The Undefeatable Hope - Easter Sunday

What is our hope? Our hope is nothing less than the fact that our powerful God and king, the creator of the heaven and earth, loved us enough to come down, live, suffer and die for us, so that we might be saved, so that we might know the Kingdom of heaven. The power and love of God walk hand in hand, just like the cross and the empty tomb. The cross becomes the vision of the evil that God was willing to endure, take on, and destroy in himself, all because he loved us enough to take it off our shoulders. This burden of evil was not and is not something we can carry. The empty tomb becomes the vision of God’s power in all things, to overcome all things. Death as natural as it may seem, and suffering as unjust as it may seem, were left empty. As the earth shook, the massive stone was rolled away, the light poured into the darkness, Jesus got up and let the graveclothes fall away. When we see Jesus overcome evil, suffering and death, even in himself, we should realize that what we are seeing is an undefeatable hope.

I don’t think I need to tell you why we need hope. I have heard many people inside and outside the church saying that the world needs more hope. Science tells us that hope is an important factor in recovery and healing. Hope is an essential aspect of contentment at work or education for children and adults. And with all the division in our cultures we need hope if we are ever to move forward. Yet, for all of these things, hope needs to have substance, meaning and power. A generic hope won’t have legs to take you far. An unrealistic or ungrounded hope will not lead you where you need to go. I could hope to grow wings all I wanted, but that would likely just get in the way of real present and lasting hope.

We have an embodied hope. A hope with significance and meaning. A hope that enters into our struggles and transforms them. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. Our hope is in a God that became human to show us the way, but also to struggle with us, to take on our hurt, our anger, our evil. He knows what we endure and he endures it for us. He takes on our burdens, even if we literally throw them in his face, and he carries them, when we are being crushed by the pressure. He suffers the worst pain imaginable, physical, emotional, social, spiritual, mental and more. Yet, his hope is bigger than accompaniment or someone to share the load, because he is never overwhelmed, instead he overcomes all of these things, even transforms them. He takes the cross, that instrument of torture and death, and turns it into his throne, our great symbol of love and hope. He takes the tomb, the grave a place of loss, rot, darkness and death and he empties it. He even takes people turning against him and uses it to transform their hearts. If God in Jesus Christ is victorious over all these things - what is left that stands in his way? What is left that stands in our way, if we let him lead us?

I am reminded today that our hopes are often shallow. We often hope for very limited and fickle things. How often have I hoped for a relaxing night, or that next trip, or popularity, or even health? These are all nice things, but these are very shallow hopes that barely give us a moment, and then are just as fleeting. When these things are our hopes we end up following them to their end. Then when they fall short, we find ourselves falling too. As these things die, we find ourselves becoming like them.

Paul reminds us that before Jesus Christ we were dead. Sometimes we feel that way, but either way death seems like a foregone conclusion. We were ultimately dead because we were living in death, we were surrounded by it, and death lived in us as we gave into fear, anxiety, pressures, temptation, evil and sin. We were following the world, which had given into the same things. We see this all around us. The world is giving into fear, temptation and evil all the time and it keeps trying to pull us into following its pattern.

This temptation actually has three levels though, three parts that are tempting us to follow. The world, the culture, its expectations, its definitions of what is good and what you need. The world doesn’t know what is good. Look back on history, look at ourselves from a few feet in the air and you will realize that the world has never known what is good. Yet, the world, our culture, other people have always tried to convince us that they know better. By following the world, we find ourselves dying like all those that came before us.

Then there are our desires, our flesh, our senses that are consistently telling us to find that new and best flavour, have the softest fabric, watch the most astounding movie and hear the most harmonic tones. Our culture is quite like the Roman one which puts desire and sensuality at its centre. Yet, people lose themselves in it. They become slaves to their own desires. It often means that we can’t enjoy the little things. We can’t stop from our busy pursuit. We can’t connect with others or the slow work that has a lot more meaning. Matteo, my two year old, can find joy in the simplest thing, why can’t we? Even Matteo can recognize the importance of prayer and Jesus (at least sometimes), why can’t we? No, instead, we find ourselves dead in our own desires.

