Recapturing Real Christian Hope
Isn’t the object of Christian Hope just another Utopian idea of escape into the La La Land, called Heaven?
“And there were more problems and difficulties ever after”?
“And they lived happily ever after.” Why is it that all fairy tales end this way? Would we ever settle for a story which ended with the words, “And there were more problems and difficulties ever after”? We all long for a happy ending. We long for an ultimate hope. A hope that pushes us to believe that it will all be well in the end.
It is not an accident, neither is it arbitrary that all stories end this way. Stories help articulate a profound longing in us. Hope is not just a good thing which we as humans have come up with. It is the deepest desire innate in us. It is the reason we can push through the difficulties of the present. It gives us the strength to do the things we do. We cannot live in a world without hope.
In one sense hell is described as a place of no hope. At the entrance of Dante’s hell are the words, “Lay down all hope, you that go in by me.”[1]Hell is defined as the antithesis of hope. A place of absolute despair where there is no way out. And so, if hell is the opposite of hope, then how best can we define the Christian hope?
Christian hope as more than just heaven
We often reduce the Christian hope as merely going to heaven. That somehow our ultimate hope lies in the fact that we will leave all this behind and go to another world. But the Christian hope is much more than that. The Christian hope is not anchored on a destination but in the being of God Himself.
In Exodus, we see that after Moses brings the people out of Egypt, the people long to reach the promise land. After years of wandering in the wilderness, they cling to the hope of the promise land as their ultimate destination. But in Exodus 33:15 Moses says to the Lord, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” Moses makes a definitive statement that their ultimate hope is not the destination but the presence of the Lord with them. That their journey with their God is their absolute hope and not the mere destination. The Psalmist echoes this, “For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth.”[2]
The Christian hope is not merely anchored on something in the future. It is the assurance of the presence of God in the present. That God is with us in every circumstance we find ourselves in. We rest on the fact that God is with us and will guide us no matter how difficult our situations might be. The Christian hope is never about escaping the problems of the present for a utopian future. It is the confidence in the power of God to break into our most difficult times and transform it into something glorious.
The Christian hope is not merely anchored on something in the future. It is the assurance of the presence of God in the present. That God is with us in every circumstance we find ourselves in.
Christian hope as a beacon for the world
Another way we reduce the Christian hope is by thinking that it is only for us. That it only actualises itself within the Christian community. But God’s hope radiates out from His people to the world. The hope of God is a beacon of light to the world, not just within our communities.
It is the reason Christ has called us, to shine God’s hope in a world shrouded in darkness. When God called Abraham, He said, “And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”[3]The Christian hope is not an inward focused hope, but an outward radiating hope.
The Christian Hope through the Pandemic
The past few months have been one of the most difficult ones all over the world. People everywhere are desperately seeking hope. As Christians, we need to be able to shine God’s hope in and through what we say and do.
Our care and concern should extend for those around us, despite the difficulties we ourselves go through. That is the physical manifestation of the hope that we have in Christ. It breaks into the world and shines bright as a testament for the world to see.
The Christian hope is not anchored on a destination but in the being of God Himself.
