The Lutheran Hour
-
"Our Hope"
- Download MP3 No bonus material MP3
-
Text: Luke 24:21a
-
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The word of the angel spoken at the empty tomb tells us that God has, in His Son, given us Hope for the most hopeless of situations.
Hopeless situations. In 1948, Harry Truman was running for the Presidency of the United States. His was, quite frankly, a hopeless situation. Every public opinion poll predicted that his opponent, Thomas Dewey, would give Truman a thorough drubbing. Newsweek went to the top 50 political pundits in the country and asked for their opinion. They agreed: Dewey would have a hundred more electoral votes than he needed. The Fort Lauderdale Daily News published a prediction which said that Dewey would get 62 percent of the vote – at least. Life magazine featured a full-page picture of Dewey with the caption, “The new President travels by ferry boat over the broad waters of San Francisco Bay.” The Kiplinger Letter, a favorite among businessmen, had an article on the economic policies of the Dewey administration. Truman’s re-election was hopeless. The Manchester Guardian carried a report entitled, “Harry S. Truman – Study of a Failure.” And of course, the Chicago Trib had already gone to press with an edition which headlined, “Dewey Defeats Truman!”
It was a hopeless situation. On election night, Dewey, in New York, wrote his acceptance speech, while Truman, in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, ate a ham sandwich and drank a glass of milk. Both listened to the news reports. At 6 o’clock in the evening, it was reported Truman had been defeated. At 10 o’clock, Truman was still going down in flames. At midnight, the report came out that Truman was ahead by 1,200,000 votes, but he was still going to lose the election. At 4 in the morning, Truman was awakened by a Secret Service agent who told him he was ahead by two million votes, but the commentators were still convinced that Dewey was going to be the winner. Truman’s was a hopeless situation, or at least that’s what the experts said. The events of that night tell us that Truman’s hopeless situation wasn’t nearly as hopeless as people and the candidates had been led to believe. Truman won. Dewey lost, along with the pollsters. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then, and political polls have become far more sophisticated. Now they can call the election right every single time. Almost.
Hopeless situations. People love stories about hopeless situations which aren’t hopeless at all. We like the story of the little racehorse, Seabiscuit, who beat the odds makers and the favored thoroughbreds. We swell with pride when we’re shown the U.S. Olympic team capturing gold at Lake Placid in 1980. On a local level, we smile when we hear about some homeowner or shopkeeper, or small businessman who manages to hold on and actually beat city hall or some other bureaucratic institution.
Hopeless situations. In my parish pastorate, I recall the times when babies were born and everybody knew their situation was hopeless. Everybody that is, except the good Lord and the baby. Today some of those infants who “weren’t going to make it,” have children of their own. I remember sitting by a husband while his wife underwent exploratory surgery. After an hour-and-a-half, the doctor came out, and with a sad face, said the situation was “hopeless.” His skilled hands were helpless; the cancer was inoperable. “Take her home,” he said, “make her comfortable, and when that no longer works at home–we’ll bring her back to the hospital so she can die in peace.” The family asked, “How long does she have?” “Six months at best,” was the doctor’s reply. I wonder if that lady, 23 years after her exploratory surgery, is listening to this message. She might be. She’s still alive.
Hopeless situations. I can remember weddings that I knew were hopeless situations. The bride and groom simply had too many differences in background and situation, and education and personalities, and goals and a hundred and one other matters of compatibility. “The marriage would never last.” That’s what I said to myself. It couldn’t. I was wrong, and some of those hopeless marriages became the happiest of marriages. So much for my prophetic abilities.
As I’ve been talking about hopeless situations, you no doubt have remembered a fair number of such stories from your own life’s experiences. You farmers can remember hopeless situations when the weather conditions gave you a year when there wasn’t going to be any harvest; but there was a harvest, wasn’t there? All of us have come upon accidents, maybe been in accidents, where the situation was hopeless and it was obvious that nobody would ever get out of that twisted tangle of metal, plastic, and glass alive. But there were survivors, some who were marked by only the smallest of bruises. Yes, all of us have seen hopeless situations that weren’t hopeless. Maybe that’s why the song written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington is still, after many years, so popular: “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are; Anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme; When you wish upon a star as dreamers do.” Their song concludes with: “Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you thru; When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.”
