Some of the men who came to the Lord Jesus had very wrong thoughts. They denied God’s power to raise from death. They knew Jesus taught the dead would be raised and they must have known also that He had raised to life again people who were dead. Yet they thought they could ridicule, or make fun of such power, and they came with this story to Him.
They said there were seven brothers and when the oldest died, the next brother took his brother’s widow for his wife, as the law of God to Moses directed, Deuteronomy 25:55If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. (Deuteronomy 25:5). Then that brother also died and the next brother married the wife. At last all had died and the woman died, and these men asked Jesus whose wife would the woman be when the dead were raised?
Their story may not have been true but they thought their question too hard for Him to answer. They should have known that the law to Moses was for life on earth, not for after death. Jesus told them they were altogether wrong. He told them that in this world people marry, but in that world, there will be no marriage or family as here, and He said, “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.”
All will be the same in God’s family. But Jesus said they will be those who are “accounted worthy to obtain that world.” How can any be counted “worthy” of that wonderful world where none die? It is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:1010As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10)).
Yet because the Lord Jesus gave His life for sinners, God counts righteous, or “worthy,” those who believe Him, and has said He will raise them from death unto life, and they will die no more. But Jesus also taught the people that there would be a time when dead ones will be raised for judgment, not to live with God. Perhaps that was why the men did not want to believe the dead could be raised.
Resurrection Shown in the O. T.
They had spoken of the writing of Moses, and Jesus told them that Moses showed that those who believed God would be raised, when he wrote the words God said to him: I am the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Those men were not then living on earth, yet God said He was their God, and Jesus told the men that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, so they lived unto Him. Their words for “I am” made this plainer to them than to us, as it meant “the ever-existing, or living One,” which shows His power.
There are persons now who are like those men and deny that God will raise the dead, although still more is written of this in the New Testament. It is very sad and wicked not to believe God’s promises. We do not understand His power but we can believe His words (see 1 Corinthians 15:12-13).
Further Meditation
1. What makes us “worthy” in God’s eyes?
2. It’s a pretty common thing for people to mock the resurrection. Why would they do so? What can we learn from the Lord’s way of responding to these mockers?
3. A good tract that presents the resurrection to some who would be inclined to unbelief can be found in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection: How Much Proof Do We Need?