Hope that Holds UP

Some weeks, the death and injustice of life feels closer than others. This past week I spoke with person after person who was searching for answers. Each of us will experience tragedy and injustice at some point in our life, even though we might like to pretend we won’t. Two common responses I hear variations of are, everything happens for a reason or evil is evidence that there is no God. I believe these are both inadequate and hopeless. If everything happens for a reason then we are trying to make everything mean something and end up trying to make something bad good. This is unnecessary and horribly unhelpful. On the other hand, if there is no God then this world just is was it is. There’s no such thing as eternal goodness and love. It’s hopeless and our best bet is to accept our fate.

I believe that Christ offers us a different option–hope that holds up.

Welcome wrestling

21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” (John 11:21-22)

Martha and Mary’s brother, Lazarus, has died becasue Jesus didn’t show up sooner and they both want to know why. I appreciate that Jesus never condemns them for wrestling with death. This is a theme throughout the scriptures. God does not penalize his people for wrestling. Apathy is chastised, wrestle is welcome. God welcomes the wrestle with evil, injustice, and death because Christ has come to rescue us from death not to justify it.

As you are faced with hardship in this life, don’t be afraid to wrestle. I think sometimes we are afraid to wrestle, as though there might be some type of penalty. Or we think that the wrestle is a sign of weakness. Neither is true.

Weep with God

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. (John 11:33-35)

Being greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved is the equivalent of being sad-mad like in the movie Home. When Jesus sees Mary and the Jews weeping over Lazarus he is sad-mad. This is so informative. There’s no other God hiding behind Jesus. Jesus is who God is. Therefore, we learn that death makes God sad-mad and that God weeps and mourns with us.

God mourns at the brokenness of the world because it is not as it should be. As we weep and mourn we connect with God and one another. God meets us through the Spirit and ministers to us. As Andrew Root writes, “Jesus Christ is the light found in the dark, found next to our loss, yearning, and brokenness, giving us his humanity so that we might find new life beyond the darkness of death–this is our hope.

Mourning is unnatural for us. We tend to put on a good face and carry on. This will take practice for us to let our spirit wrestle with the injustice, our emotions experience the loss, and learn to rely on resurrection.

Rely on resurrection

When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:43-44)

Resurrection is a sign that life, not death, is the true reality. The joy, love, and connection we experience in this world is real, death is just a shadow of this. Resurrection and restoration is what God will bring about. Our hope comes from our ability to trust in it. Taking time to imagine what a resurrected existence will be like strengthens our hope.

When I imagine a restored cosmos its memories like huge parties at my grandparents house filled with family and friends telling stories and laughing together. Or dinner and game nights with my wife and kids. It’s also the vision of artists like Vincent Van Gogh, capturing not only the beauty of a landscape but also a vision of hope with colors and depth that delight. These experiences of transcendent love and beauty are a sign of the true reality that will one day no longer be marred by death and brokenness. My hope rests in this.