In Jesus Holy Name April 23,2023
Text: Luke 24:17 Easter III Redeemer
“Hopelessness”
Test data released by the Illinois State Board of Education once again shows the Chicago Public Schools system has not prepared students to meet proficiency in core subjects. Nearly 80% of Chicago Public Schools students cannot read at grade level. Just 15% met proficiency in math. What future do they have if they cannot read? Some cannot even tell you what time it is when looking at the numbers on a clock, they have to use their phone. Hopelessness. The result. They wander the streets of Chicago and destroy property and people.
Chris Harris, who was a Border agent for 21 years and retired in June 2018, stated that the agents are overwhelmed. “I know a lot of guys just want to leave.” Morale among Border Patrol agents is at an "all-time low". One agent when asked about morale said "We are being mandated to work six days a week at 60 hours per week. It is causing a strain physically as well as emotionally. Personally I am exhausted. I can deal with the work as it is but a 60-hour work week every other week is taking a toll." We feel hopeless.
Max Lucado in his new book: “Unshakable Hope” writes: “We’ve never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope. In America alone, the suicide rate has increased 24 percent in less than twenty years. If a disease saw such a spike, it would be deemed an epidemic. People are dying from a lack of hope.”
On a recent interview on Fox and Friends with Ansley Earhart he stated that 84% of Americans describe themselves as being under severe stress. Sometimes, I just feel like our society is coming unraveled. We’re worn out.” Hopelessness fills our culture.
Hopelessness. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl barely survived a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s. He described hopelessness this way, "When a prisoner no longer saw hope for the future, he quickly would begin to decline both physically and mentally. Then, one day without warning, he simply would give up. No barking of threats brought any response. The prisoner just laid on his bunk corpse-like, uncaring, barely moving."
Life can feel impossible sometimes. There's never enough time to get all of the homework done, break-ups happen, the relationship with your parents might be rocky, and friendships go through conflict. Divorce happens, depression and hopelessness often follow. Sometimes life can get so overwhelming that you want to crawl into your bed and never leave the safety of your covers.
Hopelessness. The bible is filled to overflowing with hopeless people. When Adam and Eve did one thing they were not supposed to do, they felt hopeless and tried to hide themselves from their loving Creator.
When Cain was punished for having killed his brother Abel, you can hear the hopelessness in his cry to God. He said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me" (Genesis 4:13-14). Hopelessness.
After God's man, the prophet Elijah, had been God's instrument in defeating the priests of Baal, he was filled with hopelessness as he ran for his life from Jezebel. Elijah pleaded with God: "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." Hopelessness. (I Kings 18:20ff)
Stand by Pilate's side as he washed his hands of the blood of the innocent man he had cowardly condemned to death. Pilate was in a hopeless situation. Hear the desperate demand for release which came from the mouth of an unrepentant thief on the cross. He only wanted to escape the executioner and return to his life of crime. Stand with the mother of Jesus, at the foot of the cross; imagine the emotion that washed over her as she watched her own flesh and blood die on a Roman cross to save sinful souls from death, sin, and damnation? How hopeless she must have felt.
Very early on Sunday morning after Sabbath restrictions concluded there are two followers of Jesus walking home to Emmaus. They had been with Jesus and the disciples for the Passover. They witnessed the trial and crucifixion of Jesus on Friday. They knew He was dead. Their hopes were destroyed. And now on the road their body language explains their emotional state. “…their faces were down cast.” Hopelessness. Two heavy-hearted disciples slouching their way home to Emmaus. By the slump in their shoulders, you’d never know today was Resurrection Sunday. By the looks on their faces, you’d think Jesus was still in the tomb. “We were hoping that he would free Israel,” they lament With sadness in their voice they tell a stranger, who had joined them, their story. There was a prophet from Nazareth, they said, who worked miracles no man had seen, even bringing the dead back to life.
Jesus came to deal with sin and death-—and they want him to deal with Caesar and soldiers? Jesus came to set us free from hell—and they want to be set free from taxes? Talk about a miscommunication! They missed the revolution! (Max Lucado)
The Pharisees had Him arrested, then crucified. We had hoped He would be the one to redeem Israel. And now this morning some of our friends went to his tomb and His body was missing. We had hoped….but we do not understand why He died, why His body is missing. When the women went to the tomb this morning. They found it empty. They said they saw a vision of angels who told them that Jesus was alive. But who could believe them. After hearing from the women, Peter and John ran to the tomb but they did not see Him nor did they see angels.