Hopeless situations? Life has taught the optimists among us that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation – there are only people who have given up hope.
But our dreams don’t always come true, do they? All of us know of someone who wished upon a star; who poured out an ocean of wishes upon a galaxy of stars, but their dreams didn’t come true, did they? In spite of the easy, comfortable, peaceful life we wish for, disappointment, discouragement, doubt, depression, and death still come. That was certainly the way it was 2,000 years ago, on the Sunday night after Jesus had been crucified. Two melancholy friends were walking the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Disciples of the dead Christ, they were doing what mourners have always done: they were reflecting on the life of the dearly Departed. They reminisced about Jesus’ last days. Had it only been a week ago that His future and theirs seemed so filled with promise? Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem as the Son of David; that’s how the crowds had welcomed him. They had lined His path with their own clothing and palm branches. The young, and the not so young, let out a roar as they paid homage to Him who had come in the Name of the Lord.
“Was it possible,” they wondered, “that less than a week had gone by since Jesus was with them, alive and active?” It was possible. On Monday, Jesus had amazed the people and offended the church authorities when He overturned the tables of the shopkeepers and traders and drove them out of the temple. What a display that had been! On Tuesday, Jesus had spoken of how He would come on the “clouds of the sky, with great glory.” He had promised a tremendous reward to any of His disciples who remained faithful. What tantalizing, tempting treasures He was offering. All who heard Him might have made a silent, secret promise to be among those who would be singled out for reward.
It was Thursday, just three days ago, that things began to unravel. During the evening which had been marked by the Christ showing them how to be a loving servant, they had eaten the Passover meal together. Then, with Judas gone into the night on an unknown errand, Jesus had instituted the new Sacrament of His Body and Blood. A walk to the Garden of Gethsemane; a few moments alone, and then … and then everything changed.
You know how it feels. One moment you’re the king of the hill and the master of your fate; the next moment you’re in the bottom of the basement, wondering what can go wrong next. One moment you’re sitting down for a long-expected, peaceful meal with loved ones, and the next, everyone is red-facedly engaged in a heated argument. One moment you’re driving to finish up some errands, and the next you’re standing in the rain, examining the accident which has made your car unfit for the road. One moment you’ve having a routine physical, and the next a dour doctor says, “We’re going to have to bring you in for tests on that lump you’ve managed to ignore.” One moment you’re feeling pretty good about your finances, and the next your taxman tells you exactly what you owe to Uncle Sam.
Jesus’ two disciples would have understood. One moment Jesus had been the great Jewish hope; the next He had been turned over by a traitor, deserted by His closest friends, locked away, tried, beaten, condemned and crucified. The fall had come so fast, they hadn’t had time to prepare themselves, or even get their balance or breath until some time after the Roman executioner had slid a spear into Jesus’ side and declared Him dead.
Death. You know, all of us can look at life with a more or less optimistic attitude, until death comes. I’m not talking about when death peaks around the corner, or shows himself somewhere down the block. I’m talking about when death has touched us. When the doctor says, “He’s gone”; or “I’m sorry, we did our best for her.” I’m talking about when the funeral director has been called; when we have to go pick out a casket, order flowers, and bring down clothes for the wake. I’m talking about when there are no more chances, no more options, no more opportunities. I’m talking about when hope, wonderful, believable hope is gone. I’m talking about the moment when mourning begins and farewells must be said. I’m talking about that moment when no matter how many stars your have wished upon, it will make no difference who you are. When death has paid you a visit, it is a hopeless situation. That is the way it has been since the fall into sin; that is the way it was for Jesus’ disciples; that is the way it still is for millions today.
Death had come. The situation was hopeless. Nobody could argue the fact. The High Priests had delivered Jesus up, and the Roman execution squad had done its duty. Their Teacher was dead and buried, along with their hopes. True, earlier on Sunday, some of the women had gone to Christ’s tomb. They had found the stone rolled away, the guard gone. They reported they had received a resurrection message from an angel. Also true, some of the Lord’s disciples had checked out what the women had to say. The most they could do was verify that Jesus’ body was not in the borrowed grave. Common sense told them, and Jesus’ fearful followers believed this basic fact: “When you’re dead, you’re dead.” They knew that death is the one hopeless situation from which there is no escape.
