Luke 20:27-35 “Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’ Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.’”

 The Sadducees believed that they had come up with a scenario that made the idea of a resurrection and an afterlife nonsensical. Part of the welfare system in the Law of Moses required an unmarried brother to marry his brother’s widow if his brother died. This provided support for the widow, an heir for that branch of the family, and a way to keep the land in the family.

It also raised a problem in the afterlife in the minds of the Sadducees. Who would be married to whom? It wouldn’t be right for all these people to be married to each other. Marriage is between one man and one woman. It wouldn’t be right for the woman to be married to any one of these men in contrast to the others. None of them had a greater claim on the relationship. It seemed better to the Sadducees not to believe in life after death at all.

Jesus, however, affirms its reality. Marriage is a major part of how things work down here. But the Sadducees made a leap of logic by assuming that our marriages follow us into the life to come. It doesn’t, it turns out.

Jesus reaffirms the resurrection in another way. He highlights its desirability. The Sadducees did not desire it. They were the ruling class of their day. They were generally wealthy. They were on top now, and that was as close to heaven as they needed to get.

We may not be so satisfied with our present life as they were, but we are also tempted to settle for less than God offers. We become too obsessed with improving our current conditions. That may show itself as rank materialism. It may even become an obsession with improving our world’s morals. We try to find our heaven in better behavior rather than more things.

The resurrection, by contrast, is a gift of God’s grace. When Jesus says, “Those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age…” there is a special emphasis on the word “considered.” Our worthiness is not earned.

I once saw the side of a truck with an advertisement for the U.S. Marines. It had one of those swords the marines receive as a part of their dress uniforms. And the caption above the sword read, “Earned. Never given.” That’s the way our world usually thinks things should be.

But that’s not the way it is with the resurrection. Here the caption should read, “Given. Never earned,” at least, not earned by us. Eternal life is a gift that God freely gives. He gives it by giving his Son, who gives his life at the cross, so that he might give us forgiveness of all our sins. That is why we are considered worthy of taking part in the life to come.

Those Jesus raises to life with God, then, can no longer die. In place of death he promises, “They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.” We are all children of God right now by faith. But do we always look like his children? I don’t always act like one. Sometimes my behavior makes me look more like I belong in that “other guy’s” family.

And life doesn’t always treat me like I am a member of God’s royal family. Sometimes my life is worse than ordinary. Problems can almost make it look like someone is out to get me. Is that what we expect for God’s children?

But in the resurrection, our new identity, the one we have now by faith, will be clear to see. Our status as God’s children will no longer be hidden behind sin and suffering. We will be glorious. We will be holy. We will be fantastic successes in all we do. Doesn’t that resurrection sound desirable to you?