Luke 20:27-38 ~ afterward

Luke 20:27-38

27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man [his brother] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

In our first Scripture paragraph -

Paul, yesterday we read in Acts 24, drew his summary point of his arrest to Felix being his belief in the resurrection. Paul said this is the reason the Jews wanted Paul arrested. This is a point Paul would know the most about having been a zealous Temple official and educated at the feet of Gamaliel.

In the second Scripture paragraph-
Jesus is called Lion of the tribe of Judah. This type of situation exists in His family. One of his women ancestors was Tamar, she had been given in marriage to a second son of Judah, Jacob/Israel 's grandsons, upon the death of her first husband. If the second husband had impregnated Tamar, their offspring would have been counted as the first husband's child. It was not an uncommon practice. This practice was biblically discontinued in:

Leviticus 20:21
21 If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.

Combing these -
Jesus could have addressed this issue with quoting Leviticus 20:21. Instead Jesus wanted to talk to them about new life. Why? With the New Covenant, Jesus created a new heaven and a new earth. He was giving them the Kingdom of Heaven. Not laws and all that is seen by the visible eye, but straight to the point of mercy, kindness, to walk humbly with the Lord. Jesus took their bickering and gave them the mercy of abundant life in Father God. He didn't promise life for all, He told them of the abundance and the reward of those looking to Father God.

When we are trouble by the details, the small irritants of life, remember Jesus refocuses attention away from the death we deserve and opens up a glimpse of God's Kingdom for those who look up to Father God.

Blessed are You, Father God, You are our redemption.

<><