Resurrection of the Dead: How Jesus Silenced the Sadducees

 “But about the resurrection of the dead – have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Matthew 22:31-32

Dear Friends,

Have you ever engaged with someone who thinks they know your business better than you do? They try to tell you things that you know are wrong, and they insist they know more.  The religious leaders of Jesus day thought themselves experts in God’s Law and they used their supposed expertise to try to entrap Jesus in His words. But as before, Jesus put them in their place. This time about the resurrection of the dead. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees: Self-Proclaimed Experts in God’s Law

Occasionally, we encounter a client who has some experience in real estate and believes they know best. While they understand the basics, they often lack the deeper expertise needed for complex situations. Even though they’ve hired us for our expertise, they resist our guidance, convinced their way is better.

Just as some clients resist expert advice, a number of different religious sects of Jesus’ day —self-proclaimed experts in God’s law—believed they knew best about God’s truths and commands. 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were two of these groups who disagreed with each other over numerous scriptural truths. 

The Sadducees Try to Entrap Jesus Using a Law About Levirate Marriage

When the Pharisees failed to discredit Jesus with a question about paying taxes, the Sadducees decided to try their hand. They hoped to force Jesus to take sides in a religious debate they had with the Pharisees regarding resurrection.

Using a law about Levirate marriage given by Moses, the Sadducees spun a bizarre story about a woman whose husband died leaving her without children.  

According to the Levirite Law a brother of the deceased was to marry the childless widow so she could bear a child and carry on her husband’s name. This provision was put in place to secure the family’s land and to protect the woman who would have no other way to provide for herself. 

But in the Sadducees’ hypothetical scenario, this unfortunate widow kept losing her newest husband. Subsequently, she married all of her seven brothers-in-law as, one by one, each died and left her childless. Finally, the woman herself died. After presenting the scenario, the questioners asked Jesus whose wife the woman would be in the resurrection.

Jesus Corrects the Sadducee’s Misunderstanding

Jesus, knowing that the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection of the dead and that they only wanted to create a religious debate, pointed out their ignorance. They were wrong in their beliefs about the afterlife because they didn’t know the Scriptures or believe in God’s power to raise the dead.  

First, Jesus corrected their misunderstanding that life in heaven would be equivalent to life on earth –  there is no marriage in heaven. Then He tackled the heart of the issue,the resurrection of the dead. 

If these Sadducees had truly known the Scriptures, they would have been aware of and understood God’s statement to Moses from the burning bush recorded in Exodus 3:6.

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” 

A correct understanding would have revealed the truth. The present tense used in the statement denied that the Patriarchs who had died many years earlier were still dead. Instead, because of their faith, they were very much alive in God’s presence where they would live forever. Jesus summed it up: God is not the God of the dead but of the living. 

In a few short sentences Jesus silenced the men who thought they were experts in things of God.  

Matthew doesn’t reveal whether these Sadducees finally acquiesced to the truth, but he does tell us that the crowds who witnessed the interchange were astonished at Jesus’ teaching.

Studying the Scriptures Brings Wisdom

Today there are still many who feel they understand everything there is to know about God and His ways. They come to their own conclusions about truth and teach others to do the same. But the only way to know what God has revealed about Himself is to study the Scriptures carefully. The sacred writings are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 3:15).

The Sadducees thought they knew the truth, but they were wrong about the resurrection of the dead. The Scriptures make it clear—eternal life is real, and Jesus is the key. Will you trust your own assumptions, or will you seek the truth in God’s Word?

Love,

Mama

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