What Happens to Married Couples in Heaven? (Luke 20:27-40)

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Because marriage is a big part of this life, a common question is, “What happens to married couples in heaven?” We learn the answer when the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus with a hypothetical question about levirate marriage (Luke 20:27-40, Matthew 22:23-33, and Mark 12:18-27).

On September 11th, Islam received lots of attention because the 19 hijackers were Muslims, and people wondered why they would fly planes into buildings, killing themselves and thousands of others in the process. We learned that they believed that if they did so, they would immediately go to heaven and receive 72 virgins to satisfy them for all eternity.

Mormons believe in celestial marriage, also called eternal marriage or temple marriage. This doctrine teaches that marriages can last forever in heaven if the couple is wed in a Mormon temple. The website, Why Mormonism, records:

“When a bride and groom are married in the temple, they are sealed together – they are married not only for this life, but for the life after. Jesus Christ taught that ‘What God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ (Matthew 19:6).  The idea of eternal marriage informs the Mormon’s view of deaththat death is a temporary separation of loved ones; they can be together again in the eternities. [Mormon] Elder James A. Cullimore said, ‘Marriage in the temple for time and eternity should be the goal of every member of the Church.”

God promised the Prophet Joseph Smith in a revelation, ‘If a man marries a wife by…the new and everlasting covenant…by him who is anointed…it…shall be of full force when they are out of the world.’ Therefore, those sealed in a Mormon temple have the promise that their relationship will continue on forever. An eternal marriage not only blesses the husband and wife, but their children. The couple is sealed together, and any children they have are sealed to them.”

Katie and I celebrated our 18th anniversary earlier this month. We’ve had ten children together, or, to be more accurate, at least thirteen if we count the miscarriages we’re aware of. Most of these 18 years have been in ministry together, with all its blessings and trials. We have experienced more together than most of the relationships in my life combined. Nobody knows me as well as she does, and I can’t imagine being as close to anyone as I am to her. I have joked with Katie that we should have gotten married on the playground in elementary school when we were growing up together.

I share all this to make the simple point that marriage in heaven sounds good. I would love to continue my relationship with Katie into the next life. The problem is that Jesus taught otherwise.

The Context for Jesus Teaching What Happens to Married Couples in Heaven

The religious leaders have been trying to trap Jesus. The first time was in verses 1-8 when they questioned where He got his authority. In Luke 20:9-18 Jesus preached the parable of the vineyard owner, declaring that the vineyard owner, representing God, would execute the tenants, representing the religious leaders, who murdered His Son. This infuriated the religious leaders:

Luke 20:19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

They wanted to arrest Jesus, but they couldn’t because of the people. So, they worked even harder to discredit Him because if Jesus looks bad, people won’t listen to Him. So, in verses 19-26, they asked their next question about paying taxes to Caesar. This attempt also failed miserably, but they are not giving up yet. Now, they come up with their third and final question in Luke 20:27-40.

The Sadducees Rejected the Supernatural

Luke 20:27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,

This is the only instance in the Gospels where Jesus directly conflicts with the Sadducees. Previously, it was the Pharisees and Scribes. We need to understand them to understand their question.

The high priests in Jesus’s day seemed to belong to the Sadducees, a small but wealthy and powerful sect. They were the aristocratic party, worldly-minded, and willing to cooperate with the Romans to maintain their privileged positions.

They believed the first five books of the Bible were God’s Word, but they gave secondary importance to the rest of the Old Testament. They were the ancient versions of modern liberal theologians who held to some parts of Scripture but rejected others. They didn’t believe in anything supernatural, such as angels, miracles, resurrections, or life after death.

The Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection, which is why they opposed the apostles preaching the resurrection:

Acts 4:1 The Sadducees [were] 2 greatly annoyed because [the apostles] WERE TEACHING THE PEOPLE AND PROCLAIMING IN JESUS THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.

The Sadducees were greatly annoyed because the apostles were preaching the resurrection.

