THE RESURRECTION AND MARRIAGE

PROCLAMATION

“Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.  ‘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.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first one married a woman and died childless.  The second and then the third married her, in the same way the seven died, leaving no children.  Finally, the woman died too.  Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’  Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry … in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage … for they are like the angels.  They are God’s children …’ ”  Luke 20:27-40 (NIV)  

 

EXPLANATION

These words are from the gospel, the good news regarding Jesus, The Christ, which were spoken by Christ according to Luke, the physician.  After he entered Jerusalem, Jesus went to the temple daily to teach.  But the chief priests, and the scribes, and the Pharisees, and the Sadducees were there to trip Him up with words so that they could have something to use against Him. (Luke 19:47-48)  They questioned Him regarding by what authority did He do or say things. (Luke 20:1-8)  Then He told them The Parable of The Tenants (Luke 20:9-19) which upset them even more.  When He was asked about paying taxes, He said, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesars, and unto God the things which be God’s.”  They were astonished with His answer. (Luke 20:20-26)  Then the Sadducees tried to trap Him with the question regarding the woman who had been married sequentially to seven brothers.  After He responded, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

 

APPLICATION

In order to comfort the loved ones of a deceased believer, it is often said that the person is in heaven looking down on them or watching over them.  There is no evidence of such being the case which is documented in The Bible.  People often say that they can’t wait to get to heaven to be reunited with their departed love one, and what a grand reunion that will be.  This also seems to be said out of human compassion and not based upon The Bible.  We know that we are spirits which temporarily reside in earthly bodies.  When we die our spirit will leave the body. (2 Corinthians 5:6 and 5:8)  While we are alive, we live in our earthly body; but when we die, we will be given a heavenly body. (2 Corinthians 5:1)  We believe that our heavenly body will resemble our earthly body and therefore we will be able to recognize the people in heaven that we knew on earth.  However, in heaven our relationship will be to God and He will be the center of our attention.  After death believers will be equal to the angels, and will be the children of God, the children of the resurrection. (Luke 20:36)  According to the Apostle John, those in heaven were gathered around the throne praising God. (Revelation 7:9-12)  In heaven we will be singing and shouting and praising God in our new glorified bodies.  The only relationship we will be concerned with is our relationship with The Lord.