Paul also tells us that the spirits of the air have been leading us to death. The spirits of the air. Have you been feeling like there is something just in the air these days? Have you rode the subway and felt something off? Have you noticed more apprehension, more misunderstanding, more isolation, more hostility? There is something in the air and I don’t just mean pollution, though it is of a kind. Just like our desires, just like the world, there is a force that is beyond us that is continually leading us. These powers are wrapped up with sin and so we know their end is death, yet without realizing it we can follow them until they take us there too.

This is important to reflect on, because until we fully understand what we are actually facing. Until we see what the consequences of our life and world are, we can’t really see the immensity of the hope that leads us away from them. Our life is like someone encountering a hot fire. The world, our desires and the spirits of the air show us how beautiful and warm it is, so we could easily pursue it, touch it and burn away ourselves. Or we could understand what God is showing us and giving us and use it to keep us warm, cook some food and boil some tea.

God’s hope is that he entered in, while we were dead. While, we were lost in ourselves. While our desires, the world and the spirits of the world still held sway over our hearts. He came to save us, but not through any power in ourselves (because we have already found ourselves falling short), but he saved us through the powerful love of His Son: Jesus. This is the love of Jesus, that while we were still his enemies, still sinners, he died for us, so that through him we might live. So that we might be raised from the dead. So that we might have eternal life. So that we might become children of God.

For some this might feel like a very distant or spiritual idea. This hope that overcomes evil, suffering and death might be new, or feel other, or be contrary to what you are currently experiencing, but that just reminds us how much we need it. We need the new life of Jesus Christ, because the world, our desires, the spirits can’t give us life. No this hope is not just a spiritual reality, it is a deeply practical one. The next time you feel trapped by the pressures of this world. The next time fear is making your decisions. The next time you respond from hurt, anger or grief. Look at the hope of Jesus Christ that overcame those things, even transformed them. Look at how Jesus faced the worst humanity could imagine on that cross and look at how he overcame it all for us, all so that we would know and live in the hope that God has always wanted for us.

The truth about our Easter hope is that it is immensely practical, in that it affects and changes everything. It is an undefeatable hope that can shape our whole lives not just for better, but for more than we can imagine. As we read today, Mary and the two disciples couldn’t imagine what this empty tomb meant. Such a hope was beyond their expectations. But when Mary met Jesus, we can imagine how her whole body, mind, and spirit would have buzzed with joy. How she couldn’t help but run and hold onto Jesus? How the disciples became emboldened to share the good news about Jesus? How they faced ridicule and loss and yet found a community, a faith, a life that was far better than anything else the world offered?

God is now offering us that hope through the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. This same hope can lead us and transform our lives. This hope is still an undefeatable hope that can overcome and transform evil, suffering and death. This hope is still powerful and effective as it is taking us to the realization of the resurrection hope in us and in our lives. AMEN

Dead through trespasses and sin

Following - the world

The spirits of the air

Desires and the flesh and senses

Children of Wrath

Bible Study Prepared By Dawn Mercer:

The HOPE we have from Easter

Some suggestions for discussion: (Please add other suggestions.)

Read:  Ephesians 2: 1-10; 19-22

·       In what way were we dead (before we became Christians)? In what way does Paul say we are resurrected (alive) with Christ?

·       What is God’s gift to us? (See v 8)

Read: John 20: 1-10  11-18

·       Where is HOPE embodied in Easter morning? What is that hope based on?

·       How did the HOPE of Easter morning change people – disciples, Mary Magdelene, “the church”? How does it change us?

Reflections:

1.     What does God, in Christ, do with our hurt, anger, burdens, loss and evil.

2.     Where do you see death around you? (What is killing us?)

3.     Where do you see HOPE around you?

4.     Rev Philip suggested that the HOPE that comes from the resurrection is “new life, all the time, every day”. Where do you see new life even at these troubled and chaotic times? (Maybe make a list – mental, paper, phone etc. - when you are being dragged down.)

Prayers:

Thanks for answered prayers.

Prayer for others as requested.  

Pray together:

Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.  And lead us into your resurrection Hope.

AMEN