Chapter Two: Not as Those Who Have No Hope

Last year my sister’s brother-in-law passed away suddenly in his early forties, leaving a wife and three children under ten. I remember thinking that if that happened to me, I know I would be thinking over and over that it couldn’t be true, and that my husband would be home soon. 

But what if that really happened? What if I were mourning the loss of my husband only to have him walk in the door after work as usual? How great would be my joy? How would that transform everything?

In the scripture passages we read for this “Unlikely Witness” chapter, we see people transformed by the joy of finding out that the one they loved had returned from the dead. It’s hard for me to put myself in the shoes of those who experienced the sadness of Christ’s death. After all, we know it to be a happy story: it’s wonderful that He died because of what He did for us in that act. But they did not know that at the time.  When they came to Jerusalem in triumph they could not possibly have known that they were about to experience both great sorrow and great transforming joy in a matter of days.  They watched Jesus die and then received the incredible news that he had been resurrected.  But in this case, Jesus did not simply return like Lazarus returned, or Jairus’s daughter, or anyone else who had been brought to life miraculously by Jesus or an old testament prophet.  Yes, those were miracles, and their loved ones rejoiced, but their resurrections did not have the impact that Christ’s did. Christ completely conquered death at his rising!

This means that when we mourn, we do not have to mourn as those who have no hope.  Death no longer has a permanent grip on those Christ died to save. This is the joy that transformed Christ’s followers. The kingdom they were working to bring, the one they thought was hopeless when Christ died, turned out to be bigger than they expected. It turned out to be everlasting!

We are all transformed by this! Let’s never lose sight of that!