Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, 28 saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 30 Then the second 31 and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” 34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. 37 That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; 38 and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” 39 Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” 40 And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
Jesus is teaching in the temple when some Sadducees approach him with a question that is meant not to learn from him but to make belief in the resurrection look foolish.
Luke tells us that the Sadducees deny that there is a resurrection (v. 27). They were a group closely tied to the priestly aristocracy and the temple, and they held strongly to the law of Moses. They take a command from Deuteronomy about levirate marriage, where a man was to marry his deceased brother’s widow in order to raise up descendants for him (cf. Deut. 25:5-6), and turn it into a puzzle. In their story, seven brothers in turn marry the same woman, each dying childless, and finally the woman dies as well (vv. 28-32). On this limited, earthly level, the story is possible but extreme. The aim is to imply that life after death would be absurd, because a resurrected woman cannot belong to seven husbands at once (v. 33).
Jesus does not get lost in the details of their hypothetical situation. He first shows that their whole way of thinking assumes that the world to come must work exactly like the present world. He speaks of “the children of this age,” who marry and are given in marriage (v. 34). In this present age, marriage is part of God’s good design for human life, family, and the continuation of the human race. It belongs to a world marked by birth, growth, and death.
Then Jesus turns to “those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead” (v. 35). Here he describes the life to come in simple but profound terms. Those who share in the resurrection “neither marry nor are given in marriage” (v. 35). This does not mean that love and communion are lost, but that the form of relationship is no longer structured by marriage and the need for descendants. God himself is the direct and all-sufficient source of life and communion. Human relationships are perfected and transformed beyond the arrangements needed for this present world.
Jesus adds that those who rise “can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise” (v. 36). Being “like angels” does not mean that human beings become angels, but that, like the angels, they no longer face death and live entirely for God. They are “children of God” in a new fullness, sharing in God’s own life in a way that cannot be lost. Other parts of Scripture had already pointed toward a future resurrection, such as Dan. 12:2 and the martyr stories in 2 Macc. 7, but here Jesus gives a clear and authoritative description: those who rise will live beyond death, no longer needing marriage as part of the preservation of life, because God himself sustains them.
Having corrected their misunderstanding of what the resurrection is like, Jesus then shows that the very writings the Sadducees trust already point to the reality of the resurrection. He turns to Moses and the passage about the burning bush, where God reveals himself to Moses as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (v. 37; cf. Ex. 3:6). For Jesus, the way God identifies himself is decisive. The Lord does not say, “I was the God of Abraham,” as if Abraham’s story had ended. He presents himself as still being their God.
From this, Jesus draws the conclusion: “He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive” (v. 38). God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not a relationship with those who have simply disappeared into nothingness. If God is truly their God, then they must in some way live before him, awaiting the final resurrection, when he will raise them in a glorified body and reunite them with their souls forever. God’s faithfulness to his promises and his identity as the living God do not fit with the idea that death has the last word over those who belong to him.
Luke notes that some of the scribes, who in other places often question Jesus, here acknowledge the strength of his answer: “Teacher, you have answered well” (v. 39). The exchange ends with a significant remark: “They no longer dared to ask him anything” (v. 40). The Sadducees’ attempt to trap Jesus has failed. Instead of making the resurrection seem ridiculous, they have given Jesus the occasion to affirm clearly that the dead will rise and that God’s relationship with his servants is stronger than death.
This whole scene shows that the resurrection of the dead is not a secondary idea added later to faith in God. It flows from who God is: the living God who binds himself to his people and is faithful to them beyond death. Because he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is also the one who will one day raise all who belong to him, so that, in his presence, “all are alive.”
Almighty God, grant us the grace to trust that you are truly the God of the living who will raise the dead in glorified bodies and reunite them with their souls. Help us to live each day in the light of the resurrection you promise. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Sources and References:
• The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
• Bernard Orchard et al., A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (1953).
• Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: Luke (Four Courts/Scepter).
• José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018).
• Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990).
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