What do you do when all hope is lost?
Recently, in my Bible study class at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, CT the women in the group and I were talking about how the followers of Jesus must have felt when they witnessed the crucifixion. The question came up, “What do you do when all hope is lost?”
I asked the eight or nine ladies attending that Thursday afternoon to imagine what it might have been like if they had been in the crowd that watched Jesus’s execution. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about. In fact it’s downright devastating.
For the men and women who were close followers of Jesus and had accepted him as the Messiah, the crucifixion was not something they had expected, even though Jesus had tried to warn them what was going to happen.
Many of Jesus’s followers had still had some hope that when Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven that he was going to restore an earthly kingdom to Israel, similar to that of Kings David and Solomon.
But the kingdom Jesus saw and shared with his followers was not of this world, not in the slightest. It was a completely spiritual realm that the human mind could not comprehend or see.
Whatever the disciples’ expectations were about Jesus as the Messiah and the kingdom of heaven he kept preaching about, they had never imagined Jesus would end up on a cross in shame and defeat.
Because that’s all they saw. Shame. Defeat. Despair. Devastation. Shattered trust. And no hope for the future.
When all hope is lost…
Put yourself in their sandals for a minute. Jesus’s followers were probably scattered throughout the crowd. Some were up front. Some were far away. Some may have been trying to hide for fear of being seen and recognized. But there were a few who were not afraid to get as close to the foot of Jesus’s cross as they could. We know this because of what John wrote.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there [referring to John], he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. John 19:25-27 CSB
I’ve always seen this as a tender moment when Jesus entrusts John with caring for his mother. And it’s also is Jesus relinquishing all ties to the flesh.
But the more I think about it, this scene really highlights the fearless devotion these women and John had for Jesus. In spite of all the emotional turmoil they were dealing with, they did not run away from the trauma of that dismal afternoon almost 2,000 years ago. They engaged with it and they were as close as they could be to Jesus to show their affection for him.
If you had asked them what to do when all hope is lost, they would have said to be present in the moment and keep showing your love for Jesus.
A peek inside Mary’s heart
This didn’t take away their grief or the hopelessness of the situation It but probably magnified it. If anyone was bereft because of what was happening, it was Mary, Jesus’s mother.
She knew better than anyone there who Jesus was. She could never forget what Gabriel had said to her in announcing Jesus’s birth. And you know she remembered every detail of how God had orchestrated the events of the shepherds, the Wisemen, Simeon, and Anna, they day she and Joseph found 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple. And I sure she remembered lots of other things which aren’t recorded in the Bible.
The injustice of what was happening broke her heart beyond measure. But there she was, standing at his broken body, pouring out her love for him the best she could.
It was indeed a dark day for Jesus’s followers, and not just metaphorically. Luke tells us,
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. Luke 23:44, 45 NIV
When all hope is lost, show your love for Jesus
At some point, after it was all over, Joseph of Arimathea got permission from Pilate to remove Jesus’s body from the cross.
Here’s another amazing example of someone taking some initiative, in spite of the religious, political, and emotional tension in the air. What an act of love and respect Joseph expressed.
Now I know this is a silly little thought, but Jesus’s step-dad was Joseph and here is another Joseph acting in a very fatherly way toward Jesus. It’s a touching moment really.
Would you have had the courage to do what Joseph of Arimathea did? Or would you have been like most of Jesus’s followers, hiding in the background or perhaps at home, crying your heart out because it seemed like the end of the world had come?
Here’s the question we need to ask ourselves: When all hope is lost, what do we do?
It’s easy for us to read the Gospel and not give up hope so quickly because we know how the story is going to end. Three days later we know Jesus is going to walk out of the tomb.
How did the disciples feel?
But Peter and Andrew, James and John, the other disciples, including Jesus’s mother and all those Marys, had not really taken to heart Jesus’s promise that he would reappear after his death.
They had no hope whatsoever. They were completely bereft and devastated.
Think how they must have felt on that Sabbath evening, which was supposed to be a time of prayer and gratitude to God, acknowledging God as supreme in the heavens and on earth. And think of how they felt waking up on Saturday morning, if they had even been able to sleep.
It would have been a day of tears, fears, probably some self-condemnation for not having been more faithful to Jesus, not to mention being incredulous that Judas betrayed Jesus and really all of them. That’s probably how I would have felt, somehow thinking it might have been my fault, wondering what I could have done differently.
Now a little self-reflection and self-examination can be really healthy from time to time and I highly recommend it. But self-condemnation is rarely a good idea.
When all hope is lost in your world
Again I’ll ask: How would you have responded if you had been there? It’s really hard to know completely, so let’s bring this into the present day. How do you respond when all hope is lost in a given situation in your life?
It could be the devastating loss of a friend or family member. It could be violence that breaks out in your neighborhood, or a war that devastates your country.
It could be losing your job, not being able to pay your bills, and becoming homeless. It could be a combination of things.
There are all kinds of situations when all hope is lost, or at least it seems so on the surface.
Of course, as I said, we know how the story of Jesus ends. Three days after his death on the cross and the defeat it represented to his followers, his resurrection dissolved that hopelessness and the joy of victory over sin and death permeated the hearts of his followers and even the air they breathed.
