The God Of The Living

Some have found the following verses of the Bible hard to understand:
“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 have children 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, and 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 and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, Even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” (Luke 20:27-38)
In order to get the picture of this dialogue, we need to understand the Sadducees. They believed in God. But they believed in a God for this life only. To them, God rewarded obedience only with rewards for this human life. Jesus taught the resurrection, and they did not believe in a resurrection.
They believed that when you die, you die forever, and the only thing that carries on is your good family name. And so they practiced levirate marriage (the practice of marrying the widow of one’s brother) to ensure descendants to carry on the family name. The Sadducees placed all their faith in the here and now. Their God was only the God of this life.
The Sadducees were always trying to trap Jesus with a question He could not answer. To make Jesus’ teaching about the resurrection seem ridiculous, they presented Him with a scenario where one woman outlived seven husbands who were brothers, then died. Then came their stinging question, “In the resurrection, whose wife does she become?”
The fear of death has forever plagued humankind. Humans have invented all kinds of means to attempt to evade its finality, with no success.
But Jesus had the answer. His response to the Sadducees says that one does not need an heir to thwart death. One needs only to be “counted worthy” by God. Each of the “worthy” ones will experience a resurrection – God will bring them back to life, and more – they will never die! They will be made “equal to the angels” in that they will have eternal life.
To further refute the Sadducees’ misconception, Jesus recalled the words of Moses at the burning bush. Jesus affirmed Moses’ confidence that even though sleeping, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not erased from God’s memory. The covenant relationship of God with these godly ones was not a temporary bond “till death do us part.” We may lose our friends in death, but not God. Even though they sleep for a time, God will awaken them at their resurrection and give them their inheritance, a place in His Kingdom of Heaven.
Contrary to the belief of the Sadducees, death is for us the “last enemy,” and it will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). God will not allow this enemy to separate any of His children from His love (Romans 8:38). He will give to those who seek Him a place in His everlasting Kingdom (Daniel 7:27).
God is not the Sadducees’ God of human existence only, of dying bodies and fading memories. Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be given “glory, honor, and immortality…eternal life” (Romans 2:7).

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