What is the context?
The Sadducees, whom Luke identifies as denying resurrection, propose a case involving seven brothers and one woman. Each brother marries her after the previous one dies without children. They ask whose wife she will be in the resurrection.
The question draws on the instruction that a surviving brother should preserve his deceased brother’s line through marriage to the widow. Deuteronomy explains that family obligation; the Sadducees use an extreme case to challenge resurrection. (Deuteronomy 25:5–10)
Jesus distinguishes this age from the resurrection. Those who share in that age neither marry nor are given in marriage, and they can no longer die. His comparison with angels belongs within that explanation of life beyond death.
He then points to Moses’ account of the burning bush, where God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus makes that relationship with the living the basis of His answer about resurrection. Some scribes praise His response, and the questioning stops. (Exodus 3:2–6, 15–17)
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christian readings commonly understand this as affirming resurrection and a life that is changed from the conditions of the present age. The Catholic bishops’ notes emphasize Jesus’ correction of the Sadducees’ assumptions and His appeal to Moses; Wesley connects God’s enduring relationship with His people to their continued life and resurrection. (USCCB notes on Luke 20:27–40; Wesley on Luke 20:34–38)
Where does this fit in God's plan?
In Exodus, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob also promises to bring their descendants out of oppression. His identity is tied to faithful care and promises that stretch across generations. Hebrews describes the patriarchs dying in faith while still awaiting what was promised, and looking toward the city God prepared. Death does not make His faithfulness or their hope meaningless. (Exodus 3:15–17; Hebrews 11:13–16, 39–40)
Paul explicitly places the resurrection of those who belong to Christ within the victory begun by Christ’s own resurrection. His reign leads to the destruction of death itself. That supplies the wider gospel setting for Jesus’ answer here. (1 Corinthians 15:20–26)
Paul also describes the body being raised from weakness and perishability into power and lasting life, using the seed and the body God gives it as his illustration. The resurrection hope is larger than an endless repetition of present conditions. (1 Corinthians 15:35–49)
What is our position?
Who is The Angel of the Lord?, in its section on Exodus 3:2–6, identifies the One who appears and speaks from the burning bush as the Son before His human birth. The study explicitly connects that passage with Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees in Matthew’s parallel account. This is the study’s conclusion about the speaker in Exodus; Jesus’ immediate point here concerns resurrection and God’s relationship with the living.