"A Season of Hope" by Dan

One particular trend I have noticed is the segment of society to which faith seems irrelevant. Within circles lacking solid economic or emotional stability, Christianity has not been well-represented. People within these contexts usually have trouble reconciling God’s goodness to the everyday problems which they cannot get past.

Unfortunately, Scripture never gives a comforting answer to the question, “How could a loving God allow this much evil?” If you so desire, you can explain it away by saying that we all sinned, and because sin is in the world, humanity must reap the consequences of this sin, even if it is not personally deserved. If you say this, you may be telling the truth, but you will never hear anyone respond, “Oh, I get it. I guess I’ll convert to Christianity now!”

Thanks to what Jesus has done, what Easter means to us, we can find comfort in the midst of this tragedy called life. Several feel that Christianity is good in theory, but in practice only works for segments of society which seem to be free from incredible pain. Hence, Christianity is seen as an upper-class, “white man’s” religion. However, I would like to point out that faith in Christ, in its pure sense, has the greatest promises for those who have nothing in which to place their hope.

Back in Jesus’ day, the people had plenty of expectations for Him. They expected Him to be a King, a ruler, someone to overthrow the government. They expected Him to give them power as a sovereign nation. They expected Him to heal them from sickness, and to entertain them with all His magic tricks. They expected everything from Him—everything, that is, except for Him to deliver them from their biggest problem.

As the Son of God, Jesus could have stayed comfortable and continued to reap all the benefits of being God. Instead, He chose to empty Himself of that status and become one of us. For all the people praying, “God, save me from this mess,” instead of taking the chaos out of their lives, He entered into the chaos and walked with them. Instead of simply removing the dirt from the world, He came down and washed the dirt off people’s feet. Instead of holding onto the fellowship He had with His Father since eternity, He chose to feel the pain of His people’s separation from the Father when He said, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!?” Instead of simply removing sadness, disease, pain, and violence from the world, He subjected Himself to these elements. And, instead of preventing His people from dying, He Himself died the most horrific death, and then came back to prove that He was sovereign over even death.

This is what the Gospel, as well as Easter, is all about. For those who spend their existence wondering how a good God could allow His creation to go awry, He reaches down and gently says, “I know it is difficult to understand, and I cannot just make it go away. But I know exactly how it feels to hurt and wonder where God is. I understand what you are going through, and I am here for you. I will never leave you. I realize you are sad, but take courage; I have overcome. I have overcome the world. I have overcome the sadness, disease, and violence that make your life miserable. Most of all, I have overcome your deepest fear, death. I have overcome anything and everything that could possibly keep you from being with your Father. This is how much I love you.”

This is the Gospel, the “good news.” Jesus does not do what we often expect, and He does what we often do not expect. He allows the pain to stay in the world, but promises that no pain can ultimately destroy us. Instead of taking evil away, He redeems us from it. This season, celebrate this good news; and if you or a loved one has lost hope, may this good news be a rescuing hope.

*For further reading, see Mark 15:34; John 1:14;6:14-15, 26-55; 13;1-20; 16:16-22, 33; 1 Corinthians 15:20-29, 55-57; Philippians 2:5-11.