Looking Into Eternity

The Sadducees didn’t believe that people would rise to any new life. So in this exchange, they tried to manipulate Jesus so he would paint himself into a corner with his own teaching. For their own gain, they subtly suggested that Jesus’ teachings didn’t hold water.

Jesus responded plainly that they were flat wrong, that there will be no marriage in eternity because our heavenly bodies will be more like those of the angels, not necessarily with any cartoonish wings, but rather without any earthly need for sex and procreation.

In this, Jesus was making two things clear. First, he affirmed the idea of a bodily resurrection, that "God is the God of the living, not the dead," an Old Testament verse that was well-known by these scholars. Also, Jesus affirmed his ability to see into eternity.

The religious scholars of that day were highly respected community leaders because they had studied the Mosaic Law at length, often their entire lives, to reach a certain level of expertise. This education gave them prominent positions in law, government and education. But no amount of studying would enable them to see beyond the grave. Jesus could.

For some of those scholars, it was one more reason to hate Jesus, to want him out of the way once and for all. For us, it’s one more reason to consider Jesus’ divinity, that he was more than a moral teacher; that his teachings, in fact, were not only informed by formal studies. He was the Son of God.

Respond in Prayer

Loving heavenly Father: Only you know what you have in store for those who are faithful to you. Thank you for giving us even a glimpse, through Jesus, that eternity will be far more than what my tongue can tell, what my eyes can see, what my fallen mind can ever imagine.

Thomas Froese

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®).