HOPE BEYOND THE GRAVE
A number of years ago researchers performed an
experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of
laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one
set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other
rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that
happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they
were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope!
Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay
afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them. If hope
holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should is effect be
on our lives. A few weeks ago, we
witnessed the loss of seventeen lives in a school shooting in Florida. One can
only imagine the grief of the families whose loved ones are not with them this
Easter Sunday morning. We too have grieved together as a nation with those
families. Unfortunately, these tragic situations happen all the time and they will
continue to happen because we are living in a broken world, among broken
people. In a world where there is so much trouble and heartache we need someone
to anchor our lives on.
Who
can give that Hope or be that Hope for us? On Easter Sunday we gather to
celebrate not only that the stone which once sealed the body of Christ in the
grave has been rolled away. But we celebrate, “Hope Beyond the Grave.” That Hope is no other than our risen Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. The hope of Easter isn’t the hope of a naïve fool or
nagging optimist, it’s the hope that comes right into our circumstances and meets
us where we are, in the real world, but the tragedy is that we so often do not
recognize the person who is our hope. In the passage in Luke 24:13-27, the
gospel writer explains how people did not recognize the Hope that was walking
right next to them, until a time where they were enlightened by the person of Hope.
I. HOPES
WERE DASHED
This,
what was said of Lindsey Vonn after her disappointing performance during the
winter Olympics. “The hopes of a golden fairytale to her final Olympic downhill
were dashed.” That was just in sports, but in real life many people continue to
live with their hopes being dashed. On
the day Jesus was crucified and buried in a tomb, it sure looked like the hopes
of the disciples, including many Jews who were looking for a Messiah were
dashed.
In
Proverbs 13:12 we read, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled
is a tree of life.” The Gospel writer Luke touchingly captures
the dejected faces of two followers of Christ and their state of hopelessness by
highlighting a conversation on the road to Emmaus. Vs 13, “Now that same day two of them were going
to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with
each other about everything that had happened.”
We do not know
who these two individuals were, all we know that they were not any of the
eleven disciples as according to Vs 18 one was named Cleopas. Nothing much also
is known about Emmaus, it is mentioned nowhere else except here. According to
the tradition it was a village seven miles from Jerusalem. Pay attention to
some of the details of their conversation.
As
they talked and walked on the road to Emmaus, Jesus himself joined them, but
they couldn’t recognize him as they were kept from recognizing him. Jesus asked
them; what were you fellows so intensely talking about? They stood still, their
faces were downcast. Cleopas asked, are you the only one in Jerusalem who does
not know the things that have happened there in these days? In other words,
they said, “are you not following the news”? Jesus pretended as if he new
nothing and asked, what things? Then they went to great lengths about Jesus of
Nazareth, whom they thought was a powerful prophet from God in word and deed.
How
he was crucified, died and was buried. Listen, closely to their tone of
hopelessness, Vs 21, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem
Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place” Let’s
pause here. Did you ever hope that God would do something for you, for example:
give you a seat in an esteemed college like Harvard university, or a dream job,
or you get to marry the dream of your heart, or succeed in your business or
job, or a dream house, or healing of your sickness and disease?
How would you feel, when those hopes were
dashed? Well, that was precisely what these two and many in Jerusalem were going
through at that time. This so-called man from Nazareth whom they hoped was God
sent, their Messiah, was going to dethrone the Roman empire and restore
Jerusalem back to the Jewish people. Everything now turned out to be a huge
disappointment. Jesus was now dead and buried so were their dreams and hopes
along with Jesus in the grave. But
little did they know that there was Hope waiting for them beyond the grave.
II.
THE GRAVE COULD NOT HOLD HIM
They continued in their
explanation. Early this morning some of our women went to the tomb, but they
did not find the body, they came and told us that they had seen the vision of
angles and the angles told them that he was alive. Our friends went to the tomb
to check this out, and they too did not find the body of Jesus. At this point
Jesus must have been laughing in his heart over their ignorance of what was
written about him in the Scriptures.
Jesus
had some strong words for them. He said, “How foolish you are, and how slow to
believe all that the prophets have spoken.” He explained to them from Moses to
the prophets, all that was written concerning how the Messiah would come, suffer
and enter his glory. As we read through the story, we will notice in the end
these two disciple’s eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus who was their
hope. The grave could not hold Him. He is Risen from the dead!
III.
HOPE BEYOND THE GRAVE
What
is the message of Easter? You may be facing a situation like Good Friday where
your hopes seemed to have been dashed. You feel dejected and think that there
is no more hope left and your situation is beyond redemption. Don’t give up
hope too quickly. The message of Easter is that we will find
Hope in our grave like situations. We will find strength and courage to face
any and every situation through the power of Christ’s resurrection.
On
Good Friday, the cross points us to God’s redeeming love and forgiveness. On
Easter Sunday morning the empty tomb points us to the hope of the resurrection.
For those who do not know Christ as their savior a hopeless end may be awaiting
them once they are laid in the grave. But for those who accept Jesus as their
savior, and live their lives loving God and loving their neighbors, there
awaits an endless hope of glory. They will be ushered into God’s Kingdom.
Billy Graham
once said, “For the believer
there is hope beyond the grave, because Jesus Christ has opened the door to
heaven for us by His death and resurrection.” On this Easter Sunday morning may
you find hope beyond the grave in Jesus Christ. May the power of His resurrection,
sustain you and keep you until Christ returns to this earth to establish His
Kingdom. I close with these
assuring words, I Peter 1:3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By
his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that
is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being
protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time.” Amen!