Little wonder, after Jesus' crucifixion, His followers were filled with lonely desperation and despair. That was certainly the case for these two disciples who discussed the events of the Savior's death with a stranger, as they walked along the road to Emmaus.
We had hoped things would be different, they knew having a dead Messiah is the same thing as having a dead dream. A dead Messiah is worthless and His cause is hopeless.
Have you been rejected by those who should love you? So was Jesus. The crowds He had come to save called for His crucifixion. Even so, He endured their rejection. His death was necessary so that you and I might be accepted into His Father's home. Have you been tormented by the people who are closest to you? So was Jesus. His church plotted His death; His government turned its back on Him; and His own disciple betrayed Him with a kiss.
Have you felt forsaken? Then hear your Savior's cry from the cross: "Eli, Eli, lama, Sabachthani." (My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?) That was a cry of hopelessness. Although you and I cannot understand the depth of His love, by the Holy Spirit's power we can believe Jesus was forsaken by everyone so that we would be forgiven, freed from the wrath of God against our broken commandments. On the third day Jesus rose from death and the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit, now we have guarantee the truth of God’s promises.
(Just tell the story or read this paragraph) The truth the resurrected Jesus revealed to those hopeless disciples who walked the road to Emmaus was written in their scriptures, but they did not understand. What did Jesus say: “How foolish and slow to believe what your scriptures told you.” Using the prophecies of Scripture, Jesus showed them that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, die, and rise, so that all who believe on Him might be freed to live the abundant life, knowing their sins had been forgiven. What a great Bible study with Jesus!!!!!
Jesus used the words from the “First Testament” to reveal God’s plan for the redemption of humanity. Doesn’t He do the same today? Open the Word of God and you’ll find His will for your life, your situation. Satan would love to keep you away from the “bible” when you feel hopeless. No, do not fall into that trap…God still speaks to our hearts in His Word.
Just because God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, that doesn’t mean we should all sit next to a bush waiting for God to speak. God used a fish to convict Jonah. Does that mean we should have worship services at Sea World? No. God speaks to our hearts through fellow believers…The two should have believed the women who told them Jesus had risen from the dead. But you know and I know when we feel “hopelessness” it is easier to listen to friends who tells us just to go out and have fun. No. God’s Spirit will speak to your mind and heart. Listen to his voice. (Max Lucado phrase)
In 1957, a churchman of the Lutheran Church in Hungary spoke to a small group of people gathered at the Lutheran World Federation in Minneapolis. Bishop Ordass told of what he had suffered. As a leader of his church, he had vigorously protested when the Communists confiscated church schools. For his protest he was sent to prison for 20 months.
After that period of incarceration, Bishop Ordass was jailed a second time, a longer time. A tall, impressive man, the Bishop told of those six years. This is what he said: "They (the communists) placed me in solitary confinement. It was a tiny cell, perhaps six by eight feet, with no windows, and soundproofed. They hoped to break down my resistance by isolating me from all sensory perceptions. They thought I was alone. They were wrong. The risen Christ was present in that room, and in communion with him I was able to prevail."
If ever a man should have felt hopeless, it should have been Bishop Ordass. Days, months, years, were spent without human contact. He never knew when, or if, his persecution and pain might end. While the Bishop was in such straits the living Lord Jesus came and provided companionship and hope for a man who was the target of human hatred and spiritual scorn.
In the home in Emmaus the guest broke bread with a blessing and then He was gone. The man and wife looked at each other and said: “It was Jesus” He is alive. They said to each other, “It felt like a fire burning in us when Jesus talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us.” I love that last verse. When God speaks in His Word. When your heart hears truth, It will burn with passion and peace.
They immediately ran the 7 miles back to Jerusalem and found the disciples still gathered in the upper room. There they shared their story.
“While they were still telling the story, Jesus, Himself stood among them and said: Shalom … Peace be with you. It’s a great word. Shalom is more than our sense of peace, calm. It means: “may the harmony, joy, blessing” experienced in the Garden of Eden be yours now and forever.