When he was before the religious council, which consisted of Pharisees and Sadducees:

Acts 23:6 When Paul perceived that one part [of the Council] were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” Acts 23:7 When [Paul] said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For THE SADDUCEES SAY THAT THERE IS NO RESURRECTION, NOR ANGEL, NOR SPIRIT, BUT THE PHARISEES ACKNOWLEDGE THEM ALL.

Paul meant he was on trial because he was a Pharisee and believed in the resurrection. The Pharisees and Sadducees started quarreling because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees denied it.¹

The Sadducees’ Question About Marriage in Heaven

If we understand the Sadducees, we can also understand why they would ask Jesus about the resurrection:

Luke 20:28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

The question concerns levirate marriage, which we studied in detail last week. The Sadducees embraced the first five books of the Bible, and levirate marriage is in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, so they believed in it. The verses command men to marry the widowed wife of their deceased brother to provide her with a son. The son would care for his mother and serve as the deceased man’s legal heir, carrying on his name and receiving his inheritance. This question is more than merely hypothetical or theoretical. There will be people in heaven with more than one spouse during their earthly life, so what is their relationship to them?

They think they have trapped Jesus because if He says there’s a resurrection, He won’t be able to say whose wife she is, but if He says there’s no resurrection, He’ll look like a false teacher because He’s been preaching the resurrection. So, they asked, “If you believe in a supposed resurrection, how do you explain this? Whose wife will she be in the next life?”

The Next Life Is Different Than This Life

Jesus’s response to the Sadducees’ question about marriage in heaven:

Luke 20:34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,

Ironically, Mormons quote Jesus’s words in Matthew 19:6 to defend celestial marriage, but Jesus taught that there is no marriage in heaven.

It doesn’t come out in Luke, but in the parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark, Jesus rebuked them:

• Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
• Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?

Jesus rebuked them, not for being ignorant, but for being foolish. They should have known better.² They thought the next life was the same as this life: We marry in this life, so we must marry in the next life. However, the next life is not a mere continuation of the present life, and one major difference is that there’s no marriage.³ Now we see why there’s no marriage in heaven:

Luke 20:36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

The word “for” is synonymous with because. There’s no marriage in heaven because there’s no death in heaven. What do those have to do with each other? Because there will be no more death, there will be no need for marriage and procreation. Marriage has always been a temporary institution that allows for procreation and preserves the human race. But without death, there’s also no need for more children.

Jesus could have made these points without mentioning angels, so why did He? He’s speaking to Sadducees who don’t believe in them and corrects their theology in this area.

We Will Be Equal But Not Identical to Angels

It is essential to note that Jesus said “equal to angels” rather than “identical to angels.” In other words, we have similarities with angels, but we don’t become angels. We are equal to angels in that:

• They are immortal, and we will be immortal.
• They don’t experience death, and we won’t experience death.
• They don’t marry, and we won’t marry.
• They don’t have children, and we won’t have children.
• They are called sons of God in Job 1:6, 38:7, and Genesis 6:12, and we are called sons of God in Romans 8:14, Romans 8:19, and Galatians 3:26.

And there’s one more possible similarity. Some commentaries state that genders will cease, at least the way we know them. The Pulpit Commentary reads, “We may assume from his words here that the difference between the sexes will have ceased to exist.”

Making Idols Out of Blessings

When the new generation of Israelites was in the wilderness, they complained. God wouldn’t put up with them acting like their parents, so He sent poisonous serpents through the camp. Moses made the bronze serpent; if people looked at it, they lived. Tragically, over time, people began to worship the bronze serpent. When Hezekiah reformed the nation and destroyed the idolatry, he had to include the bronze serpent:

2 Kings 18:4 [Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he BROKE IN PIECES THE BRONZE SERPENT THAT MOSES HAD MADE, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it.

The object that had been such a blessing became an idol. This illustrates our potential to make even God’s blessings into idols. We do this whenever we elevate a blessing above the Lord Himself. And two blessings we can do that with are marriage and children. I feel more comfortable sounding like I am minimizing marriage and children BECAUSE it should be evident I have a high view of marriage and children. The reason I say “sounding like I am minimizing marriage and children,” rather than “minimizing them,” is that I am not minimizing them. Instead, I want to maximize our relationships with the Lord, because that’s what this account is meant to do.

