More modern translations seek to make it look as though "the resurrection" is a future point in time. This was also the assumption of the Sadducees, who used the future tense in their question. However, Jesus's answer is not the future tense, but the present tense, not "will marry," but "marry," not "will be" but "are." From his perspective, this is something that is happening now, not in the future. This is a key point of the following verse, Matthew 22:31.

There is a parallel here between "in the resurrection" and "in heaven," that is lost in translation. The two phrases are closer in meaning to "in the awakening" and "in the sky." The use of the same preposition seems to indicate that being "in" these two states is similar.

However, the verse ends in a way that is surprising. While the normal word order in Greek puts the verb last, the particular verb that ends the verse is the verb "to be" which seems to want to be asking for another adjective or noun to describe those angels. The actual clause looks like this: "Instead, just as the messengers in the sky, they are." "Angels" is in the form of a subject,  which is more difficult to connect to the "they" of the "marry verbs because the "just as" conjunction/adverb comes between them. However, the surprise is that, in the end, people are being equated to the angels.