The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
This verse opens a tense exchange during the final week of Jesus' life in Jerusalem. The Sadducees were a powerful Jewish religious and political group who controlled much of the temple establishment. Unlike the Pharisees — another prominent Jewish group — the Sadducees rejected the idea of resurrection from the dead entirely. They believed that when you die, that's the end. They weren't coming to Jesus with a genuine question; they were arriving with a carefully constructed challenge designed to make the concept of resurrection look ridiculous. The verse itself is just the opening line, but what it reveals about the posture of the people approaching Jesus is already significant.
God, forgive me for the times I've brought you questions I didn't really want answered. Give me the courage to ask honestly and the humility to stay present when the answer surprises me. I want to be someone who searches for truth, not just for confirmation. Amen.
The Sadducees didn't believe in resurrection — so why were they asking about it? This wasn't a theological conversation. It was an ambush. They had a question engineered to make the idea of life after death sound absurd, and they brought it to Jesus like a sharpened blade. We tend to read these confrontation stories and think, 'Those Sadducees — so cynical.' But the posture of coming to a conversation about God not to find truth but to win the exchange? That's not ancient history. It shows up in comment sections, dinner tables, and sometimes in our own heads at 2 AM when we're arguing with God. The harder question underneath this scene is: when you bring your doubts to God, what are you actually hoping to find? Some doubts are born from grief or confusion — real wrestling that God can handle. But some questions are more like the Sadducees' — sophisticated enough to protect us from having to change. It's worth sitting with honestly: what would it actually take for you to be persuaded? If the answer is 'probably nothing,' the real obstacle might not be intellectual at all.
What does Matthew's detail that the Sadducees 'say there is no resurrection' tell us about how to read the question they're about to ask Jesus?
Can you think of a time when you approached God — or a conversation about faith — with a question designed more to protect yourself than to genuinely seek an answer?
Is intellectual doubt always the same thing as unbelief? Where do you think the line is, and how do you tell them apart in your own experience?
How do you navigate conversations about faith with people whose questions feel more like challenges than genuine curiosity — and what posture do you try to hold?
What is one question about your faith you've been circling without actually sitting with it honestly — and what might it look like to bring it to Jesus without an agenda this week?
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
Isaiah 52:14
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:6
The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 16:1
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7
And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
Genesis 38:8
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1 Corinthians 15:12
On that day some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection [of the dead], came to Him and asked Him a question,
AMP
The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,
ESV
On that day [some] Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him,
NASB
Marriage at the Resurrection That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
NIV
The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,
NKJV
That same day Jesus was approached by some Sadducees — religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question:
NLT
That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection.
MSG