What is Life Like in Heaven? 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. 

The Sadducees were sort of like the modern day liberal, protestant movement which questioned anything that was supernatural.  They basically bought into the enlightenment idea, which put reason above all else.  

Here is a general synopis of the liberal protestant movement, 

"Liberal Christianity, also known as liberal theology, is a movement that interprets and reforms Christian teaching by taking into consideration modern knowledge, science and ethics. It emphasizes the importance of reason and experience over doctrinal authority. Liberal Christians view their theology as an alternative to both atheistic rationalism and theologies based on traditional interpretations of external authority (such as the Bible or sacred tradition). Liberal theology grew out of Enlightenment rationalism and romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was characterized by an acceptance of Darwinian evolution, a utilization of modern biblical criticism and participation in the Social Gospel movement."(wikipedia)

Bottom line is that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, thus denying that he was both man and God.  For if Jesus did not literally rise from the dead as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "We are among most people to be pitied." 

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. 

The Sadducees are making an argument based on Deuteronomy 25, where a brother would impregnate his sister in law if his brother died leaving his wife childless.  

"This practice of a brother-in-law marrying the widow of his brother is known as levirate marriage. The term comes from the Latin “lavir,” meaning “brother-in-law.” This is the specific idea in the question." (France)

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. 

Then they take this scriptural principle and take to the "nth degree" and make a ridiculous claim to try and disprove the doctrine of the resurreection. 

26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 

The argument continues.

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?”

Finally, they come to the erroneous conclusion that their idea of heaven based in terms human relationships, like marriage, negate Jesus' teaching on the resurrection.  

29 Jesus replied, You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 

Jesus calls their bluff and points out how they are trying to use scripture to justify their own arguments.

"The Sadducees connected their thoughts to a Biblical passage, but did not think through the passage correctly. These highly-trained men were mistaken in their basic understanding of Biblical truth." (Guzik)

Though these guys made their careers in teaching about God, they did not know the very scriptures that reveal the true God and subsequently they didn't have any power of God.  Therefore. it would make sense that they didn't believe in the supernatural, because they had never accessed or experienced it. 

30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 

The bottom line is that the Sadducees had no clue what heaven would be like. Like most of us, we try to use our experience here on earth to try and explain what heaven will be like.  The one thing Jesus does say is that we will be like "angels" in heaven.  What do angels do?  They glorifty God and worship in his presence night and day!

"If it seems that life in the resurrection that Jesus spoke of here does not include some of the pleasures of life we know on earth, it is only because the enjoyments and satisfactions of heaven far surpass what we know on earth. We can’t be completely certain what life in glory beyond will be like, but we can know with certainty that no one will be disappointed with the arrangements."(Guzik) (Revelation 22:1-5). 

31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 

Jesus takes the opportunity to show them even in the Old Testament their teaching about the resurrection is false. We see that the teaching of the resurrection is found in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus. 

32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

"Jesus demonstrated the reality of the resurrection using only the Torah; the five books of Moses, which were the only books the Sadducees accepted as authoritative. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not live on in resurrection, then God would say that He was the God of Abraham, instead of saying “I am the God of Abraham.”

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. 

The crowds had never heard teaching like this.  They had never had anyone connect the Old Testament with the New Testament.  

"At the clearness and solidity of his reasoning, and the manifest confutation of a sect whose principles they considered as fundamentally erroneous, and subversive of all piety and virtue." (Benson)

Do you still see liberal theology at work in churches today denying things like Creation, Resurrection, and Miracles and other fundamental teachings about issues like marriage? Have you thought about what life will be like in heaven?  Do you think Jesus is teaching that you won't know people in heaven including family and/or loved ones?