Matthew 22:23-33

“I’m the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living.” – Matthew 22:32 CEB

My elementary church camp days have certainly made an imprint on me. I vividly remember sitting around the campfire with Bob and Stan learning all the great church camp songs. One that lingers (and continues to educate) is one that taught me about Pharisees (“they ain’t fair, you see) and Sadducees (“they’re sad, you see), and the sadness of the Sadducees was connected to their lack of belief in the resurrection.

These Sadducees come to Jesus in today’s passage with what they think is a brilliant theological riddle. They don’t believe in resurrection, so they construct an absurd scenario about a woman widowed seven times and ask whose wife she’ll be in the resurrection. It’s less a sincere question and more a gotcha moment. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He tells them they are mistaken—because they don’t understand the Scriptures or the power of God. That’s a bold claim. The real issue isn’t marital status in the afterlife; it’s a lack of imagination about what God can do.

Jesus reframes resurrection not as a continuation of current social arrangements but as a completely transformed reality. Life with God isn’t just this world extended indefinitely. It’s remade. Renewed. Reordered around the living God. Then he anchors his argument in the story of Moses and the burning bush: God says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Not “I was.” God is the God of the living. For Jesus, resurrection isn’t a side doctrine; it’s rooted in the very character of God. If God connects Godself to people in covenant love, that love does not evaporate at the grave.

Maybe the challenge for us is similar to the Sadducees’. Where have we limited God to what feels manageable or logical? Where have we reduced hope to something small and explainable? Resurrection faith stretches us. It asks us to trust that God’s power exceeds our categories and that death does not get the last word. The crowd leaves astonished. Maybe that’s the first step of faith—not having every answer neatly lined up, but allowing ourselves to be surprised by a God who refuses to stay inside our carefully constructed boxes. - Allison