"Further Thoughts Concerning the Dead: On Marriage"

The following is adapted from my intended response to a couple of replies in my original post "Thoughts Concerning the Dead". Regretfully, my response was too lengthy to post, so here goes...

As far as those who have been / are married in this life... Jesus did say in the Gospels that in heaven, men and women, aren't given to marriage but, rather, are as the angels. However, before we make any conclusive assumptions about what he's saying, we should consider a few things:

1. He's replying to those who are trying to trip him up theologically, so we must understand that His priority (as stated) is to make it clear that they are talking about things that they themselves do not understand.

2. Angels and humans compose two distinctly separate personal categories of the created order. Angels are not human; neither are humans angels. Also, despite a surprisingly popular thought -or, at least what's commonly voiced in response to death- humans do not become angels in heaven. So, we must keep a clear mind as to how far Jesus is wanting us to push the idea of us being like angels. In other words, are we to conclude that -in being like the angels- we would suddenly lose even the experience or memory of having been married, seeing how -as far as we know- angels have never had such an experience?

3. We should wrestle with the wording of the passage itself. The Greek text literally says, "In the resurrection, neither do they marry nor are being given in marriage, but they are as angels of God in heaven." One could argue, albeit rather oddly, that His point is to make it clear that at the time of the resurrection, no new marriages are allowable. Again, odd. What seems more appropriate is that His point is to make it known that in the life to come, we are not bound in marriage as we are in this life.

That being said, if our personal identity is maintained in the life to come and only then is glorified and continues to grow in Christ, it would seem incumbent upon me to conclude that we who are / have been married would know our spouses as such. Our memories would be intact. Likewise would our experiences. The issue of multiple spouses (NOTE: the subject of Jesus' challenging question) would be remedied by the healing grace of God. Even He still bears His wounds.

We have a word for wounds that have been healed: scars.