Luke 20 - Is There Marriage in Heaven?

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The Authority of Jesus Questioned

Jesus continued to both teach and preach in the temple. One day the chief priests and teachers of the law challenged his authority and asked him, "Where do you get the authority to do these things?" Jesus was the master of answering a question with a question, especially when he knew they were trying to trap him. So he turned the tables on them and asked where the authority came from for John's baptism. 

They were in a pickle. If they said from heaven, they would be indicting themselves for not believing in him. If they said it was only of human origin, they would have a riot on their hands. The people John the Baptist was a prophet from God. When they did not answer Jesus, he told them he would not answer their question either. 

By replying with this question, Jesus did not evade their question. Instead, He used the question to explain who He is and to expose the hypocrisy of the leaders. If John was from God, then he was right in proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah – and if this was true, then Jesus had all authority. - Guzik

The Parable of the Tenants

Jesus taught another parable with the similar theme of an owner entrusting something to his servants, going away, and then returning to see what they had done with what they had been given. In this parable, the context is a vineyard. It is helpful to know that in the Old Testament, the Jewish people were called the "True Vine of God". Meaning that God set apart the Israelites to bear fruit to the nations revealing the one, true God, Yahweh! 

In the parable, the owner of a vineyard rented his vineyard to some farmers. He went away for a long time. So at harvest time, he sent a servant to collect the fruit due to him as the owner. The farmers beat the servant and sent him away with no fruit. They did the same to the second servant, and were even more violent to the third.  

So the owner reasoned that if he sent his son, they would surely respect him. Wrong! They not only beat him, but killed him. The owner's retribution was to kill these evil farmers and give the vineyard to someone else. The people who heard this story were mortified, but Jesus looked intently at them and said,

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? (this is a quote from Psalm 118) Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

The cornerstone held the whole building together. Knock out the cornerstone, and the whole building collapses. It is pretty clear the owner is God the Father. The servants are the prophets sent to warn Israel of its idolatry. The Israelites were farmers who beat the prophets. The son is Jesus, who they were about to kill on a cross. 

The religious leaders knew he was talking about them, so the time to get rid of Jesus had now drawn near. He was simply too dangerous to them to let him get away with this stuff. 

Paying Taxes to Caesar

Seeing they could not contend with Jesus or trap him in his words head to head, they sent spies to do it. The trap this time was whether or not the people of Israel should pay taxes to Caesar. They reasoned if he said "yes", the people would revolt because he took the side of the evil Roman Empire. But if he said "no", they would accuse him adovcate of breaking the law. 

Once again, Jesus calls their bluff brilliantly and answers them by taking a denarius and asking them whose image was on it. "Caesar's", they replied. And then he said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"

The Resurrection and Marriage

The Sadducees didn't believe in anything supernatural, including the resurrection. So they tried to trick Jesus by asking him about a widow, whose had many husbands who all died. Who would her husband be in heaven? 

Jesus told them that marriage was an gift instituted by God for us to have a helpmate and also to be fruitful and multiply. The act of procreation over the many generations brought in Jesus from the house and line of David, fulfilling God's promise for the King of Kings 1,000 years earlier. 

Bottom line is we can't put human constructs on heaven. Paul said it this way, 

"However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—" 1 Corinthians 2:9

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

We see in this passage that their was Messianic prophecy even in the Psalms, this one written by King David. Quoting from Psalm 110 Jesus says, 

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

    “Sit at my right hand

43 until I make your enemies

    a footstool for your feet.”’

44 David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?