in the event of the death of a childless married man, his brother should marry the widow. Then he should have children with her in the brother’s name.29 Now suppose that there were seven brothers. The first man married a woman and then died childless. 30 The same thing happened when his brother married her. 31 And then the third brother married her and suffered the exact same fate. Eventually all seven of the brothers married her, and they all died childless. 32-33 Finally, the woman, childless even after being married to all seven brothers for a time, died, too. Once the resurrection of the dead happens, whose wife will she be?”
34 Jesus said to them,
“Marriage is important to us and our lives here in this age -- but not so much in the age to come. 35 However, those who make it to the point where they are worthy participants in that coming age -- the age defined by the resurrection of the dead -- those people won’t be caught up in that kind of marriage and death drama. 36 They’ll no longer be subject to death. In that sense they’ll be like the angelic beings. The resurrection secures their place as God’s children.39 Some religious law experts, members of the Pharisee sect, a group which did believe in resurrection, responded, “Teacher, you really nailed that one!”40 And no one else had the nerve to question him further -- about anything. The Pharisees were impressed and the Sadducees were silenced -- at least for the moment.
37 Even Moses recognized that the dead are raised. Remember the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3, where the Lord identifies himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 38 All were named in the present tense because to him they are all alive. The Lord isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living.”
