14

The Savior Silences the Sadducees
(Luke 20:27–40)

Now there came to Him some of the Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection), and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless; and the second and the third married her; and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. Finally the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.” Some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” For they did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything. (20:27–40)

Anticipation of life after death is universal in the human race. Throughout history people in every culture have expressed confident hope that death is not the end of their existence, revealing that God has universally “set eternity in their heart” (Eccl. 3:11). For example, reflecting the ancient Egyptians’ belief in life after death, the Book of the Dead contains stories and instructions related to their belief in the afterlife. A solar barge (to be used for transportation in the next life) found in the tomb of Pharaoh Cheops, who died about twenty-five hundred years before Christ was born, reflects that belief. Ancient Greeks sometimes placed a coin in the mouth of a corpse to pay the deceased person’s fare across the mystic river of death into the land of resurrection life. Some American Indians buried their dead warriors with useful items (such as their bows, arrows, and horses) that they might need in the next life. The Vikings did similarly. In Greenland, children were sometimes buried with dogs to guide them through the cold wasteland of death. As a young man, Benjamin Franklin (though not a Christian in the biblical sense) composed the following whimsical epitaph:

The Body of
B. Franklin, Printer
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering & Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be lost,
For it will, as he believ’d,
Appear once more,
In a new and more elegant Edition,
Corrected and improved
By the Author

Jewish people have historically had a strong belief in resurrection life, as a gruesome incident recorded in the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees illustrates. A Jewish elder named Razis was trapped by his enemies, but rather than die at their hands he disemboweled himself with a sword, and “then, standing on a steep rock, as he lost the last of his blood, he tore out his entrails and flung them with both hands into the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and of spirit to give these back to him again” (14:45–46). Another apocryphal writing, the Apocalypse of Baruch (also known as 2 Baruch), also expresses the traditional Jewish belief in life after death:

But of far greater significance than the traditional speculation regarding the resurrection life of the age to come is the divine revelation in the Old Testament. In Job 19:25–27 Job expressed his confident hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another.”

In Psalm 16:9–11 David wrote,

Psalm 49:15 expresses the psalmist’s resurrection hope: “God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me,” as does Psalm 139:8: “If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” Psalm 73:24, Isaiah 26:19, and Daniel 12:2 also reveal the hope of the resurrection.

The most notable exception to this belief was the Sadducees, who denied any future life at all, either for punishment or reward. They taught that both the soul and the body cease to exist at death. In the incident recorded in this section of Luke’s gospel, a huddle of Sadducees confronted Jesus about the resurrection. The passage may be divided into four sections: the approach of the Sadducees, the absurdity of resurrection, the answer of Scripture, and the astonishment of the crowd.

THE APPROACH OF THE SADDUCEES

Now there came to Him some of the Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection), (20:27)

As noted above, the Sadducees were in direct opposition to the common Jewish belief, claiming that there is no resurrection. That this idea was a major point of theological controversy is clear from Acts 23:8: “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” The Sadducees scoffed at the Pharisees’ crassly literal view of the next life, which imagined it to be essentially the same as the present life (some Pharisees even argued that people would be resurrected in the same clothes in which they were buried, with the same physical defects, and the same interpersonal relationships), rightly viewing it as absurd.

Although few in number, the Sadducees wielded immense influence, because they consisted of the aristocratic, wealthy, and influential religionists, including the high priests, the chief priests (cf. 19:47; 20:1, 19), and most of the Sanhedrin. Holding all the positions of power over the temple compensated for the Sadducees’ relatively small number.

Politically, they were eager to cooperate with Rome. Since they rejected any existence after this life, the Sadducees focused all their efforts and attention on the affairs of this present life. They pursued power, wealth, position, and control. If obtaining those things required them to cooperate with their Roman overlords, they were zealous to flatter them.

The Sadducees ran the lucrative business operations located on the temple grounds, and were obviously furious with Jesus for twice disrupting their business (see the exposition of 19:45–48 in chapter 10 of this volume). Jesus’ assault on the theology of the Pharisees and the economics of the Sadducees caused those who were separated by their beliefs to unite in hating Him.

In terms of their religious beliefs, the Sadducees were very narrow and strict. While liberal in their denial of the resurrection, angels, and the age to come, they were fundamentalists in rejecting the oral traditions and scribal prescriptions that the Pharisees accepted, and acknowledged only Scripture as authoritative. Further, they interpreted the Mosaic Law more literally than others, and were more fastidious in the matters of ritual purity prescribed in the Law.

They held to the primacy of the Mosaic Law, contained in the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). All the rest of the Old Testament, they believed, was subordinate to the Mosaic Law, and merely commentary on it. They argued that nowhere in those five books is the resurrection taught, and therefore any writing—even another Old Testament book—that appeared to teach the resurrection must be understood in a different way.

