27-33 Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child. Well, there once were seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now—in the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.”
34-38 Jesus said, “Marriage is a major preoccupation here, but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. Even Moses exclaimed about resurrection at the burning bush, saying, ‘God: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob!’ God isn’t the God of dead men, but of the living. To him all are alive.”
39-40 Some of the religion scholars said, “Teacher, that’s a great answer!” For a while, anyway, no one dared put questions to him.
41-44 Then he put a question to them: “How is it that they say that the Messiah is David’s son? In the Book of Psalms, David clearly says,
God said to my Master,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.”
“Sit here at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.”
“David here designates the Messiah as ‘my Master’—so how can the Messiah also be his ‘son’?”
45-47 With everybody listening, Jesus spoke to his disciples. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preen in the radiance of public flattery, bask in prominent positions, sit at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”
Jesus answered his opponents that God is the living God and the God of the living forever. After our resurrection, all our intimacies will be with God. It doesn't imply that we only have intimate relationship with God but not with others even including our present family members or spouses. Jesus indicates that after resurrection believers are elevated to a new transformed relationship with God and other believers that transcend our present physical relationship with other people, like our parents, siblings, spouses, children, etc. It does not imply a weakening relationship but rather a new intimacy and relationship that surpass any of our present bodily relationships with other people.
My dear friend Jesus, I must admit that resurrection is always a mystery to me that I can never fully grasp the meaning but only receive it with faith and gratitude. Jesus asserts this new intimate relationship with God and with other believers after our bodily resurrection, and that it also becomes the ultimate and glorious hope of our life. We will be with our beloved Father and Son through the Holy Spirit forever.
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