Hope

Stage 4 Cancer.

A two-year old beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend.

Sudan.

A church in Egypt.

This world is drenched in pain.  Once in a while the candy coating of “I’m fine’s” and forced smiles break and we are leveled by the sheer neediness of this world.

We are walking into “Holy Week”; the week leading up to the cross, where Jesus took all this world’s brokenness and let it break Him.

Sometimes, on this side of the cross, it’s just too much.

Things we love and hold and believe in suddenly turn to death and we are left looking at a broken and bloody Jesus.

The disciples.  They know; they understand.  They left all they knew about themselves and let Him redefine their identities.  They watched Him speak to the storm and it listened.  They watched Him heal the broken, restore sight and sanity, raise the dead to life.  They saw Him take the small offering of a boy and multiply it to feed thousands.  They had walked with Him, laughed with Him, questioned Him and with each passing day found themselves really believing He was the Messiah- the Promised One they had anticipated for always. They left their homes, incomes, stability and reputations for Him.  And because He loved them He warned them: “We are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.  He will be handed over to the Gentiles.  They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him.  On the third day He will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33)

But they didn’t understand.

And suddenly they were standing at the cross and everything they had believed in was broken and bloody and covered in death.

They hid behind locked doors, denying they even knew Him.  Terrified, these men who had witnessed miracles I cannot fathom, hid in fear because it was just too much.

It’s what I do when things are too much.  Just this week I got news that made me crawl in bed, cover my head and weep.  When my parents divorced, I spent weeks lying in bed listening to sad music trying to muster the courage to face life again.  I have friends who have buried marriages and husbands and babies and sometimes it’s just too much to be on this side of the cross.

The earth quakes and rocks split; the sky goes dark and thunder roars.  Curtains split and somewhere a voice howls, “My God!  WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME????”

What do we do with our faith when it comes to this point?  What do we do with a God that allows these things to happen?  We say He is love and we sing the He is enough for us, but what about those times when He isn’t?  What do we do when we come to Jesus and He just looks beaten and bloody and dead?

I think we give space for grief.  We run our fingers over the splintered wood of those beams; we cry for what should have been.  We pound our fists against heaven and throw all our questions to the only One who can take it; the only One who has taken it.

We pour ourselves out to Him until we are spent. 

Then we look in the empty tomb. 

The men weren’t going to go.  They were still behind locked doors.  But the women knew that things had to be done; life keeps happening and you keep showing up.  Clothes need washing, people must be fed and sooner or later we rise and do what is necessary.  That’s what these women did.  They showed up at the tomb to care for the dead body of their Lord. 

He wasn’t there.

And as Mary stood outside that empty, empty tomb, weeping, bending over, searching for something that was not there, two angels showed up.

It’s called hope.

She turned around and Jesus was there.  He was right in front of her but her grief was so big she couldn’t even see Him…but He saw her.

“Mary.”

Once He spoke, she saw Him for who He was.

No longer bleeding and dying and covered with death.

This is the resurrected Jesus- this is where I put my faith.  The cross is so important, but it’s on the other side of it we find life; the “Way, the Truth and the Life.”   I serve a Jesus who is life itself.  He is the One with eyes like blazing fire.  His voice is like the rushing waters.  He holds the stars in His hand and His face is like the sun shining in all its brilliance. (Revelation 1:14-16)

“I am the Living One; I was dead and behold I am alive for ever and ever.” (Rev. 1:18)

He breathes life into spaces that were dead.  One day He will loose justice on this earth and everything that was wrong and evil will be made right.  He will wipe every tear from our eyes and take back His kingdom.  “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of the Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

He will ride with the armies of heaven on white horses and avenge the atrocities that brought us to the cross. (Revelation 19:14)

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain; everything will be made new. (Rev. 21:4-5)

One day every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, will sing:

“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13)

This world is drenched in pain, sometimes drenched in death.  But when I look beyond the cross and see the Jesus that beat death to take back what was His…

This, THIS  is Easter. 

The call to leave our flesh, with everything it chases and desires, at the foot of the cross and walk to the other side, letting eternity get under our skin and Jesus renew our minds so we are actively looking for ways to bring His kingdom here, now.  Looking for people to bring to the foot of the cross so they can see His love stretched out and hear Him calling them to real life, real hope.

To let the heartbeat of heaven become our own and discover that our treasures are not of this world- we can give ourselves over to things that last forever.

To drench ourselves in grace rather than death.

This Easter, let’s learn to walk with the Jesus of Revelation; to stop grieving like people who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13) and start living like people chasing an everlasting Hope.

“Amen.  Come Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.” (Rev. 22:20b-21)