On Marriage and the Resurrection (27-40) 

The Sadducees were a group of Jewish men who were mostly priests, wealthy, and happy with Israel’s being under Roman rule. They were conservative and practiced an empty religion based on the first five books of the Bible but accepted only the material world as reality, denying the resurrection. 

In order to prove the absurdity of the resurrection, they posed a question to Jesus about a law concerning the brothers of a deceased man marrying the widow to give her an inheritance for her children (Deuteronomy 25:5-6).

The question was about as complicated and hypothetical as one could get. A brother married a woman and then died, having no children to inherit his land. The second brother married her, as did all seven, seeking to produce an offspring, but all died having failed at their goal of childbirth. The question: in the resurrection, which husband would get the widow? (27-33) They assumed that if one couldn’t tell whose wife the widow was going to be in the resurrection, how could one have a resurrection where everything got put right?

Jesus made some essential points in His answer. 

• Resurrection life would not be exactly the same as the life experienced in the present (34).

• Sexual relations to continue a particular family line would be irrelevant (35).

• Death would be abolished (36).

• The resurrected would become like angels—not angels but like angels—in that they would be immortal. The main difference between angels and humans would be that humans would have bodies in the resurrection (36).

• The resurrected bodies would be unlike their present ones, but would fit the new age and world they would be living in (37).

Jesus then appealed to Exodus, one of the books of the Bible the Sadducees held as their source of truth in defining what they believed, even about all things God. From Exodus, Jesus pointed out that in the passage detailing Moses' burning bush experience (Exodus 3:6), Yahweh called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, indicating that He was presently the God of three patriarchs who had died but were yet living. Jesus was driving the point home that God was the God of resurrection life, not merely physical existence (38).

This put an end to their trying to trick him into compromising answers from their absurd questions. Jesus somehow turned every question around and made them look foolish (39-40).  

Whose Son Is Christ? (41-44)

Jesus, however, did not stop there. He quoted Psalm 110 concerning the Psalmist. He was seeking to overthrow a common misconception among the Jews that the Messiah, the King promised by God, was a mere man, a son of David, who would come and fight their military battles, set up an awesome political system, and rebuild an actual holy temple, ruling with justice.

Jesus, in using Psalm 110, was trying to point out the reality. Jesus posed a question: how could anyone say the Christ was David's son? As a proof text, He quoted Psalm 110 where David pointed out that the Lord, Yahweh, said to David's Lord, the coming Messiah, “Sit at My right hand.” If the promised Messiah was going to sit at God's right hand and subdue all of God's enemies, how could He be merely and only human?

Jesus was seeking to bring understanding to the Jews that the promised Messiah was more than just a gifted human king, a son of David. Jesus didn't deny that He was the son of David, but He was also David's Lord. It was God's intention and design that David's Lord should also become David's son (41-44).  

The Uselessness of Theology (45-47)

Jesus then made the point that the high-minded theology of the Scribes who knew the word so well, walked around in long robes, loved the places of honor, and recited long pretentious prayers, yet had no compassion for the hurting because they had not bowed to David's Lord. To bow to David's Lord would have been a theological life- and character-changer. They would have become like David's son and Lord—compassionate. Because they had rejected David's son, the Lord, they would suffer a greater condemnation (45-47).