Luke 20:34-40
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this
era marry and are being given in marriage.
And the ones who are being considered worthy to obtain that era and the
resurrection out of the dead neither marry nor are being given in
marriage. For they are not powerful
enough to die: for they are similar to angels, they are sons of God, while
being sons of the resurrection. And regarding
the dead being raised, even Moses showed by the bush as he says, ‘the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ And God is
not among the dead but living. For all
live by him.” Answering, some of the
scribes said, “Teacher, you spoke well.”
For no longer were they making up their mind to interrogate him about
anything.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Jesus handles the Sadducees on many levels. On the first level, Jesus talks about
marriage. He puts marriage in
perspective. Marriage is a thing of this
world. It’s not a bad thing mind
you. Jesus doesn’t say that we should
not get married. However, it is a thing
of this world. He does say that in the
era to come there will not be any marriage.
There isn’t really any point to marriage in heaven. After all, we will dwell with God. We will be in the presence of God. The Father will be our primary focus, not
some other human being. To be concerned
about marriage in the eternal demonstrates that we don’t really understand what
eternal life will be about or even be like.
Jesus is teaching us how little we understand and how easy it is for all
of us to let what we don’t understand blind our perspective.
Do you ever get the wrong perspective because of a lack of
understanding? How often are you
concerned about marriage in the afterlife?
Why is it easy for us to think about such a thing? How does it show a human understanding of the
eternal?
Second Thought:
Notice that Jesus teaches about more than marriage. Jesus knows the hearts and the teaching of the
Sadducees. He knows that they do not
believe in the resurrection at all. This
is the far more troubling issue for Jesus.
You will notice that when Jesus challenges the Sadducees on this topic
that He brings scripture into the mix.
Jesus reminds them that when Moses is at the burning bush, God is spoken
of as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
These are people who were dead hundreds of years prior to Moses. If there was no resurrection, then what importance
would they have? But if there is a
resurrection, then God can indeed be the God of people who are known to have
died hundreds of years prior.
Why is it important to you that the resurrection be a real
concept, something in our future to which we can look forward? What does it say to us that Jesus seems to be
more concerned that the Sadducees learn God’s truth about the resurrection than
to have the right perspective on marriage?
Third Thought:
Jesus’ words convince many to leave Him
alone. However, don’t think that this
means Jesus swayed their opinion. While
we can say that He won from a divine perspective, we cannot conclude that Jesus
won from a human perspective. Remember
that the religious leaders still plot against Him in order to kill Him. The Sadducees simply realize that it is
futile to talk to Him because Jesus will not capitulate. They decide to leave Him and not draw this
out any further. Certainly Jesus
impresses some of them. Certainly some
genuinely believe that Jesus’ teaching is powerful. But the reality is that Jesus is still
crucified according to God’s plan and under the full will of His enemies.
Have you ever confused being left alone
with winning? Why is it important at
this moment to understand that winning is not really as important as God’s will
being done?
Passage
for Tomorrow: Luke 20:41-44
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