Tuesday, April 3

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Luke 24:18-24

One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

I watched a college baseball game recently and witnessed an interesting and humorous expression of hope. The game was in the final inning and the team I was cheering for was behind in the score. Throughout the entire inning, as each pitch hurtled toward the plate, the players in the dugout took off their caps and held them out upside down and shook them – as if begging for change from a passing stranger. I found out later from my son that it’s a kind of superstition the players practice as they hope for a spectacular rally that will result in victory.

Hope.

Hope is a universal and uniquely human phenomenon. I don’t think that dogs and cats and horses experience hope. I’m pretty sure they share with us certain physical experiences like hunger, pain and fatigue, but I don’t think they are capable of hope. Hope is one of the things that makes human beings unique; that sets us apart as being created in the image of God himself.

Yet we all know there are two sides to hope. Hope is the longing for; the expectation for something better. As such, hope has the power to sustain us through the most trying and difficult of times. But hope is also that which leaves us vulnerable to terrible disappointment and disillusionment. I think that’s what we see in this story.

In describing Jesus, they say:

He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

They had put their hope in Jesus; hope that he would redeem Israel. This probably meant that they had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, who would restore Israel to her former glory, which meant a better life for everyone!

But, with his arrest, trial, and crucifixion, that hope was dashed. Jesus was not the Messiah of God; Jesus would not become a great king like David; Jesus would not expel the Romans from their land. Everything would stay just the way it was. They felt hopeless again.

My guess is that you’ve felt that way at one point or another in your life. I know I have. But this story tells us that when our hopes are dashed, Jesus gives us his hope – a new and different kind of hope.

The hope of Jesus is not hope that everything will go as planned; or that the home team will win the game; or that bad things will never happen. The hope of Jesus is that in him all things can be redeemed!

Take a moment to thank God for the unquenchable hope we have in Jesus Christ!

Pastor Brian Coffey