New Hope Always

New Hope Always

The story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Luke 24:11-12

ON THE MORNING OF THE RESURRECTION, several women went to Jesus’ tomb only to find it empty. They were first confused, then informed by an angelic visitor that Jesus was no longer there, and then reminded that Jesus had foretold this event, albeit at a time when he had said many cryptic things they didn’t understand. So they ran to tell the disciples, who had also heard Jesus’ words about rising again, and most of them promptly rejected the report. In the short time between his death and resurrection, the disciples had allowed their expectations to be colored by disappointment and skepticism rather than hope and faith.

We do that too. We may begin with naive hopes and faith-filled anticipation, but many of us become disillusioned by the ways of God—those crosses that fill our lives with dark and disturbing evidence. But as it turns out, our naive hopes were on the right track. We may not have understood the path toward their fulfillment then, but we weren’t wrong. Over time, if we continue living in expectant faith, we discover that our brushes with disappointment and skepticism discolor our vision of Jesus. We rediscover our hope.

In Luke’s account of the Resurrection morning, the disciples’ unwillingness to embrace a testimony of a miracle is remarkable. Perhaps this miracle seemed too far-fetched or too far removed from Jesus’ many other miracles. But what does it say of our faith when we reject a testimony because it doesn’t seem appropriate to our times, doctrine, or experiences? What is going on inside us when we hear glorious news and reject it because we didn’t see it ourselves? It means we have lost the innocent optimism of newfound faith—and that we have to recapture it.

Don’t become jaded. Yes, some reports of miracles are false, but many others are true. Believe them, embrace them, even choose to be naive about them, knowing you will sometimes be wrong. Your heart will be right, and your faith will be gloriously resurrected.

I never have difficulty believing in miracles, since I experienced the miracle of a change in my own heart.