Consistent with their denial of any future life, the Sadducees lived life as if there were no tomorrow. They fastidiously observed the Mosaic Law, but at the same time, like the Pharisees, cruelly oppressed the common people, and used their positions of power and influence to indulge themselves at the expense of the populace.

The Pharisees attempted to destroy Jesus by trapping Him into making an incriminating anti-Roman statement (cf. Luke 20:19–26). The Sadducees, on the other hand, sought to discredit Him in the eyes of the people as ignorant by asking Him a question He could not answer. They decided to stump Him on the issue of marriage relationships after the supposed resurrection. Their question was also designed to make belief in the resurrection appear absurd.

THE ABSURDITY OF RESURRECTION

and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless; and the second and the third married her; and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. Finally the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” (20:28–33)

Feigning a respect for Him that they did not have, like their counterparts, the Sadducees who questioned Him flatteringly addressed Jesus as Teacher, to raise expectation that He would surely know the answer to their question. Their interrogation involved the instruction regarding levirate marriage in Deuteronomy 25:5–6:

The principle predates the Mosaic Law, as the story of Onan (Gen. 38:6–10) indicates. Perhaps the most notable example of levirate marriage in the Old Testament is Boaz’s marriage to his relative Elimelech’s widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth (Ruth 2:1; 4:1–13).

The Sadducees confronted Jesus with a situation that made the Pharisees’ excessively literal view of the life to come seem absurd:

Whether this was a hypothetical situation or one that had actually happened is not known. But in either case, the Sadducees assumed that Jesus’ view of the resurrection was the same as that of the Pharisees. They believed that He would be embarrassingly unable to answer their question, and therefore His reputation as an eminent teacher would be diminished.

THE ANSWER OF SCRIPTURE

Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.” (20:34–38)

Jesus’ retort to the Sadducees’ attempt to ridicule belief in the resurrection came with a strong rebuke. As Matthew records, He prefaced His reply by saying to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). That was a shocking and humiliating statement to make to those who prided themselves on their knowledge of Scripture. But they were void of the truth, bereft of any true spiritual power, and spiritually blind. Had they known the truth concerning the power of God, they would have understood that God will resurrect people without all the supposed absurdities that they delighted in imagining.

In reality, their complicated question was absurd, and the answer simple: there is no marriage in heaven. The sons of this age (a Hebraism for those living in this present world; cf. Luke 16:8) marry and are given in marriage. But like other family relationships, marriage is for this present life only. The reality is that those who are considered worthy to attain to the eternal life that follows the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. There will be no need for marriage and families for the purpose of repopulation, for the obvious reason that those eternally living in God’s presence cannot even die anymore and hence do not need to be replaced. They will be like the angels, who were all created at the same time and never die. Nor will there be any need for marriage and family relationships designed to pass truth and righteousness from generation to generation, since everyone is in perfect holy union with the Triune God and each other.

Christ’s statement about those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead was a warning directly at the Sadducees. They were not worthy of the age to come, since refusing to believe it existed left them with no desire to seek the way to eternal life. Only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are people made worthy to be sons of God and sons of the resurrection, since “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6) and, as a result, “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10). The phrase sons of identifies the essential nature or defining quality of something; the essential nature of the sons of the resurrection is that they possess the pure, fulfilling life of God. The glorious resurrection body the redeemed will have is described at length in 1 Corinthians 15:35–50 (cf. Phil. 3:21).

Having demonstrated that the Sadducees’ objection to the resurrection was irrelevant and based on ignorance regarding life in the age to come, Jesus addressed the issue of their claim that the Pentateuch did not teach the resurrection. Clearly, Moses did teach that the dead are raised, most notably in the passage about the burning bush (Ex. 3:6). In that passage Moses recorded that God called Himself the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God used the present tense, saying to Moses, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” not the past tense, “I was.” Yet the past tense would have been appropriate to use if those men no longer existed (cf. the similar use of the present tense in relation to those who had died in Gen. 26:24; Ex. 3:15–16; 4:5). The God who declared Himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not receive worship from those who no longer exist.

Death does not end a person’s existence. All those who belong to God are alive and in union with Him in His presence. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said to Martha. “He who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25–26).

THE ASTONISHMENT OF THE CROWD

Some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” For they did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything. (20:39–40)

The Lord’s reply to the Sadducees was devastating. They had concocted their best assault in a vain attempt, and He had dismantled it. Further, He had exposed their ignorance of the Pentateuch by showing that it, like the rest of Scripture, does teach the reality of the resurrection.

Ironically the scribes, who were against Jesus, were thrilled that He had destroyed the argument of and humiliated their archrivals. Some of them congratulated Him and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” Matthew notes that “when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching” (Matt. 22:33). The Sadducees, utterly silenced, did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything. The Pharisees, however, went after Him with one last question (Matt. 22:34–45). After He answered it and then asked them a question in return, “No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question” (Matt. 22:46).

In this passage, Jesus revealed His majestic and invincible wisdom, while affirming the promise of resurrection for all those who put their faith savingly in Him.