Hey Christian Alliance Church Family, keep those HEAVEN questions coming! If you have a question about HEAVEN use the connection card in your bulletin to submit it to me. On May 26 I am going to answer as many of them as I can during the message time of the service. But, since I have received so many, I am going to use my ponderings to answer some of them.
Question: What will my marriage be like in Heaven? The only real look we get at marriage and Heaven is from Jesus and it is recorded in Matthew 22.
That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died.
Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Matthew 22:23-33 NIV
Now, let’s be careful here because we need to look at this passage in context. In this instance there is a group of religious people who have a very specific agenda, because they did not believe in a literal resurrection of the dead at the end of the world — and… they also wanted to try to ask Jesus a question that would make him look foolish.
So, they came up with this outlandish scenario where a woman marries seven brothers in a row after they keep dying (I think if I was brother three or so, I would start checking my food for poison pretty carefully), but she marries all seven and they all die.
These Sadducees then say, “Ok Jesus. You’ve been teaching about a physical resurrection from the dead and we don’t believe in that… so, this woman… in heaven… with her physical body… to whom would she remain married?”
Now the context here is that Jesus is really addressing the question of a physical resurrection… not a question about marriage. Basically they are crassly asking Jesus, “Whose bed will she be sleeping in? Who will be having sex with her?” Sorry, but that is what they are really asking Jesus.
Of course, Jesus knows their intentions the whole time, so he replies, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” He is saying here… you don’t even know the Bible well enough to see how clearly it teaches of a physical resurrection from the dead — let allow to ask questions like this one. So, again, Jesus isn’t talking about marriage here, but about a resurrection for our bodies.
He is hinting by his response that God’s power will one day resurrect him. And then he says, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in Heaven.” Now, this passage is really the only look we get of marriage in relation to Heaven. It seems like Jesus is saying there will be no marriage in Heaven and that seems like a safe assumption. The most reasonable assumption we can make is that while relationships will continue in Heaven, marriage will not.
As someone who is happily married I can say this: If my relationship with my wife doesn’t continue to develop and mature in Heaven — I will be disappointed — (She might have a different opinion though LOL) And, we all know that Heaven is not a place of disappointment.
So… here is what I am pondering… while marriage in Heaven does not seem like it will continue (or happen), relationships will evolve into something better.
Leave a Reply