The God of the Living
When the Sadducees mock the resurrection with an absurd riddle, Jesus dismantles their question and their theology, proclaiming that God is not the God of the dead but of the living—resurrection is real, and life with him is forever.
12:18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “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 raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
Next up in the long line of accusers come the Sadducees—strange bedfellows in this story, since they usually kept their distance from their theological rivals, the Pharisees. But nothing unites competitors like a shared enemy. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, which Mark makes sure to note. So naturally, their question for Jesus is about—what else?—resurrection. You can almost hear the snickers as they tee up their hypothetical, a “gotcha” scenario dripping with sarcasm: if a woman marries seven brothers in succession (thanks to the old Levirate marriage law), whose wife will she be in the resurrection? The question itself is absurd, designed not to be answered but to make resurrection look ridiculous.
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
But Jesus doesn’t flinch. Where the Sadducees are smug, Jesus is sharp. Where they’re mocking, he’s deadly serious. He not only answers their contrived riddle but takes a sledgehammer to the very theological framework they’ve built their lives on. First, he goes straight at their question. In the resurrection, Jesus says, people won’t be marrying or being married. That’s an institution for this present age, not for the new creation. And if that makes us a little sad—if we imagine heaven as a downgrade from the loves we hold most dear—then we’re missing the point. Marriage, with all its struggles and all its beauty, is a picture pointing beyond itself. It’s a signpost, not the destination. In the age to come, we won’t need marriage to learn faithfulness, forgiveness, or sacrificial love—because that kind of intimacy will be the baseline for all God’s people. What looks like loss is actually gain. In the kingdom of heaven, everyone gets family status. Everyone gets that kind of love.
26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
And then Jesus delivers the knockout blow. He goes back to the Torah—the very scriptures the Sadducees prized above all else. Quoting the burning bush story, he reminds them of God’s words to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Notice the verb tense. Not “I was,” but “I am.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob may have been dead for centuries, but God still claims them as his own. And God isn’t the God of the dead. He’s the God of the living. Which means that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—and all who trust him—are alive. The Sadducees thought they were clever, but Jesus shows them that their cleverness is really blindness. They don’t know the Scriptures, and they don’t know the power of God.
Here, in a single exchange, Jesus exposes the foolishness of human attempts to shrink God down to our categories. The Sadducees wanted to reduce resurrection to a silly puzzle. Jesus reveals resurrection as the very heart of God’s covenant faithfulness. The one who calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still calling his people into life. And that life doesn’t end in a tomb.
Reflection Question
What does the hope of resurrection change about how you live today?