They said as much to the third Man who joined them on their walk. When He asked about the tone and tenor of their conversation, they retold the events of the past week and then summed up their misery with the words: “We had hoped He was the One who was going to buy back Israel.” They were saying, “Everything we had dreamed about, everything we had longed for; all the trust we had put in Jesus is gone. A week ago we thought Jesus would make things happen, but we don’t think so anymore.” They knew a dead Savior, a buried Savior, is no Savior at all. Theirs was a hopeless situation.
You’ve been there, haven’t you? Possibly you are a widow or widower who has returned home from a gravesite to the emptiness of a house, which had been shared with a life’s partner of decades. Perhaps you are a parent who had dreams for a child. You saw the possible paths that stretched out for years before your little one. You dreamed dreams, and those dreams were filled with laughter and life. Then death came. Death came–as an accident or an illness, it came. It may have come in the daylight or slipped in during the night. It makes no difference. Death came. You know the hopelessness that comes when death comes.
Unless. And, O my friends, what a wonderful God-given, blood-bought eternity-shaking word is that word: unless; unless you know the living Lord Jesus Christ. That resurrection day, as the weary travelers made their way along the road, they were joined by a Stranger who was no stranger. The risen Christ, unrecognizable at first to their eyes, fell in by their side. A living Lord Jesus walked with them and talked with them and explained Scripture to them. What a wonderful Bible lesson that must have been! And before the evening was over, they found out as millions have found out, that with Jesus as your Savior, there are no hopeless situations. They heard from the mouth of the living Lord Jesus, that God had in His gracious plan to save sinners, sent His only Son into the world. God’s Son had come to fulfill the laws humankind had broken; to resist the temptations to which we have succumbed; to die the death that we deserved, and then to rise on the third day so that all might know that Jesus Christ has defeated death, and in so doing, given birth to hope. In Jesus, death has lost its sting; in Jesus, for all who believe, for all who have repented and are forgiven, the grave has lost its victory. In Jesus there is hope!
It has been quite some time ago that King George VI of England addressed the British Commonwealth on a New Year’s Eve. Although the King didn’t know it, cancer was eating at him, and he would die before the end of that coming year. The world’s future was then, as it always seems to be, hopeless. The King spoke these words: “I said to the man at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I might walk safely into the unknown.’ And he said to me, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you safer than the light and better than the known.'”
That is what I say to you this Lord’s Day. Let the Lord Jesus Christ take your hand. Hope is a fragile thing, and when it shrivels and shrinks, it takes a miracle to revive it. Hopelessness is a disease of the soul which takes a Savior to bring about a cure. If you are among the millions who are listening to my voice; who feel you have nothing to hope for; whose days are being spent waiting for a better tomorrow which you’re convinced will never come, let me share this miracle: you have a living, resurrected Savior. If all you can see is darkness stretching out before you, believe that the Savior’s nail-pierced hand is also stretching out to you. Jesus, who has defeated death, can defeat any and all problems that plague you, bring peace to any harm in your heart, bring hope to the deepest of hurts. In short, life with Christ is filled with endless hope, and without Him there can only be a hopeless end.
Too good to be true? Not at all. My friends, if you ever visit the catacombs in Rome, those underground tunnels where many early Christians are buried, look at the sermons preached by the symbols on their graves. You will, if you look closely enough, see three common signs: a dove, a fish, and an anchor. The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, Who gives us faith and hope. The fish, in Greek ichthus, is an acronym for the words “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” Jesus is the basis for all hope and heaven. And the anchor? The anchor says that in seemingly hopeless times, when all is adrift, Jesus is our God-given Hope who anchors our souls–sermons from the grave, hundreds of years old, sermons which say there are no hopeless situations. I have run out of time, but I pray that you will see the hope which comes from the risen Lord. If you want to know more, please call us at The Lutheran Hour. We stand ready to show you the Savior who is our hope in the most hopeless, no, make that your hopeful situations. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for April 10, 2005
Topic: Hope for the HopelessANNOUNCER: Its time now for Lutheran Hour questions and answers with our speaker, Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor Klaus, a listener begs us to pray for her and for what used to be a happy family. Her husband died several years ago. Now she’s had a falling out with her son. He’s moved out and he says he hates her.
