Matthew 22:23-28 – The Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection came to Jesus and asked Him a question saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.”

During the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Sadducees who came from the line of Zadok the priest, were considered higher than the Pharisees and were the aristocrats of the day. They did not believe in the resurrection, angels or heaven but in annihilation, that the soul died with the body once and for all and that marked the end of life.

Jesus answered them that they neither knew the scriptures nor the power of God because in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven. He asked them, “have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? and is not God of the dead but of the living”. (Mathew 22:29-32)

Jesus shocked them with the revelation that God is not just the God of the dead but the living, because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are now living in heaven!

Isn’t it wonderful that this truth came from Jesus, the Only One who came from heaven, that those who died before have not ceased to exist but are now living in heaven?

Thought for the day: The Sadducees never believed in life after death and that’s why they were -sad you see!