Heaven Is Primarily About Christ

You might wonder what Mormons do with Jesus’s statement that there is no marriage in the next life. They do have an answer! According to the Mormon’s New Testament Student Manual, they believe we are in error:

“Some people have misinterpreted the Savior’s words in Matthew 22:30 to mean there is no eternal marriage. Elder James E. Talmage pointed out that the Savior’s words do not state that marriages will not exist after the Resurrection, but that marriages will not be performed after the Resurrection: “In the resurrection there will be no marrying nor giving in marriage; for all questions of marital status must be settled before that time.”

The biblical understanding of heaven differs significantly from the Mormon view that elevates marriage and family to an idolatrous level and the Muslim view that makes heaven seem like the place to have all of your wildest sexual fantasies satisfied…at least for men. I’m not quite sure why any Muslim virgins would want to go to heaven if it meant being one of these 72 wives. As much as we might love our spouse and children, the biblical view is that heaven is primarily about Christ and being with Him:

Revelation 21:22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is THE LORD GOD THE ALMIGHTY AND THE LAMB. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and ITS LAMP IS THE LAMB.

You can read the whole chapter, but you won’t see marriage and family emphasized.

Revelation 22:1 The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and OF THE LAMB…3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and OF THE LAMB will be in it, and his servants WILL WORSHIP HIM. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

Heaven is about the Lord and worshiping Him. We want our loved ones in heaven with us, but heaven will be heaven, not because of our spouse or children, but because of the Lord.

God Doesn’t Rule Over Nonexistent People

I told you that the Sadducees believe in the Bible’s first five books but not the resurrection. Part of the reason for that is the Bible’s first five books contain little (but notice I said little versus nothing) about the resurrection. Jesus corrects their wrong understanding of the resurrection using one of the books they believe in:

Luke 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

Luke is the only gospel that adds the words “for all live to him.” We don’t live for the Lord only on this side of heaven. We continue living for Him in the next life, too. Here’s the verse Jesus references:

Exodus 3:6 [God] said [to Moses], “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Jesus said, “You Sadducees, in your own arbitrary, arrogant fashion, set aside the authority of the prophets and other inspired books except for the first five, so I will argue with you from one of those five. You know the account of Moses at the burnish bush, and it reveals your error.”

When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for centuries. But God doesn’t rule over people who don’t exist. If God was still their God, they must still be alive. Otherwise, God would have said, “I WAS the God of Abraham.” And if they are still alive, there must be a resurrection. Spurgeon said, “A living God is the God of living men; and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive.”

Here are a few points we are taught in these verses:

• Those who leave this life continue to live
• They live personally: they are still individuals in the life to come, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• They are not anonymous: they are mentioned by names
• They do not die again: they live as sons of God.
• They are not lost: we know where they are, and they also know.

Respond with Scripture

We can learn much from how Jesus responded to the Sadducees when they tried to trap Him. The question was about the resurrection, and it was from men who deny the supernatural. So, in response, I might expect Jesus to do something miraculous or supernatural. Instead, He responded with the Word. Jesus sets an excellent example by using Scripture to argue against the Sadducees. He did the same with the devil:

Luke 4:3 [The devil said], “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But [Jesus] answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 The devil 6 said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…7 Jesus said, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”…9 [the devil] said, “All these [kingdoms] I will give you, if you…worship me.” 10 Jesus, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Three times, Jesus responded to the devil with Scripture. We tend to think, “Sure, Jesus is the Son of God. He’s divine. That’s why He could answer questions well or resist temptation perfectly.” But that’s not how He answered the Sadducees or resisted temptation. Instead of responding supernaturally or extraordinarily, He responded naturally and ordinarily. In other words, instead of looking like the Son of God, He looked more like the Son of Man. He didn’t draw on anything available to Him and not us. He used the same resource at our disposal: the Word of God.⁴

I can’t imagine anything more wonderful than trying to be like Jesus. But I wonder if some people, especially in charismatic circles, want to be like Jesus, but not in the best ways: They want to heal people and perform miracles. Instead, we should focus on being like Him in other ways, such as rightly using Scripture and resisting temptation.

