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FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN HEAVEN
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Mark 12:18-27

1 Thessalonians 4:14-16

 

“In the resurrection therefore…

whose wife will she be of them?”

 

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN HEAVEN
 
The Sadducees here questioned Jesus about life hereafter—something they themselves did not believe in. Obviously they had asked the question with a sinister motive, and not because they honestly wanted to know what life after death entails. Citing the law of levirate marriage (levir is Latin for “brother-in-law”) found in Deuteronomy 25:5ff, they cooked up a story of a woman whose husband had died before they had a child. According to custom, the woman’s brother-in-law is to take her to wife in order to preserve her husband’s line. But he also died without children, and so the second brother had to marry her. This continued until she married all seven brothers. Everyone who married her died without leaving a seed. Finally, she also died. So, here comes the fault-finding question: “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife” (Mark 12:23). Jesus rebuked them for their theological ignorance, “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?” The Sadducees erred in assuming that life in heaven was going to be like life on earth. Scripture nowhere affirms that earthly familial relationships will continue to exist in heaven. Moreover, their question denied God’s power to raise believers up to a level of existence that would be far more blessed than that of the earthly on the day of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:40-50). Like the angels, resurrected saints neither marry, nor die. This should not be taken to mean that resurrected humans would become angels, or that they would have no more memory of family and friends. In the resurrected state, believers would still be human beings though living at the metaphysical level, and able to remember their past relationships and activities.
 
Having answered their question, Jesus went on to refute the Sadducees— how wrong they were for not believing in life after death! Jesus would have them know that the God of Israel is not the God of the dead but of the living. The God of Israel is also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (citing Exodus 3:6), who though already departed, are still alive and awaiting the day of the resurrection (1 Thess 4:14-16).
 
THOUGHT: Be sure that when death comes, you are going to heaven.
PRAYER: (Pray for the salvation of your loved ones.)

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