real hope - faint not.

When Jesus was hungry en route to Jerusalem, he could not find any fruit on a fig tree he passed by that he could eat to fill his stomach, "because it was not the season for figs". Then he cursed the tree and it shriveled. 


But why did he curse the tree for not having fruit when it was not supposed to do so at that time?


This is what real hope, Christ's idealism looks like to me. 


It says a lot when a person is able to make the fig tree shriveled. He could be a destroyer who brings death upon people, though there is an astounding lack of such evidence in the Bible.  Early Jewish texts, however, apparently taught that Jesus was a sorcerer or someone who practiced magic and went astray. Some people even accused him of working for Satan (Luke 11: 14-23)! 


He could be a madman or someone with spiritual powers, whether for good or bad. But the spiritual nature of his work and Person cannot be ignored or obliterated at all. 


To call Jesus merely a moral teacher is like calling your parents merely your financial supporters - it is one aspect, but does not warrant as much attention as we may have given at the expense of larger undercurrents. 


The Bible on the other hand only has repeated firsthand accounts of him healing those with temporary sicknesses such as fevers as well as those who were terminally ill, such as those with skin diseases - some of which were contagious - and strange bleeding diseases. Or people with permanent conditions such as being born blind and being paralyzed. He cast out demons from people who were greatly compromised and controlled by these fallen angels (Mark 1: 21-27, Matthew 8: 28-24 and others). Where what happened to the person after was described, it was whopping amazing. He even brought some dead people back to life (Lazarus, the widow's son at Nain, Jairus' daughter are the three named in the Bible). 


He was someone who could curse a fig tree to die, and was someone who gave life, both literally and figuratively.


It's not a pretty sight at all I'm sure...looking at people tormented physically or internally, and how people shun them or grieve for them. It is all messy, exasperating, heart-cutting. Jesus "had compassion on the crowds", and those marginalized and shunned by society (Matthew 29: 34). 


But the fact that he has control over death and even the power to give life in bodily ways and spiritual ways...isn't that why the more saddening people and things are, the greater our hope is in Jesus? Because he has control over these things and if he is redeeming all aspects of the lives of those who follow him, surely he can also do the same for people whom we grieve for!


Jesus is sovereign not just over illnesses that can lead to death, but death itself and even the fearsome, destructive power of nature that humans can only avoid, alleviate, evacuate from and mitigate afterwards. And that gives me real hope. He can do what we as humans cannot do, although we like to think much bigger of ourselves than we actually are. 


We have real, rugged strength to work and bring real life, trusting that Jesus persuades and convicts people in their hearts to say yes to the redeeming he wants to do in them. As Jenny & Tyler sings, "not with "simple thoughts like 'come together be good-willed" ". Not with nice little stickers and motivational decals and posters, or a deliberate oblivion to evil in a bid to 'think happy thoughts' and 'think positive'.


No. Real Hope works amidst messed-up people, i.e. all of us. On a daily basis, we miss the standard of perfection God requires for true goodness, instead incurring grief, exasperation and anger from people around us and God due to our innate propensity to do evil (doubt, criticize, gossip, insult...) in the name of self-preservation (see Matthew 5:1-7:14; Romans 7:14-8: 11). All this goes beyond a mere moral teaching of what is good and bad. Morals inform us in detail and in the head what we should do. But we cannot do what we know is good because it is not in our nature to do so.


The Real Hope is Jesus, the one who has changed the nature of all those who let him to be able to be good for the first time in our lives. If he has power over death, surely he has power over the decay that I see happening in the hearts and lives of loved ones. And he is working right now...


My brain is not working, but I needed to write this to stand firm when situations seem bleak.

Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.

Psalm 126

FAINT NOT.