Luke 20 Devotional

A Promise Death Cannot Break

“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.””Luke 20:38 (BSB)

In the temple courts Jesus faces challenge after challenge, about his authority and about taxes to Caesar (20:1-2, 20:20-25). Then Sadducees, who deny any resurrection, bring a puzzle about a woman married in turn to seven brothers, and ask whose wife she will be when the dead are raised (20:27-33). They mean to make the resurrection look absurd.

Jesus answers that the age to come is not a copy of this one. Those who share in the resurrection will not marry, and they can no longer die (20:35-36). Then he turns to Moses. At the burning bush, the Lord is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, men who had died long before (20:37). God does not tie his name to people who have ceased to exist. To him, Jesus says, they are all alive (20:38). God's faithfulness does not stop at a grave. You can face death, your own and that of those you love, trusting that God does not let go of the people he calls his own.

To think about: How would it change the way you grieve or face death to believe that God remains the God of those who belong to him even after they die?