Didn’t Jesus state that only those that don’t get married will be resurrected?

heaven3Q: The gospel reading from Luke 20:34-36 says:

Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”

I’m really confused about this. Is Jesus stating that only those that don’t get married will be resurrected?

A: The language order of this passage is confusing. Jesus is speaking to a point about those who will be resurrected and will not then need the institution of marriage. He is not stating which marital state is necessary to get to the point of resurrection.

He draws a distinction between the present age — this physical world in time and space, and the coming age — after the resurrection of the dead. In this present world people go about marrying and being married for we are physical beings with physical needs and desires. In Jesus’ time, all sexual activity was geared toward human reproduction because offspring were viewed as the only way to achieve “immortality.” Obviously, then, marriage played a central role in the social construct of society.

But then he goes on to say that after the resurrection of the dead, married relationships as we know them will not exist because we will be living a different kind of existence not bounded by physicality. To Jesus’ contemporaries, it would make sense that if the resurrected ones “can no longer die” then marriage and sexual activity would no longer be needed to insure immortality.

Even so, this is a passage that strikes a somber note for many loving, committed couples as they contemplate a future life without their married partners. Yet as usual, Jesus is pointing to something beyond the limited existence we perceive now. It seems he is asking his listeners, and us, to believe in a resurrected life that is beyond our wildest imaginings.