This rebuke of Jesus to the Sadducees (Matthew 22:23), who did not believe in the resurrection, is very blunt. It is worth repeating today. How few carefully read, understand and believe God’s word and His power to fulfil His promises? Our world is full of remarkable inventions that capture the interest and attention. The Bible is ignored, there is no inclination to give any time to what has become a strange archaic book to the great majority of people who question, ‘could there really be a God?’ Their minds are constantly bombarded with the assumption evolution really happened – all that exists sort of “created” itself.

How many people think that there is a Creator who is going to intervene on earth as He did in the time of Noah. Jesus referred to this, as we read in Matthew 24:37-39. However, some who believe there is a Creator have trouble believing in the resurrection, they think it is unnecessary as their loved ones, who were believers, are alive in heaven possessing some kind of spirit body! They see no need for a resurrection; they are like the Sadducees of Jesus’ day.

Jesus is blunt in his rebuke to them, “You are wrong … you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (verses 29,30).

Jesus said the unworthy would be cast “into outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verse 13). This is the sequel to his parable about a “wedding feast” (verse 3). There happens to be a man at the feast “without a wedding garment” (verse 12). What does that represent? There is only one verse in the Bible that refers to Armageddon, now the verse before it states, “Behold I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked …” (Revelation 16:15). In Isaiah we read, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD … for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness …” (61:10).

Reading God’s word daily is an essential part of keeping our garments clean and ready for the wedding feast here on earth when our Lord returns – and of course it is essential that Jesus is your Lord.