The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. So their question clearly was a trap from the beginning.
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “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. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
What the Sadducees were asking about was the practice of the Levirate marriage. Which is still practiced in some parts of the world today.
A family line was so important that if a man died before having children, his brother must marry the widow. The firstborn of that union would be considered from his deceased brother. The remaining children would be his own. That way the family line of that brother was preserved (Deuteronomy 25:5-10).
In trying to trick Jesus, they asked him whose wife will she be if she ends up marrying more than one brother? Likely this was one of their proof texts to show why they didn’t believe there was an afterlife.
Jesus is going to address them on two parts: 1) On their understanding of marriage and 2) their belief about the afterlife. The first one showed their lack of knowledge about the Scriptures. And the second belief about the resurrection showed their lack of belief about the power of God.
First, about marriage.
The purpose of marriage was to reflect the union between God and his people. We see this more clearly in Ephesians 5.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Marriage is a model of self-sacrifice and love for one another. And when there isn’t love and there isn’t self-sacrifice, there’s problems.
The purpose of marriage is to be a model of Christ and the church/his people. It is about love, how opposites complement, and about the intimacy and union between God and his people. Not in some perverse sexual way but that when there is two, life springs forth.
It’s why I believe there is such an attack on marriage. And gender. Because it is an attack on the very understanding of God with his people.
Jesus was saying plainly to the Pharisees that there will not be marriage in heaven. They did not understand that there was a bigger purpose in marriage. Marriage will not be needed in heaven.
Secondly, he confronted their belief about no resurrection.
Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Jesus says plainly, there will be a resurrection of the dead. God says this plainly when he says, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He doesn’t say he was their God. He says He IS their God.
Furthermore, these men are not dead. They are living. With God.
Then he says this: “You are badly mistaken.”
He doesn’t sugar-coat his words to them. He doesn’t try to keep the peace to be nice. He tells them plainly: Your lack of belief in a the resurrection is bad.
Sometimes with all the love we have in the world, we need to offer clear correction. Jesus did that hear. And their attempt to trick him came to an end. Abruptly.