We all want hope! “Hope deferred makes the heart-sick.” I have many friends now facing unprecedented challenges of all kinds! Life saving surgeries, uncertainties of possible and/or definite job changes, babies born with defects. Some talented people have too many options, some more normal people are stuck in places they don’t want to be. We all need hope!
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem with throngs waving palm branches and proclaiming his Kingship!
By this Thursday in Holy Week, he is washing the feet of the disciples and Judas leaves the last supper to betray him.
Friday, when you receive this, is the day we commemorate the death of Christ on the cross for our sins. That is good news for us in the long run. But oh how the “mighty” fall…in five days time…or so some thought….
From Thursday night of Holy Week until the disciples realize they are in the living presence of the resurrected savior – Jesus, they are full of doubt, fear and confusion. These feelings come at all of us naturally when we face things we do not understand or do not know how to respond to.
But…
“Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” Psalm 146:5
“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11
“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:8
Christ came and died to give us hope. More than hope, He gives us eternal life, and we become children of God. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”— John 1:12
For now, in our every day lives we face death, suffering and disappointments. We face them far more often and longer than the few days the disciples did between the Last supper and the resurrection. Yet we live on the side of the resurrection every day. We have this truth to guide us and we have the Holy Spirit in us to guide and comfort. “ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17
Remember the truth:
Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed! Alleluia!
And this gives us hope! We are never alone. Christ is in us, the hope of glory.
Have you misplaced hope? Remember the promises! Is there one above you want to hang on to?
