THE LAST WEEK OF JESUS' PUBLIC MINISTRY AND HIS CRUCIFIXION

-The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

-Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-39

-On the same day (Tuesday), the Sadducees came to Jesus with a challenge to the topic

 of the resurrection.  They utilized the example of levirate marriage with the assumption

 that such situations would remain applicable in the resurrected state.

            -“This was evidently a favorite Sadducean argument against the resurrection.  On the

             assumption that the marital state is continued after the resurrection it makes the doctrine

             of a resurrection appear ridiculous, because, seemingly, it involves difficulties which

             even brothers could hardly settle amicably, and which even God would have in a sense

             to settle arbitrarily...This favorite argument of the Sadducees could not be successfully

             answered by the Pharisees because they could not refute the assumption that marriage is

             continued in the future world.  But Jesus does refute it on his own authority” (McGarvey/

             Pendleton, pg 601).

-Jesus first responded with a question, “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the

 scriptures, neither the power of God?” (Mark 12:24).

            -“Had they known the scripture doctrine of the resurrection, they would have known that

             it did not involve the continuance of marriage; and had they known the power of God,

             they would have known that he could raise the saints without those carnal propensities on

             which marriage is based” (Dorris, pg 285).

-Jesus then indicated that the marriage relationship does not extend beyond our earthly

 existence.  In the resurrection, we will be as the angels - spiritual beings not given in marriage.

 (The Sadducees didn’t believe in the existence of the spirit.)

-To prove the concept of the resurrection, Jesus referred to the words spoken to Moses (and

 recorded by Moses) at the burning bush (Ex 3:6).  In those words, God said, “I am the God of

 thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”  (emp. add.).

            -At the time those words were spoken, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had long been dead.  Yet,

             God utilized the present tense rather than the past tense.

                        -“Christ made an argument on such an important subject as the resurrection to turn upon

                         a single word in the Old Testament, a single verb, and the very tense of the verb at

                         that!  What bold confidence in the scriptures!...If the Son of God could afford to put

                         such trust in a single word in the holy scriptures, his disciples need not hesitate to

                         trust every word of it without doubt or reservation” (Coffman, Matthew, pg 353). 

            -With these words, Jesus revealed the continued existence of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -

             “For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living for all live unto him” (Luke 20:38). 

             In doing so, He proved that the teaching of a resurrection is a true doctrine.

-In response, the multitude was astonished (Matt 22:33) and some of the scribes complimented

 Him (Luke 20:39).

            -The scribes, being from the party of the Pharisees, had undoubtedly faced this challenge by

             the Sadducees many times but had been unable to answer it so effectively and definitively.

             They were pleased with the defeat of the Sadducees but, unfortunately, remained strong in

             their opposition to Jesus.  They would be the next to challenge Jesus with a question.