Luke 20 Study Notes

20:27-33 Another group among the religious leaders attempted to trap Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection from the dead because it was not taught in the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy). They asked Jesus a question that was designed to discredit the idea of resurrection by reducing it to absurdity. If a man’s brother . . . dies childless refers to the law of levirate marriage in Dt 25:5. The Sadducees mistakenly assumed that life after the resurrection of the body would include the same basic structures as earthly life.

20:34-36 Jesus answered that marriage is confined to this age. Those who are counted worthy are those who place faith in Christ because faith in Messiah is the only means by which anyone can be accepted by God (Rm 5:1; Gl 2:16). In heaven we will be like angels, who enjoy many meaningful relationships but do not marry or reproduce. After the resurrection, the human life cycle (birth, marriage, reproduction, death) is forever changed.

20:37-40 Jesus quoted Ex 3:1-6 to draw in the Sadducees, who revered the books of Moses. Jesus’s logic is as follows: God could identify himself to Moses as the God of Abraham . . . Isaac, and Jacob only if they were still living in Moses’s day. Since these men had died many years previously, there must be an afterlife. The religious leaders no longer dared to bait Jesus after this because he had spoken well and made them look foolish.

20:41-44 Jesus then asked his own difficult theological question based on Ps 110:1: how could the Christ be both the son of David and the divine Lord of David? Though not given here, the answer is that Jesus, the Christ, was both fully God (Lord) and fully human (son of David).

20:45-47 The long robes of the scribes were of white linen and had a decorative fringe. The best seats were where a person could be seen by everyone in attendance at the synagogue. Devour widows’ houses probably means that some scribes defrauded helpless widows of their homes and their limited resources. Matthew 23:1-36 is an extended parallel passage describing the sins for which the scribes and Pharisees would be judged by God.