Wisdom That Couldn’t Be Argued With

Luke 20:39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”

The scribes often opposed Jesus, but in this situation, many of them, probably to the irritation of the Sadduccees, couldn’t help but praise Jesus.

Luke 20:40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

This refers to the scribes and all the religious leaders who had been questioning Him but would no longer dare. They finally learned their lesson that every time they try to trap Him, it’s an occasion for a glorious manifestation of His wisdom.

Being “Worthy” to “Attain” Heaven

In Luke 20:35, Jesus said, “Those who are CONSIDERED WORTHY TO ATTAIN to that age and to the resurrection from the dead.” Jesus talked about being worthy to attain the resurrection from the dead. These words make us think of earning or achieving something. This sounds strange because we know we do not earn or achieve eternal life. Instead, it is a gift we freely receive.

And this isn’t the only place in Scripture discussing people being worthy or unworthy of heaven. When Jesus preached the parable of the wedding feast, listen to the way He described those who refused to come:

Matthew 22:8 [The king] said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

They were invited to the wedding, picturing heaven, but they were unworthy. Paul and Barnabas condemned the Jews who rejected the gospel:

Acts 13:46 [They] said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

The Jews judged themselves unworthy of eternal life.

So, how do we understand people as unworthy of eternal life when eternal life is not something we can earn? We are saved by grace through faith, but people who trust in themselves, believe in their righteousness and deny their sinfulness show their unworthiness. To be worthy of eternal life, you must repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ and His sacrifice.

Footnotes

1. This also explains why they wanted to kill Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead: When you have been taught that there is no life after death, but Jesus raises someone from the dead, it makes you look bad to everyone:

   John 12:9 When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

   Instead of changing their theology, they were so proud and rebellious that they tried to murder Lazarus to keep everyone from learning that they were wrong.

2. They thought our resurrection bodies were identical to our earthly bodies. Jesus points out that their question revealed their wrong view of God. They limited His power. They thought the resurrection was nothing more than reconstruction. In other words, they thought that if people were resurrected, they would come back to life with the same bodies; therefore, they would be able to marry because we marry with these earthly bodies.

   But we know we are resurrected with glorified bodies different from our earthly bodies. There are some similarities. For example, Jesus’s resurrection body was the same as before His death but also different. People recognized him. He could be touched and eat food, but he could also pass through walls. Paul compared our earthly bodies to a planted seed and our future glorified bodies to a glorious flower and fruit (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).

3. Even though there won’t be marriage in heaven, what about other relationships? We will at least recognize family relationships. The rich man Jesus described in the afterlife was aware of his family relationships: Luke 16:27, And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
4. We might not have the religious leaders trying to trap us, but the world does. Consider the simplicity of how Jesus handled each temptation. He said, “It is written…” That is exactly what we should do:

   The devil says, “You don’t have to go to church. You’ve worked hard all week. Stay home and relax.” You say, “It is written, “Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as some are in the habit of doing, but exhort one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25.

   The devil tells married people, “You’re not happy. You shouldn’t have to stay married.” You say, “It is written, ‘What God has joined together, let no man separate.” You say, “It is written, “ God hates divorce.” Matthew 19:6, Mark 10:9, 1 Corinthians 7:10, Malachi 2:10

   The devil tells husbands, “You shouldn’t have to love your wife and cherish her. Look how she never shows you enough respect.” Husbands should say, “It is written, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Ephesians 5:25

   The devil tells wives, “You don’t have to submit to your husband or respect him.” Wives should say, “It is written, ‘Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:22

   The devil tells kids, “You don’t have to listen to your parents. They’re too strict. They don’t let you do anything.” Children should say, “It is written, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3

   The devil tells unmarried people, “You can be with an unbeliever” or “You can live together before you’re married.” Unmarried people should say, “It is written, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” or “Do not even keep company with sexually immoral people.” 2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 5:9.

   The devil says, “I can’t believe he did that to you. Who does he think he is? What a JERK! You don’t have to forgive him!” You say, “It is written, ‘If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:15.