Answer

Didn't Jesus Say There Is No Marriage in Heaven?

Someone has quoted you the verse where Jesus says that in the resurrection people “neither marry, nor are given in marriage,” and it seems to cut straight across everything you have been taught about eternal families. If He said it, that is not a small objection to wave away.

He said something narrower than it sounds. He was answering a trick question about when marriages are performed, not denying that marriage continues. Sealings are made here, by priesthood authority, and are not entered into afterwards. That is precisely why the temple matters as much as it does.

Eternal Truths

Look at who was asking and why. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection at all (Matthew 22:23-30). They invented a woman married to seven brothers in turn and asked whose wife she would be, hoping to make the resurrection look absurd. Jesus told them they erred, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. He was correcting their premise, not describing what happens to a covenant marriage.

Marriage that lasts has to be made by authority that lasts. In Doctrine and Covenants 132:7-19 the Lord teaches that a covenant not made and sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise ends when people die, and that one which is so sealed continues. That is the whole distinction the Sadducees had never heard of. The Family: A Proclamation to the World says the same thing plainly: temple ordinances make it possible for families to be united eternally.

Nobody loses a blessing because the chance never came. The Lord told Joseph Smith that He judges people according to the desires of their hearts and the works they would have done (Doctrine and Covenants 137:9). Elder Neil L. Andersen quoted President Dallin H. Oaks on this in “Eternal Marriage Is an Eternal Journey”: singleness, childlessness, death and divorce postpone promised blessings, but those frustrations are only temporary, and in the eternities no blessing will be denied those who keep the commandments.

What Can Make This Confusing?

A single verse read without its argument can look like it settles a question it was never addressing. That is how this one usually reaches you, and the person quoting it is often sincere. The harder thing underneath is not the verse. It is watching friends get engaged and younger siblings start families year after year while nothing moves for you. Discouragement is the real danger here, more than doubt, because it wears at what you believe about yourself before it touches what you believe about God.

Questions to Think About

• What was actually being asked in that conversation, and of whom?
• Have I let a season of waiting start telling me something about my worth?
• What would it look like to prepare for a covenant marriage before there is anyone to make one with?

What You Can Do

Read Matthew 22:23-30 and Doctrine and Covenants 132:7-19 side by side this week and notice how each one treats authority. Then, if the waiting is the harder part, name it to someone rather than carrying it quietly. The essay behind this Answer works through marriage and family in the next life at greater length.

Jesus Christ holds the keys that bind on earth and in heaven, and He can give you both a clear answer to the verse and steadiness while you wait.