us to pay attention to God’s perspective.

The extra phrase that is found within Luke’s gospel also may have stood out to me when I read it simply because I have never heard anyone else mention it, or draw attention onto it prior to my studying it. It is almost as if this is a forgotten or intentionally ignored phrase in a passage that doesn’t get much attention, simply because it challenges most people’s views about death and the resurrection. In short, this passage challenges all three major views regarding the state of those who have died without really touching directly on this topic.

Let’s read what happened and then unpack what we can learn from what Jesus taught. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting 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?”

Pausing briefly, I am always a little humored at both the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, and at the ultimate question they ask. Luke has opened by saying that the Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection, but then they ask Jesus about what happens in the scenario they share at the resurrection.

I suspect that the Sadducees, who only regarded the Old Testament books Moses wrote as spiritually authoritative, had used this marriage dilemma as their reasoning for rejecting the resurrection. Because of this marriage instruction, it created a problem for when multiple brothers returned to life.

Because Moses clearly gave this instruction while not clearly drawing attention to the concept of a resurrection, in the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma logically concluded that resurrection was not valid because marriage is. In the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma made marriage, and all the legalities surrounding it, incompatible with the resurrection.

However, let’s read Jesus’ reply and uncover what we can learn about both these significant topics. Continuing 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.

I am continually amazed at Jesus’ response, because His response challenges everyone present, while also subtly affirming a difficult to accept belief.

As Jesus opens His reply, He both challenges the belief that the resurrection is a fantasy while also subtly validating the detail that marriage and resurrection are, in the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, incompatible. However, Jesus stresses the detail that the resurrection that He promises marks the end of marriage, and this also draws us to understand exactly where we are in history. Since marriage is still something that occurs today, regardless of what you believe about marriage, its existence places us clearly before the resurrection and before the age to come.

In Jesus’ eyes, resurrection is a clear promise and something we can look forward to experiencing!

Next, Jesus challenges the belief that death is simply a transition into heaven. This is because the Sadducees question and dilemma is framed at the resurrection, and Jesus’ reply is also framed as being at the resurrection. Before the resurrection, the Sadducees dilemma makes perfect sense because before the resurrection contains marriage. If those who have died are conscious and living in heaven awaiting resurrection, the scenario that the Sadducees give is a valid concern, because all seven brothers were married to this woman.

Jesus’ reply frames this dilemma as not a dilemma because everything in His reply happens on or after the resurrection transition. The state of those who are dead prior to the resurrection is equal to nothing, or at the very least, it lacks consciousness and interaction with others. (Remember that if those who have died are able to see each other, then the Sadducees dilemma is a valid logical argument.)

In Jesus’ eyes, the Sadducees dilemma is not valid because there is no consciousness between death and the resurrection.

The third major belief that Jesus challenges in this passage is that death is a sleep waiting for resurrection. While in many other places death is referred to as a sleep, Jesus’ final statement in this passage appears to take aim at this belief as well. Jesus’ final words in this response are “He [referring to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

This third challenge is valid because if God sees all people as alive, even after their bodies have long decomposed, then they must exist somewhere. It is less relevant the state of their existence as the fact that they exist separately from the breath and the dust that is not given any specific or special designation.

In Jesus’ eyes, everyone, regardless of whether they are alive or dead, is alive in God’s eyes.

All three major views of death are challenged in this short passage. I suspect this is why almost no one talks about this event. To bring up the Sadducees dilemma means putting a target on yourself and on your belief about death and the resurrection.

However, how can we reconcile this?

Is there a view of death that is compatible with all three challenges?

I believe the answer is a clear yes, even if this view will likely never be popular. The answer to this viewpoint is seeing history as a timeline. The answer is seeing history as His story – specifically as God’s story.

To reconcile this in my own mind, I needed to start somewhere. Since the most common metaphor for death in the Bible is sleep, I started there. Death is described as sleep more than any other way in the Bible that I am aware of. However, the typical understanding of death as a sleep leaves out one major idea. Death as a sleep leaves out history’s timeline.

God has a clear record of history because history is His story. Because God exists outside of time, all He must do to see people as alive is to go to the part of His story that they are in. This does not mean that people now dead or who are not yet born are currently alive from our perspective. Instead, this means that God merely moves to a different part in history to see them as alive.

Does this mean that we no longer have any freedom of choice? Some people believe this, however I do not. Only if I knew God’s perspective and could see my future would I surrender all choice. God knowing what I will choose does not mean I don’t freely choose it. Since I don’t know my future, I have the freedom of pressing forward with the freedom of choice.

What does this mean then for the resurrection? With the timeline perspective of history, the resurrection is simple. God has planned a sequel to the story that sin corrupted, and this sequel is the New Heaven and New Earth. The resurrection then becomes the transition moment when God closes this book of history, and pulls all His people from our current story into His sequel. Because God is outside of time writing history, He has the power to pull characters from any point in His story into His sequel and He chooses to do that for His people!

Jesus teaches all of us that the resurrection is defined at the transition between the current age and the age to come. The age to come is marked by the absence of marriage. This means that the age we are currently living in as the same age as Jesus spoke, since marriage is an issue and a topic of discussion today.

However,this age filled with sin isn’t all we have to look forward to. God is planning a sequel, and He wants you and me to be a part of it!

As we come to the end of a longer podcast than what I was planning, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to ally yourself with Jesus and accept Jesus’ gift that He offers, which is a place within His sequel.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself. On any subject or idea you hear, see, or read, take the idea and filter it through God’s Word. Don’t take my word, or any pastor, speaker, author, or podcaster at face value. Study out your beliefs and let God push you into discovering His truth. If you haven’t studied the different angles of beliefs about death, perhaps this episode is an invitation or challenge to do so. Like me, you may be surprised about what you can discover.

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 stray away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!