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Context No. 3659 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 20:34-38: in context

34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

Answering a trick question about marriage in the resurrection, Jesus lifts the discussion to a higher plane. Those raised to the age to come neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can no longer die; they are like the angels and are children of God, children of the resurrection. Resurrection life is not merely a continuation of this life but a transformed existence, beyond death itself.

And Jesus proves the resurrection from the Scriptures: God called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after they had died. But he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. This is a stunning assurance. Those who have died in faith are, to God, alive. Death does not sever their relationship with him; the God who is their God still holds them fast. To be in covenant with the living God is to belong to a life that death cannot end. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live to God, and so will all who are his.

Do I hold to the assurance that those who die in faith are alive to God, who is the God of the living, so that death cannot sever me from the God who is my God?

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