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Hope is so fundamental to the human condition that when we don’t have it life is unbearable. We know that to be truly human is to live for greater purposes than strictly for survival. We’re not animals.
Instead, we have a psychological and emotional need to live for something beyond ourselves:
We need a promise that life will go on even when our bodies pass away.
We need a guarantee that we’ll have a future beyond what this world can provide for us.
We need hope.
God knows this, and from the beginning of time he has been outspoken about giving us hope. Eventually he came to us himself by entering our world and meeting us here in the person of Jesus, whom he raised from the dead. Thus, it secured for us an immovable hope that, no matter our circumstance, will ever give way.
His resurrection is our living hope.
Two decades or so after Peter saw Jesus rise from death, he writes this passage to give hope to a persecuted group of believers:
“In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Here Peter is giving hope to followers of Jesus who are suffering persecution and disappearing into prisons to be executed. They’re in a world of chaos much like we are today. And what is the first thing Peter brought up?
The resurrection.
When we feel pain, suffering and worry, Peter says to fix your hope on the empty tomb of Easter morning.
He gives us one of the most beautiful ways to view the resurrection:
The resurrection is a healing agent for our sorrows and suffering because it’s fixed, unmoved, and permanently ours so long as we have faith. There’s nothing anyone can change about the resurrection of Jesus. It is a sure reality and foundation we can securely build our lives upon.
And this is the only true future of humanity – what he calls a living hope. It’s not just a belief in something that happened back then but is effective and dynamic today. The potential of this hope has power to make us into a new type of human, someone transformed and completely different than we used to be.
The empty tomb on Easter morning means that we have a world-transforming, life-altering hope. This is precisely what happened when Jesus came out of the tomb. This type of hope transcends all circumstances and tragedies because it can’t be taken away from us by anyone or anything.
And this is our unwavering foundation that anchors us to the joy and fullness that God promises if we believe in his Son. By taking hold of the resurrection, we become resurrected into a new life with bright vision and hope.
This fills our hearts and completes our dynamic existence, giving us what we need to truly live. And this is the eternal life Jesus promises.
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