Hope In the Dark

I have a book on my desk that I recently started reading.  It’s called Hope in the Dark.  That’s a fitting title for our day.  This is a dark time for many.  We are separated from our loved ones and grieving the loss of community.  Many are anxious and fearful.  Many are confused and even depressed about what the future may hold.  In some ways, our social isolation is similar to what the disciples endured as they were hiding out in the Upper Room after Jesus’ crucifixion.  It was a dark time for them.  It’s a dark time for us.   But it was when things looked the darkest that God brought forth hope when He raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus is our hope in the dark.

In fact, there is so much hope found in the resurrection of Jesus, that I want to dive right into the resurrection story from Matthew’s account found in Matthew 28. And it begins as follows: After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 

Now the first thing Matthew tells us is that two women are going to be the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection.  And I love this. While everyone else is still in hiding, these women take the first opportunity to go to the tomb.  You see, they had been there to witness Jesus’ crucifixion.  They were present at his burial by Joseph of Arimathea, and now that the Sabbath was over, they were going to be the first ones at the tomb.  It was dawn of the third day and they were making a be-line to Jesus.  But something had just taken place that was quite remarkable: There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. Matthew 28:2-4

There was a violent earthquake.  Cornelius a Lapide, a Jesuit Priest from the middle ages gives us a great quote about this earthquake saying, “The earth, which trembled with sorrow at the Death of Christ as it were leaped for joy at His resurrection.”  And then of course, there is this appearance of an angel that so shocked the Roman guards that they were literally paralyzed with fear. They looked like dead men. This is the scene that greets the two Marys.  And so as they come upon this extraordinary scene  The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” Matthew 28:5-6  This angel’s message is our Hope in the Darkness.  In fact as we go through this amazing encounter we are given at least 4 messages of hope. And the first is this:

1.Because Jesus has Risen you no longer have to fear death  Now it’s quite obvious the two Marys were frightened by what they were seeing. Any of us would be stunned.  After all it’s not every day you come upon elite Roman guards looking as though they’re dead, not to mention a brilliant angel sitting on a stone that’s been rolled away from the entrance to Jesus’ tomb.  Such a sight was not just bewildering, it was confusing, terrifying.  This scene was so shocking that these women had to have considered that they too might be in danger.  So the first words the angel says are “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” 

One of the certainties of life is that we will all eventually face death.  There’s no way around it.  We don’t like to talk about death.  We’re not comfortable with death. But with this pandemic, every one of us is forced to think about death.   For some of us the prospect of death troubles us, for others it fills us with fear.  So the very first message of the resurrection is meant to calm our fears. Jesus is not in the tomb.  He has risen.  He is alive.  He was crucified, but he now lives.  Jesus has conquered death.  And that’s good news.  Peter would say it this way in his first sermon about Jesus some forty days from now: you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Acts 2:23-24

This is our hope in the dark.  Because Jesus has risen you don’t have to fear death.  The day Jesus rose from the grave is the day death died.  And because Jesus lives today, when you put your trust in Jesus, God gives you this hope. As it is written: In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3  If you’ve been born again by God through faith in Jesus you know this is true.  Because Jesus is alive you  have a living hope. You don’t need to fear death, death has no hold on you, because it has no hold on Jesus. Jesus defeated death once and for all when He rose from the grave. That’s our Hope in the Darkness: We don’t have to fear death.  Now here’s the second message of hope:

2.Because Jesus has Risen you can be forgiven In other words, if Jesus would not have risen from the dead, we would still be in our sins. But because he was crucified, buried and rose again, every sin you’ve ever committed can be canceled.  The Bible affirms this truth saying: He has forgiven all your sins and canceled every debt we owe.  Christ has done away with it by nailing it to a cross. Colossians 2:14

The resurrection of Jesus Christ secured your forgiveness.  Every sin you ever committed was nailed to the cross the day Jesus died.  Every sin was buried with Him.  Then when Jesus rose from the grave, every sin you ever committed STAYED in that grave.  That’s the hope that emerged from the darkness of the tomb. Because Jesus has Risen you can be forgiven.  And because Jesus has risen, the moment you believe in Him God gives you a brand new life with Him.  That’s the hope found in the resurrection of Jesus spelled out to us by Paul:  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4  That’s our hope in the darkness. Because Jesus lives, you don’t have to be trapped in your past. Because Jesus lives you can have a new life now. You can be forgiven.  That’s the good news of the resurrection. And that’s our hope in the dark.  Now the third,

3. Because Jesus has Risen you can trust His Word Listen again to what the angel said, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” In a number of instances Jesus told his disciples about his impending death and resurrection.  Here is one of the clearest examples of Jesus’ prediction recorded for us by Luke: “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him;  they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” Luke 18:31-33   Jesus knew he was going to be crucified, buried and rise again.  His arrest and crucifixion was not a surprise to him. Jesus not only predicted this would happen, but tells us this is what he came to do.  Listen to his words,  “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” John 10:17-18

Because Jesus has Risen you can trust His Word.  If Jesus had the authority to lay down his life and had authority to take up again – then you can trust in the authority of His Word.  You can count on what Jesus says.  And this should give you hope in the darkness.  For when things looked darkest for the disciples, when their world seemed to be falling apart, and when all seemed lost… Jesus rose from the grave, just as he said he would.  And if Jesus did what he said he would do by rising from the dead, you can trust him in whatever he promises.  Like when he says, “Never will I leave you, Never will I forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5  You can count on that.  You can trust him when he says, Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me  will never be thirsty. John 6:35  and You can trust him when he says, “I am the resurrectionand the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” John 11:25-26  So because Jesus has Risen you can trust His Word.  He is our hope in the dark.  That’s the third message of hope that comes from the resurrection.  Now the fourth,

4. Because Jesus has Risen you can have confidence that His resurrection was genuine The next thing the angel said to the women was this: “Come and see the place where he lay” There was an actual tomb where they laid Jesus. There were graveclothes in that tomb.  But the Tomb was empty.  The fact that there was an empty tomb makes resurrection is a historical fact.  Joseph of Arimathea had buried Jesus in this tomb.  The Roman authorities had sealed this tomb.  And the two Mary’s saw the tomb was empty.  Perhaps one could say that the body had been stolen.  But the angel didn’t leave room for that.  For next the angel says to them, Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. You see, not only did these women see the empty tomb, but they saw Jesus.  And when they did, they grabbed his feet and worshiped him. You don’t grab hold of a ghost.  And you don’t worship a mere man.  You only worship God.  So at that moment, these women new instinctively that not only was Jesus alive, but he was divine. And they became the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection…  But not the last… for we are told in 1 Corinthians 15, there were many eyewitnesses. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.  

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

The resurrection was not a hoax.  It was real.  There were just too many witnesses, and the two Mary’s were the first witnesses…   And now because Jesus has risen, you can have the same confidence they had, for they were the least likely of witnesses:

Two women who had come to anoint his body with burial spices.

Two women who had come to grieve and pay their respects.

Two women who never expected to see, let alone worship their risen Lord.

But now because they saw the risen Jesus and worshiped him… they had a story to tell. For Jesus then said to them: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

And now because they told their story to the disciples – we have hope in the dark!

We have the hope that death has been defeated.

We have the hope that our sins have been forgiven.

We have the hope of a new life with Him.

We have the hope that His Word will never fails us.

And we have the hope of one day seeing Jesus face to face, when we can bow down and worship Him as our risen Savior and Lord.

But until then, like these two women, we have a story to tell: Jesus is our hope in the dark! He is not here, He has risen, just as He said!  Let’s pray.