Hope … out of Hopelessness… (April 2020 Update)
Nothing is worse than a feeling of hopelessness! When the doctor comes out of the operating room and says, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more we can do.” It is a feeling of hopelessness. Sometimes, we have tried everything and nothing works – in fact, things even got worse. And this feeling of hopelessness can overwhelm us. That’s how the disciples felt on the sabbath after Jesus was crucified. They had put all their hopes on Jesus. Not just their hopes – the hope of Israel and the hope of all mankind rested in the person of Jesus. But now, all those hopes were gone. Their long-awaited Messiah was dead. Their teacher and their friend was in the tomb. All hope was lost!
That’s how all the disciples and the followers of Jesus felt after the crucifixion. We see this most clearly in Luke 24. Luke records the encounter of Jesus with two disciples on the Emmaus Road on the first Easter morning. They were talking about the events that had just occurred and they were sad, they were discouraged, they were without hope (Luke 24:17). But they had a glimmer of hope – some women had returned from the tomb and said the tomb was open and the body was gone. The women even said that an angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead! (Luke 24:22-24). Continue Reading »