Hope in the Past Tense
That’s what the two disciples told the unnamed man on the Emmaus Road. As Red told Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, “hope is a dangerous thing; hope can drive a man insane.” It is hard to think of a more deflating and debilitating thing than hope when it is spoken of in this way, in the past tense. “We had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel,” they told the stranger. But we were disappointed.
On the surface it seemed they had been hoping in Jesus, but in reality they had been placing their hopes in a misguided idea about who the messiah was and what the messiah had come to do for Israel.
They had been looking forward to Jesus doing a specific kind of thing for their nation. And Jesus, it would seem, had let them down. And this is why they were disappointed.
Over the past five decades of spiritual decline in New England - Jesus followers have placed their hope in many things that are not Jesus. As we’ve watched the Kingdom seemingly lose influence to a secularizing culture, we have looked for things on which to pin our hopes.
Some of us have been tempted to hope in ministry strategies, new silver bullet frameworks, to rescue the church. Whether that is an evangelistic strategy, a church planting strategy, a church revitalization strategy, a new curriculum, a new way of doing things. We’ve gone to the latest conference to learn from the latest big names about how to do church smarter and better.
Others of us have been tempted to work harder. We stay up later. Get up earlier. Do more. Run more programming. Only to find ourselves running on a ministry hamster wheel that spins faster the faster we run.
Others of us have been tempted to pursue relevance. The secular world is disinterested in or worse, offended by, orthodox Christianity. Let’s make it more palatable to the coastal elites. Let’s sweep the offensive parts under the rug. The parts about the Lordship of Jesus over all of life. For example. The hard teachings. Let’s emphasize the parts of the faith that seem acceptable, even to a post-Christian world that wants the Kingdom without the King.
Others of us have been tempted to fight back. We sense Christendom slipping away, and the trappings of its power. Let’s find a strong man to be a King and fight our battles for us - just as Israel did with Saul. Let’s pursue the levers of political power (even if it is a dirty business) so that we can claw our way back to prominence in society.
And yet even as we put our hope in these different things, none of them really worked. They all let us down. What we need, like the two on the road to Emmaus, is to put these hopes in the past tense. To be honest with ourselves and God and say - we had hoped in these things. Because it is only until we allow these hopes to die that we can be open to the one who is walking with us on the road.
Jesus, the Real Jesus is waiting to talk to us about what we had hoped in. “How foolish you have been,” he says to the two, “and how slow to believe all the scriptures have taught. Did not the Messiah have to suffer and die, and then enter into glory?”
It was indeed foolish of us to put our hope in relevance, or politics, or ministry strategies, or our own efforts - instead of the one who rose from the dead. And the sooner we admit this to ourselves, the sooner we will be ready for God to surprise us with burning hearts. We don’t need these things; we need Him. We have only ever needed Him. The Risen One.
Rev. Greg Johnson
Director, Revive New England