22:23-28
Political traps had failed, so the Sadducees tried an intellectual trap. The Sadducees were sort of aristocratic and political, with limited interest in theology. They considered only the first five books of the Old Testament to be valid, and did not believe in angels nor the resurrection. They were somewhat like the liberal anglicans of today. So instead of believing the Scriptures they saw them as a tool and thought that in one of Moses’ instructions they had a logical contradiction with which they could trap Jesus. So they posed the question of what happened after the resurrection to a woman who had worked her way through seven brothers, her husbands having an alarming propensity to die. Their aim was to prove the illogicality of the resurrection.
22:29-33
Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter. The Sadducees knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. These two things lay at the root of the Sadducees problems. Much the same could be said about most liberal “Christians”. They were assuming that at the resurrection things will just be a continuation of the present age. Many Christians today make the same mistake. Things will be radically different, we will be radically different. Paul majors on this in 1 Corinthians 15. So marriage as we know it will not exist in the age to come. Jesus then goes deeper by reminding the Sadducees that God describes Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and He is the God of the living. The true nonsense would be to say that there is no resurrection. God creates life not death. The people were amazed at Jesus’ teaching.
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