Introduction & The Sadducee's Trap

In Matthew 22, the Sadducees attempt to corner Christ with a question about who would be married to whom in the coming age.  Traditionally, commentators have explained Christ's response as hinging on God's present tense statement "I am" ([v]Matt. 22:32[/v]), but there is much more to Christ's argument.  Christ not only answers their question, but effectively defends a coming resurrection and God's plan to fulfill his Covenant promises to the forefathers. 

The Sadducees' Trap
In Christ's day, there were several factions of Jewish religious leaders.  One of these groups, the Sadducees, did not believe in an afterlife or resurrection of the dead.  They believed that the soul and body were intertwined such that when the body died, the soul also died.  They rejected any teachings that were not explicitly in the Law¹ and many of them only accepted the writings of Moses as canonical².  Another prominent group, the Pharisees, did believe in an afterlife and resurrection, but had grossly distorted views expecting to find "the delights and pleasures of the animal life"³ in the future state.  By asking Christ to comment on resurrection, the Sadducees were trying to force him to choose sides.  If Christ answered unwisely, he could have unintentionally aligned himself with either the Sadducees of Pharisees. 

Usually when the Sadducees and Pharisees came to ask Christ questions, they came with very specific scenarios. They hoped their questions contained loopholes or traps that would stump Jesus or cause him to make a mistake.  The questions they asked always dealt with deeper issues, but rather than ask Him directly for answers they did not want to hear, they tried to "trap him in his words" ([v]Matt. 22:15[/v]).

Christ's Response

Christ's Response
When confronted in this manner, Christ sometimes ignored the specific question and provided underlying truth from scripture ([v]Matt 9:14-17; 15:1-20; 19:1-6[/v]), sometimes he answered with a new question ([v]Matt. 21:23-27[/v]), and other times he answered with a scenario of his own ([v]Matt. 22:15-22[/v]).  Here, Christ choose to directly answer their question about marriage in the resurrection and then redirect their faulty use of the Law in order to point to God's covenant promises.

Christ first said, "You do not understand the Scriptures," indicating He is not impressed with the Sadducees ultra-conservative views, but rather He found their interpretive method and ultimately their faith lacking.  He then quoted a Scripture that every Jewish boy knew: "Have you not heard what was said to you: 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'" In parallel passages in Mark and Luke, we find that Christ's quotation were words God had spoken to Moses ([v]Ex. 3:6[/v]), but the use of "you" in Matthew probably indicates Christ's desire to remind the Jews that what was spoken to Moses also applied to them.  Christ could have defended resurrection other parts of the Old Testament, but he chose a verse out the Pentatuch to specifically target the Sadducees belief system.

Christ's argument in this passage is two-fold.  First, He intended to show that while Abraham was not physically alive, He was with God when God spoke to Moses.  God could not have claimed "I am the God Abraham" without Abraham still existing.  It could be argued that God intention was simply to say "I am the same God that Abraham believed in" instead of "I am still the God of Abraham since Abraham still exists."  But in the context of Christ's argument and because He adds "He is not the God of the living, but the dead," it is clear that Christ was using the text to prove the existence of an afterlife.

Unfortunately, most commentators stop there.  Some add that Christ champions the inerrancy of the Scriptures, basing an argument on verb tense alone⁴, but very few see anything more to Christ's argument. If this was all there was to Christ's argument though, He would have only proven the existence of an afterlife, but would not have shown that a resurrection was actually going to happen.  Further only Matthew's account actually uses the present tense, "I am"; Mark and Luke do not ([v]Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37[/v]).

The Kingdom Program

The Kingdom Program Emphasized
The reason Christ emphasized that Abraham still existed was to show that the God fully intending on fulfilling the promises He made to Abraham.  When God made His covenant with Abraham, He foretold of the Israelite's imprisonment in Egypt and promised to rescue them ([v]Gen. 15:13-14[/v]). Four hundred years later, when God told Moses, "I am the God of Abraham," He was announcing His return to the Kingdom program.  Similarly, Christ was exhorting the Sadducees to recognize that the Kingdom was near.
 
The Jews knew that the promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 12,15,17, and 22 had not been completely fulfilled.  They did not have possession of the land and there was no King on the throne.  But even if the promises were fulfilled in the future or had been fulfilled in the past for nation Israel, the promises were made specifically to Abraham ("the land of Canaan... I will give you" [v]Gen 17:8[/v]) and he did not receive them ([v]Heb. 11:13[/v]).  Furthermore, even if it could be proven that Abraham did possess the land at some point, the land was promised as an "everlasting" possession.  In order to for God to fulfill the covenants that He cannot break, the forefathers will have to be resurrected.  Paul similarly defended resurrection before Agrippa, arguing, "What God has promised to our fathers... [we] are hoping to see fulfilled... Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?" ([v]Acts 26:6-8[/v])⁵.  The essence of Paul and Christ's argument is that God intends to fulfill the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and He will use resurrection as the means of completion.

Christ's defense of the resurrection is also an exhortation of faith.  When Abraham offered Isaac, the heir to the Covenant promises, for sacrifice, he did so having faith that God would still fulfill His promises.  Although he had never seen it happen, Abraham believed God would resurrect Isaac ([v]Heb. 11:19[/v]) to continue his line.  But the Sadducees had no such faith.  They had made the Law into their own oppressive tool, unwilling to believe God would make good on His promises.  Christ wanted them to have the faith of Abraham, who looked not to a simple promise of land ([v]Heb. 11:15[/v]), but to God's complete fulfillment of His "heavenly" ([v]Heb. 11:16[/v]a) Kingdom on earth.  "Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God" ([v]Heb. 11:16[/v]b).

Summary
With a quotation deeply ingrained into Jewish thought as well as part of the Scriptures so sacred to the Sadducees, Christ demonstrates that there is an afterlife, that the forefathers are in it, that God intends to fulfill the covenants to them, and that their fulfillment requires a coming resurrection.