First of all in verse 26 Jesus affirms that there is an afterlife. Believers will be resurrected with new physical bodies and live on a physical, unimaginably beautiful earth.
If I’ve been married more than once, which spouse will be my spouse in heaven? Of course the question is contingent upon each of those involved in the question having received the gift of eternal life. Assuming each has, what then of all the spouse possibilities?
Jesus basically says that we shouldn’t assume that our relationships in the resurrection will be simply be an extension of life as we know it now. Rather life in the resurrection will be massively transformed. We will still be ourselves with our own personalities (as is Abraham in vs. 26 and as opposed to eastern religions where we are blended into the eternal now as a drop of water is blended into ocean).
In short we will not need marriage as it is now. Sex and gender will possibly change in some way, but to think that love in heaven will be somehow “less” than it is here is of course preposterous. How could the consummation of God’s good plan for the world be less than immeasurably more than all we can hope or imagine?
It’s often asked, will there be sex in heaven? To answer “no” is to give the wrong impression. The right answer is that sex, marriage and the rest and intimacy are in this life the “tranining wheels” for the intense beauty, joy, passion, intimacy, and love the believers will experience in the resurrection. The intensity and lure of sex cannot compare to the intensity and lure of the God given passions to be experienced in the resurrection. Actually one scholar wrote this: “The greatness of the changes at the resurrection will doubtless make the wife even of seven brothers capable of loving all and the object of the love of all--- somewhat like a good mother is loved by all her children and loved by them” (commentary of D A Carson)
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