Why didn’t they remember Jesus said he would rise?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Between the time the disciples saw Jesus taken down from the cross and buried and the time when they saw him alive on the morning of the resurrection, they had not been praying for Jesus to resurrect, to walk out of the tomb. They had no hope or expectation that was possible.
In fact, when Mary Magdalene and other women went to tell them they had seen Jesus alive that first Easter morning, they didn’t believe them. Luke puts it this way.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Luke 24:11 NIV
But the disciples’ hopelessness and lack of understanding Jesus’s promise that he would return, did not prevent God from completing the divine cycle of events that resurrected Jesus and rolled the stone away from the tomb.
Lessons for you and me
So here’s the real question is: What can you and I learn from Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection and the way his followers responded as those events unfolded in real time?
Sometimes God is at work in ways you cannot see. God is doing things for which you have given up all hope. And it’s not because of your prayers or effort of any kind that things turn out the way they do. It is God at work in your life, in events, and the whole world.
These are the kinds of things we were talking about in the Bible study at the prison, which I mentioned at the first of this episode. We all were humbled by the way God orchestrated these events.
It was only natural for me to ask if any of the women had ever had a situation that seemed utterly hopeless but things worked out for the good. Could the resurrection of Jesus be a metaphor for resurrections in our lives?
Resurrection in the family
One lady shared how she had had to give up two of her five children for adoption. It was a court order. She didn’t give all the details, and I never ask, but these two kids were taken from her. It was a closed adoption and she never knew where they were or what happened to them for years.
She never stopped loving them. And she never stopped praying for them. But she had given up all hope of ever seeing them again.
Then one day, out of the blue, an older daughter told her that Johnny wanted to talk to her.
“Johnny who?” she asked.
“Johnny, your son!” her daughter replied.
As it turns out, somehow this older daughter connected with one of these younger siblings on social media and they figured out they had the same birth mother. The son and daughter who had been adopted and completely disconnected from their mother, now talk with her every week, even though the mom is still in prison.
This dear mom said she felt it was definitely a resurrection of sorts that brought her family back together. “When all hope is lost,” she said, “God is still at work in ways we can’t see.”
Another lady shared how her daughter recovered from a life threatening illness . This too felt like a resurrection.
When all hope is lost, God is still at work
Again, I ask you to think of some hopeless situation in your life, when it seems hopeless. When all hope is lost, you may even quit praying about it, just like the disciples had given up all hope and weren’t praying for Jesus to come back to life.
But God was still at work doing what God does in Jesus’s case. And God is still at work in your life doing what God does. When all hope is lost, God is still at work in the hearts of all mankind and among the nations. God is working in ways you may not see, but He is nevertheless doing what He does.
There are a good handful of things I have prayed about many times, some for years, but still appear unresolved, at least on the surface of things. Some relationships that need healing. Some situations that need to be resolved.
The example of Jesus’s resurrection and the ladies in the prison being reconnected with their children give me hope for the things in my life that are still unresolved.
I pray to know and trust God is still who God is and God is still doing what He does. You can do the same.
Is there anything in your life that seems hopeless right now? Or something on a bigger scale? A political problem? All the wars going on in the world and their aftereffects? An economic crisis? The list goes on and on.
Looking through the lens of resurrection
What if you could look at each of these problems, whether it’s a personal challenge or a larger, collective one, what if we could look at these things through the lens of Jesus’s resurrection?
Jesus knew he was going to be crucified. But he also knew and tried to tell his disciples that he would rise from the grave. Jesus could see the devastating events of his death through the lens of his victory over death. This is what he said to his disciples.
We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life! Matthew 20:18, 19 NIV
Unfortunately the disciples didn’t really hear this or take it in.
When all hope is lost for a healing or a resolution to a problem, whether on a personal or global scale, is Christ telling you, right this moment, there will be a resurrection, but you’re just not hearing it?
Here is what I believe. Yes, Christ is always reassuring us of a resurrection already in process in our lives. God is at work doing what God always does unseen to most human eyes, but discerned by a faithful few.
The resurrection is still going on
Jesus’s resurrection is the most life-shifting event that has ever taken place on this planet. But it is not a one-time event. The resurrection is a constant, ongoing activity in the heart of God because of His love for all mankind.
The power of God to rejuvenate, restore, and resurrect a person, a relationship, a life purpose, a righteous government, a diplomatic effort for peace has never diminished and is always at work, unseen by the world, but cherished by those whose hearts are in tune with Christ.
This Easter, cherish the resurrection of Jesus, but don’t stop there. Jesus’s resurrection is also our resurrection. It’s a lens through which we can look at our own lives and world events.
When all hope is lost and it seems like everything good has come to an end, it’s time to be still and listen for the long ago voice of Mary Magdalene exuberantly rejoicing that Jesus is alive.
That same message is true for you as well. Because Jesus is risen from the tomb, so you are delivered from whatever grave you have buried yourself in, or been buried in by others.
When all hope is lost, the resurrection is right around the corner. Christ gives you eternal life and hope and nothing can take them from you.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
John 19:25-27 CSB
25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there [referring to John], he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Luke 23:44, 45 NIV
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,
45 for the sun stopped shining.
Luke 24:11 NIV
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Matthew 20:18, 19 NIV
18 We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death
19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!
