BUT I LOVE MY WIFE!
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, I come before you with all my confusions. I need correction and encouragement, stimulation and assurance.
Read MATTHEW 22:23–33
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Footnotes
- Matthew 22:32 Exodus 3:6
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Heavenly Father, I come before you with all my confusions. I need correction and encouragement, stimulation and assurance.
Think Further
In Jesus’ day, as in today’s denominations, the various groups of Israel’s leaders were deeply divided. However, they could come together when threatened. Sadducees were mostly powerful priests who recognized the authority of the Pentateuch and rejected a range of ideas, including the resurrection. Their question uses the law of levirate marriage, whereby a brother marries his brother’s wife when he dies to preserve the family line.1 Their ludicrous hypothetical situation tests whether Jesus upholds the levirate law and explores his view of resurrection.
Jesus’ answer challenges their poor biblical interpretation and rejection of God’s miraculous power. He affirms that the resurrection is implied in God’s revelation in the burning bush of himself as the God of the patriarchs2 and as the God ‘of the living’ (v 32, italics added). He then says something I find difficult: raised believers will not marry or be married but will be like angels. This may be good news for those whose marriages have been or are less than ideal, but I am grieved! I simply can’t imagine life without being married to Emma. Jesus, I love my wife and want to be with her forever!
Scholars explain this along the lines of Nolland, who says, ‘The production of offspring to carry on the family line certainly becomes irrelevant with resurrection to deathless existence’.3 While this is true, four things comfort me more. First, believers in difficult marriages are released. Second, the single will no longer feel inadequate. Third, I will always be best friends with Emma, who loves the Lord like I do. Fourth, without our sinful propensities we will have best friends galore whom we can get to know forever. Thank God for the resurrection!
Apply
Read Revelation 21. What new marriage is envisaged? Imagine this existence. Pray ‘your kingdom come’.
Closing prayer
Gracious Lord, I love your Word and thank you for it. Increase my sensitivity to your voice as I listen for you to speak to me from your Word.
Last Updated on January 17, 2023 by kingstar
