HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS
Afterward he appeared in a different form to
two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country.
Mark 16:12
Sometimes in our minds we feel as
though God has fallen short, that He hasn't done what He said He would do.
Maybe a tragedy has befallen us. Maybe something has happened in our lives that has left us
feeling disappointed with God.
That is how
two disciples felt after the crucifixion. They had lost hope. When Jesus appeared to them,
they were walking away from Jerusalem into
the country (see Mark 16:12). In their minds, Jesus had let them down. They had misunderstood His mission.
They thought He would be a militant
Messiah, not a suffering Saviour. But if they had read the Scriptures carefully, they would have come across a vivid description
of the physical sufferings of Christ in Isaiah. They would have read the words of Psalm 22, which pointed out that His hands and feet would be pierced, and
that He would cry out from the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken
Me?" But they missed that. Jesus was doing exactly what He had come to
do, and they had misunderstood. And when it seems like God has failed us, it is
because we have misunderstood His ways. That was the problem with these
discouraged disciples, and so they were leaving Jerusalem. They wanted to get that
image of Jesus on the cross out of their minds. They wanted to put as much distance
from them and the cross as humanly possible.
Many times
when we are discouraged, we think, 'I don't want to be around Christians. I don't want
to read the Bible. I don't want to pray.'
But that is a big mistake. That is when we ought to be running to God,
not away from Him. Your current situation is not the end of your story. Like
Christ, you shall soon resurrect to a newness of life.
Prayer: Ask God to fill you with hope to
overcome every challenge by the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Scriptural Reading: Mark 16:03
