The Gift of Not Being King

One of the stories I remember most vividly from childhood came from a cassette tape. In Russell Kelfer's fictional story about Edith Easter, an 82-year-old woman named Edith Burns carries her Bible everywhere and has an unusual way of starting conversations. Even with complete strangers, she asks, "Do you believe in Easter?"

She isn't asking whether they enjoy the holiday. She wants to know whether they believe Jesus actually rose from the dead.

It's a question worth asking long after Easter Sunday has passed. Does the resurrection simply belong to our list of Christian beliefs, or does it shape how we live, love, suffer, and face the future?

Because Jesus has conquered the grave and promised resurrection life to all who belong to Him, we must live with a hope that nothing in this world-not even death-can take from us.

Christian hope does not pretend death is harmless. It trusts the Savior who has defeated it.

When Our Questions Become Walls

In Matthew 22:23-28, the Sadducees approach Jesus with a question about resurrection, even though they do not believe in it. They describe a woman who marries seven brothers in succession, each dying without children. Their question is designed to embarrass Jesus: in the resurrection, whose wife would she be?

They build their scenario around a provision in Moses' law intended to care for widows and preserve family lines. The law itself was good. The problem is what they are doing with it: turning a merciful command into an argument against the very hope God has revealed.

The Sadducees have already decided what resurrection cannot be. Instead of listening to God, they assume that what they understand about this life must limit what God can do in the next.

We can make the same mistake. Our questions about eternity are not wrong. But when we insist that God's promises must fit inside our present understanding, we risk missing something far more wonderful than we can picture.

A Future Greater Than Our Best Gifts

Jesus answers directly: they are mistaken because they do not know the Scriptures or the power of God (Matthew 22:29).

He explains that in the resurrection, people will no longer marry or be given in marriage. They will be like angels in this particular respect-not because they become angels, but because death no longer governs their existence (Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:34-36).

That can sound unsettling when marriage and family are among our deepest joys. But Jesus is not calling those joys worthless or suggesting that love will disappear. He is telling us that resurrection life will not simply repeat the arrangements of a world where people grow old and die.

Every beautiful gift here is a glimpse, not the full measure, of what God has prepared for His children. We do not know precisely what every relationship will look like. We do know that the God who is perfectly good is not preparing a future poorer in love, joy, or beauty.

The God Whose Promises Survive Death

Jesus then turns to a passage the Sadducees knew well. From Exodus 3:6, He recalls God identifying Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-long after those men had died. Jesus concludes that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:31-32).

This is more than an argument about verb tenses. God had made an enduring covenant with His people. Death did not cancel His promise or end His relationship with them.

The hope of resurrection had appeared throughout Israel's Scriptures (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2; Psalm 16:9-11). But the fullest reason to trust that hope was standing in front of the Sadducees.

Within days, Jesus would be crucified and buried. Then He would rise from the grave. As 1 Corinthians 15:19-23 declares, Christ has been raised, and His resurrection is the beginning of the promised resurrection of those who belong to Him. Our hope rests not on wishful thinking but on the living Savior.

Living Today in Light of Easter

So what changes when we really believe?

First, we examine our fears and decisions. If Jesus has defeated death, what would we do differently today? Where might we trust God more deeply instead of allowing uncertainty to rule us?

Second, we hold this life's gifts with open hands. We love our families, cherish our marriages, and give thanks for good work and friendship. Yet we need not demand that any of these gifts become our ultimate security. There are greater joys still ahead.

Third, we give ourselves courageously to the work of Jesus. Because He lives, our love, service, generosity, and perseverance are not wasted. The victory of Christ makes steadfast faithfulness possible, even when it is costly (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).

Near the end of Edith's fictional story, we discover she has been facing death herself. She continues sharing her hope, and a nurse named Phyllis eventually comes to trust Jesus. When Phyllis returns to Edith's hospital room with Easter lilies, Edith has died. Yet Phyllis can grieve with hope, because she now believes the truth Edith spent her life proclaiming.

Death is real. Grief is real. But for those who belong to the risen Jesus, death is not the end.

Do you really believe in Easter?