Mark 12 - What Will We Do in Heaven?
Marriage at the Resurrection
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[c]whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
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.
There were two major schools of teaching in Judaism in Jesus' day. The Pharisees prided themselves on keeping the Law, even down to the smallest details. They interpreted it literally and thought every word should be obeyed, all the time, without questioning it. On the opposite side of the theological spectrum, were the Sadducees. They did not believe in miracles, or the supernatural. They were rationalists. They believed in God, but gave him no power to do anything like raise people from the dead. He was a god of their own making who acted within their theological constructs.
Both the Pharisees and Sadducees were threatened by Jesus, because the people were starting to follow him in droves. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus when he taught. In this case, they created an argument that tried to poke holes in the belief of the resurrection of the dead. They used an example where is a man's brother died leaving no children. In the Jewish law it was the brother's responsibility to marry the widow and bring offspring into the world. This happened several times, and in the end after seven brothers died, the woman died as well. They thought they had Jesus in the corner when they asked, "Who will be the woman's husband at the resurrection?"
But they had missed one thing. Their rationalism had met an impasse. Heaven will not be like earth. While marriage is created by God for our good in this life on earth, in heaven there will be a new reality. Jesus says we will be like, "angels in heaven".
Therein lies the danger in trying to explain things that we are not meant to understand. God reveals what we need to know about him and enjoy a relationship with him in this life and the one to come. If he wanted us to know exactly what heaven looked like, he would have revealed it to us. All Jesus tells us is that we will be like "angels in heaven". What do angels do? They worship God! So it looks like we will be worshipping a lot in heaven. You better get to church on Sunday to practice!
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