V23-28 – The Sadducees and Pharisees all had one common agenda –to undermine Jesus. They do the same here.
Matthew clearly states beforehand, to give us context, that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. So when they come to ask Jesus about matters of resurrection, is it because they are interested in knowing the truth or because they want to “trap” him?
It is quite clear that they wanted to trap him. And so, they thought of the best question that they thought they could trap him with. In their eyes, this was a very clever question. The reason they seem to think that this is a very good trap for Jesus is simply because they think that life after resurrection is the same as life on earth. They qualify their question based on human intellect and disbelief. They think that since a woman can only be married to one man, there is no way that there can be a resurrection because if there was, who would this woman be married to? And so just because they are convinced that there would be absolute confusion regarding who the woman would be married, they decide that then there is definitely no resurrection. Their own human thought processes about the matter make them rub off that there is ressurection. Their faith is based on their human reasoning and not on what scripture says.
And of course we see how wrong they are.
This is a very big warning— we cannot approach Godly matters with mere human reasoning. If you are unable to reason God out, that does not mean that He is not existent.
The Christian life is a journey of Faith. And our Faith is built by understanding and believing the word of God. We do not walk this journey by human intellect but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We believe what He says and trust Him.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 ASV – He hath made everything beautiful in its time: also he hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.
Its clear therefore that man does not need to understand God in what He does, we only need to trust and obey what He has given us. We should not conjure up ideas of God based on human reasoning. We should learn to take God at his word. There are many things that God has hidden from man, and that’s okay. But there is also a lot that God has revealed about himself and that is found in the scripture.
Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV – The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
The days of ignorance are gone. We know the truths of God that have been revealed in his word and so we are to obey:
Acts 17:30-31 ESV – The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
This reminds of the words of a blessed hymn:
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His Word
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord”
V29-32 – Jesus, in his response, answers the question by pointing out a number of things. This is because He knows their superficial problem but He also knows their deep problem.
First, He says that their mistake is that they do not know or understand scripture. As religious leaders, they of course knew the Torah and the prophets but did they understand?? The Bible talks about how ignorance brings death. A rejection of God’s word means that we have rejected knowledge– the knowledge that comes from God’s word.
Hosea 4:6-9 NIV – my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
When we reject God’s word or are ignorant of the same, we reject life. For there is so much that the Bible says about God’s word – listening and heeding.
John 6:63 NIV – The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.
Isaiah 55:3 NLT – “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
Philippians 2:16 NLT – Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.
Ephesians 5:25-26 TPT – And to the husbands, you are to demonstrate love for your wives with the same tender devotion that Christ demonstrated to us, his bride. For he died for us, sacrificing himself to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God.
Jesus’s then secondly makes it clear that in the resurrection, there will be no marriage. This answers their question, the question they had thought was so crafty.
Jesus then thirdly makes it clear that there is a resurrection of the dead. God is the God of the Living, not the dead. For He said “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” In a way, you can visualize this as if God is saying these words while looking at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is their God currently -like right now He is their God – because they are alive.
The message about the resurrection from the dead is critical to our understanding. We must always remember it. And who is the resurrection? It is Jesus.
John 11:25-26 NIV – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
And here is more of God’s word on this:
Philippians 3: 20-21 NIV – But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
John 6:39-40 NIV– And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
1 Corinthians 15:12-14, and 20-21 NIV – But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…………..But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
V33 – The crowds were astonished at Jesus’s teaching. It was powerful and the Pharisees and Sadducees could not corner him with their tricks which were inspired by evil.
(Help me Father, not to be ignorant of your word but to be diligent in reading, studying and understanding it. Thank you for your holy spirit, my teacher, who teaches me of all things and reminds me of everything you have said to me. As my shepherd, teach me your voice, that I shall hear your words, your precepts, your promises and your rebuke. Let me love to listen to your voice— your voice like the sound of many waters as you say in Ezekiel 43:2. May the water of your word cleanse me and purify me. Mold me to be like you, Lord Jesus.)