There were many times religious leaders came to Jesus trying to trap him with words and theology. They would always leave speechless and embarrassed. When Jesus was questioned by the Sadducees one day, it was no different. The Sadducees came and asked him a question, and he left the crowds astonished. 

The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection which was clearly bad theology. They come with a ridiculous scenario about a woman marrying seven brothers with no children and wonder whose husband she would be at the resurrection. 

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘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.”

Jesus replies at two fronts. He first tells them they do not know the Scriptures or God’s power. He then answers these in reverse order by discussing God’s power first. He tells them that there will not be marriage as we know it at or after the resurrection. This alone makes their entire scenario fall apart to ruins. He also brings angels into the theology which states they do not marry and compares angels to the state human souls will be in at the resurrection- they won’t marry. 

Jesus then goes to Scripture to back up his point. Another note, the Sadducees only take the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, as the only real Scripture. Even though this is not true, Jesus goes to their level and points to a passage in their Bibles, Exodus 3:6. In this passage, God is revealing himself to Moses as the God of the patriarchs, Abrahamm Isaac, and Jacob. Even by the time of Moses, these men are long dead. So why would Jesus pick this passage? It doesn’t seem to mention anything about the resurrection. Here’s what can be gleaned. 

Jesus says that from this passage, it can be inferred that God is the God of the living, not the dead. Even though the three men are physically dead, the promise he made to Abraham was not going to end with Jacob. He was going to continue the promise by those that are still living. He was their God in the past and He still is their God by means of the promise. The resurrection is proof that God exists and is alive, so Jesus uses this verse to claim that God is alive and he is Lord over all who are alive, which means there must be a resurrection because it cannot end in death. 

Even if Jesus’ words can seem confusing, this is our Lord and Master teaching. We must trust what he says. Jesus points to this claim that God makes of Himself as proof that the resurrection will happen and that God is Lord over all.