KLAUS: That’s a terribly poignant letter. To lose a husband, and then in a different way to lose one of your children – that’s difficult. Then to see the harmony of the home disappear – very hard.
ANNOUNCER: But we also have another letter from another lady. She’s had two miscarriages and is now 15 weeks pregnant. Her doctors have told her she’s in bad shape, but having a baby is what she wants. She’s looking to God for answers.
KLAUS: Mark, you see a connection between those two calls, don’t you?
ANNOUNCER: I do.
KLAUS: And the connection is?
ANNOUNCER: Today you talked about hope, and these folks seem so hopeless.
KLAUS: We should point out that when somebody calls into our Response Center and asks for prayer, they do pray with them, right then and there.
ANNOUNCER: That’s true. They don’t have to wait until the question gets on the air.
KLAUS: Having said that, let’s talk about hope. Better yet, let’s pray. Dear Lord, You stilled the storm and quieted Your disciples’ fears. Be with these women, each of whom is facing a difficult and seemingly, to us, impossible situation. Dear Lord, grant them hope that with faith in You, they may move forward in the lives You would have them lead. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. Each of the two individuals who called in are in what many people might call “hopeless situations.” The first lady has not only lost her husband, but peace within her home and, at least for now, the love of her son. The other lady has tried to have childre, but has not up until now, been able to. Both are in desperate straits.
ANNOUNCER: For both of them, this feeling of hopelessness doesn’t help them overcome their difficulties.
KLAUS: Hopelessness is often that way. It feeds on itself.
ANNOUNCER: What can you say?
KLAUS: What can be said is this: Jesus can break the pattern.
ANNOUNCER: But you’re not saying that Jesus will necessarily give that lady back the respect of her son, or give the other lady a child?
KLAUS: You know, there are those who would say that “if you pray hard enough or have enough faith or send in some money, or do any number of things, God is compelled to grant your wishes.” The Bible doesn’t promise that. It does promise that the Lord can break the pattern.
ANNOUNCER: What do you mean by “break the pattern?”
KLAUS: What I mean with those words is that hopelessness always suggests that there is no light at the end of the tunnel–that the way you are now, the way the situation is, will remain forever the same. You’re overwhelmed with the feeling that you’re condemned for the rest of your life to live this way without change. When I say Jesus breaks the pattern, it means you don’t have to live with that situation. Your life is not doomed to be this way forever. In the case of our lady who’s praying for a child, but who has been told that things don’t look good, there are a number of things that the Lord can do for her. He could grant her a child. I wish she’d call back this week and let us know if that has happened. But it may be that the Lord will help her love an adopted child as much as her own. It may mean that she can find a peace which will allow her to love other people’s children. It may mean the Lord will help her to learn to live without a child. I have no idea what will happen, what has happened. I only know that the Lord Jesus will help her through the problem, or with the problem, or remove the problem. That’s His promise.
ANNOUNCER: How about the other lady who lost her husband, her son, and her happy home? What can Jesus do for her?
KLAUS: He can do the same thing. The only added complication is that this lady is dealing with three different difficulties, all at the same time. The Lord may give her the wisdom and insight to talk with her son and rebuild the bridges which have been broken. The Lord may help her find the patience to know that her son’s angry words are coming from a child who doesn’t understand all that has happened to their family. The Lord may bring one, and hopefully both, into a greater dependence upon Him and the forgiveness He’s won for them on the cross. The Lord Jesus can break the pattern.
ANNOUNCER: And He can do that with the most hopeless of situations?
KLAUS: He took two sisters who were crying over the death of their brother, and showed them that He was the Master over death. If He can defeat death–and He has–He can defeat anything. Knowing that you’re on the winning side–Jesus’ side–gives hope no matter what the situation.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.