…in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;Titus 1:2

I woke up this morning to a flicker tapping on the roof like an annoying alarm clock. Then when I came downstairs and looked outside, it was snowing. Again. Another storm has moved in with leaden skies, cold, sleet and – more snow. Surely it’s time for spring to show up and show off, for the birds to come back and for the brave green shoots to open up their flowers. After all, it’s practically mid April. Easter is but six days away. There should be flowers blooming and birds singing.

Winter storms will eventually leave. Earth and sun will move closer together just as God ordains. It will become warm again for all seasons occur in due time. We may grumble about April snow but know that this too shall pass, eons upon eons. So we hope – let new spring life come quickly.

Beginning yesterday with Palm Sunday, this is Holy Week in the Christian Church. It is a week to reflect on the Gospels – what Jesus did, what Jesus said, what Jesus taught right up to the cross. The chronology of Jesus’ last week on earth is the core of Christianity’s religious celebrations this week. We remember and celebrate the last days of Jesus’ life as He resolutely moved from His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to Golgotha’s crucifixion and then to His resurrection on the third day.

Jesus’ resurrection is the central tenet of Christianity which separates our faith from every other because it offers the one thing that no other religion can. In Jesus alone, the fallen creation regains hope. Life does not end with death. Our hope is that because Christ lives, so shall all who believe in Him.

I believe we can’t fully grasp Jesus’ seismic impact on humanity. Jesus lived in a world and time of utter darkness. It was a world without light or hope. From Adam up to Jesus, fallen man was under the curse of death. For all millennia creation was as if in unending grey, dreary, lightless winter without any respite or hope of spring. Death was the end and nothing could change man’s returning to dust. And then came Jesus of whom John wrote:

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.…John 1:3

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people mobbed Him desperately. God had been silent. There had been no Jewish prophet for over 400 years; no one was speaking for God or interceding for Israel until John the Baptist appeared. The Jews were brutalized and oppressed by Roman rule. Millions were volatile, dangerous and rebellious. They wanted a messiah to lead them out of their oppressive hopelessness and to wreak vengeance against Rome. They acclaimed Jesus to be that Messiah, addressing Him as son of David and shouting “hosannas” as He entered Jerusalem. Their false hope was that Jesus was their liberator. Instead, they rejected Jesus as Lord, as the hope of their salvation.

As you read the Gospels this week, put away our 21st century perspective for a few days and try to see the hopelessness of first century Jews and Romans and Gentiles and even the disciples. See with Jesus’ eyes day by day, hour by hour as He walks toward the cross to lay down His life for a hopeless, turbulent world. Let God’s Word in Holy Week Scriptures awaken us to the enormity of His sacrifice. The world is still gripped by winter’s darkness. People are abysmally and desperately in need of hope. Allow the magnitude of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday to strip away every pretension and false hope.

Doctrines do not give hope. Only the Son of God can: hope of reconciliation with the Father, the hope of eternal life, the Hope of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. We who are the Jesus’ “hope of glory” must offer Resurrection hope to those who are crushed.

When asked, “Why Jesus?” I say because there is no one else who offers the tree of life, Himself.
The Lord is all I have, and so in him I put my hope. Lamentations 3:24