We miss the point of these verses if we get distracted by
Jesus’ short discourse on the state of marriage in the forever future. The Sadducees
don’t believe in the resurrection and so their silly construct of one bride for
seven brothers doesn't deserve a serious response. But more to the point Jesus
is letting us know that the relationships that foreshadow the forever future,
like marriage, are just that – a shadow of a future reality so bright that it blinds
our minds in the here and now to what will be in the there and then. What will be is nothing like what is or more to
the point what is cannot possibly describe what will be. But less we lament the
loss of forever love Jesus concludes his comments with an image even the Sadducees will recognize, the burning bush God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, a God of the living, who delights in individual identity. So
of course you will recognize the one who slept next to you for 50 years and
both delighted you and drove you crazy but in the kingdom come, marriage, or the
lack of it, will be like comparing life in the womb to life in the world. One leads
to the other but they are clearly not the same.
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