Trick Question - One Bride for Seven Brothers
Living Hope Presbyterian Church
~ Matthew 22:23-33 Jesus counters the Sadducees’ trick question about marriage in the resurrection by emphasizing God’s power, their lack of understanding of God’s word and the reality of life after death.
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Matthew 22:23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
ESV: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ©2011 Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
Sermon Summary
The sermon delves into a passage from Matthew 22 where the Sadducees, known for denying the resurrection, pose a trick question to Jesus about marriage in the afterlife. Jesus responds by highlighting their ignorance of both Scripture and God’s power, emphasizing that in the resurrection, there is no marriage as we know it. He challenges their limited understanding and redirects focus to the God of the living, not the dead, who promises a glorious future beyond our comprehension.
Key Points:
- Jesus confronts the Sadducees’ ignorance of Scripture and God’s power.
- He refutes their trick question about marriage in the resurrection.
- Emphasizes that in the resurrection, relationships will be transformed and enriched beyond earthly concepts.
Bible Verses Mentioned:
- Matthew 22:23-33
Humor and Anecdotes:
- The speaker shares a humorous anecdote about coaching rec league basketball and encountering a disliked coach who always had the best team, drawing parallels to the crowd’s disdain for the Sadducees.
Key Quotes:
- “You are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
- “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
- “He is a God of the living and not of the dead.”
Themes:
- Ignorance of Scripture and God’s power.
- Transformation and enrichment in the resurrection.
- Focus on the eternal kingdom of Christ.
Discussion Questions:
- How does Jesus’ response to the Sadducees challenge our own limited understanding of God’s power and promises?
- In what ways does the concept of marriage in the afterlife differ from earthly relationships, and what implications does this have for our understanding of eternity?
- How can we ensure that our vision of heaven is centered on Christ rather than personal desires or expectations?
Metaphors and Stories:
- The metaphor of growing tomatoes from a seed to a plant symbolizes the transformation and abundance awaiting believers in the resurrection.
- The analogy of banging plastic hammers versus building houses represents the shift from earthly pursuits to grander, eternal purposes in God’s kingdom.
A Short Essay On This Sermon
On Understanding Power and Resurrection
There’s a funny thing about questions. Some questions are meant to uncover truth, while others are designed to obscure it. The Sadducees in Matthew 22 were masters of the latter. They came to Jesus not looking for answers, but to trap him in a theological snare. They asked him a question so contrived that it seems almost ridiculous now: if a woman had been married to seven brothers (as per an ancient custom for preserving family lines), whose wife would she be in the resurrection?
It was a clever question in their eyes, but their assumptions betrayed them. Jesus answered simply: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
This response is striking for two reasons. First, Jesus dismantles their question not by engaging in their contrived logic but by exposing its flawed foundation. Second, he highlights two key failures: ignorance of God’s Word and blindness to God’s power. These aren’t just theological errors; they’re failures of imagination.
The Sadducees, like many who hold power, were limited by their framework. Their world was ordered by control and authority—things they could see, touch, and manipulate. The idea of a resurrection didn’t fit into that framework, so they dismissed it. They reduced God to the bounds of what they could understand, which is always a mistake.
The Power We Miss
When Jesus says, “You don’t know the power of God,” he’s making a broader point about how we see the world. Human beings are good at imagining systems, but not very good at imagining transformation. The Sadducees could only picture life continuing in the same flawed way it is now—people marrying, dying, and managing their limited slice of existence. But Jesus points to something radically different.
He describes the resurrection as a life beyond our current categories, where even the institution of marriage—one of the most fundamental human relationships—is transformed. It’s not that marriage is bad or irrelevant. It’s that the resurrection promises something even greater, something we can barely conceive.
This is the trouble with our imaginations. We think in increments: life as it is, but a little better. A little more comfort. A little less stress. But God’s power isn’t incremental. It’s transformative. It’s the difference between a seed and a full-grown plant.
Paul uses this same analogy in 1 Corinthians 15. He compares our current bodies to seeds and our resurrected bodies to the plants that grow from them. A seed is not just a smaller version of a plant; it’s fundamentally different. What’s buried is plain, but what’s raised is glorious.
Why It Matters
This isn’t just about theology. It’s about how we see everything. The Sadducees’ mistake wasn’t unique to them. It’s easy to reduce the world to what we can control and understand. That’s why people build systems that prioritize appearance over substance, or authority over truth. It’s why we think small when we should be thinking big.
The irony is that the Sadducees were the religious elite. They had all the outward signs of knowing God—wealth, status, education. But Jesus exposes them as hollow. They didn’t know the scriptures they claimed to teach, and they certainly didn’t know the God they claimed to serve.
This still happens today. Plenty of people hold positions of authority in religion (or any field) without really understanding the power behind what they represent. They focus on systems, rules, and appearances because that’s what they can control. But the real power—the kind that transforms—isn’t under anyone’s control.
Seeing the Big Picture
If you’re going to understand God, or anything for that matter, you need to leave room for the possibility that your current framework is too small. The Sadducees thought they had trapped Jesus with their question. But their real problem wasn’t the question; it was their assumptions. They assumed that life after the resurrection would look just like life now. They assumed that God’s power had limits.
But Jesus shows them a bigger picture. God isn’t a God of the dead, he says, but of the living. His promises don’t end at death. They transform death into something else entirely.
This isn’t just about resurrection. It’s about how we approach everything. Are we building our lives around small, controllable frameworks? Or are we leaving space for something transformative? Are we banging plastic hammers, as Jesus might say, when we could be building houses?
Jesus’ rebuke of the Sadducees is both a warning and an invitation. It’s a warning not to let arrogance blind us to the truth. But it’s also an invitation to imagine something greater: a God whose power transforms seeds into plants, death into life, and the broken into the whole.
You don’t need to understand it fully. But you do need to leave room for it. Because the moment you limit God to what you can control, you miss out on what he’s actually offering.