Hope: Desiring a Better World
Our Easter Series will be called Hope: Desiring a Better World. All of us have deep longings and intense desires for a more perfect world. The people that lined the streets on Palm Sunday were looking for something more, something better, something different. They were hoping for a better world. We are really no different. We live in a world of disappointments, discouragements, disease, death and more. All of us have unfulfilled expectations. We know too, hope can be tender and fragile, so we seek a hope that is grounded and resilient. Then on Easter Sunday, we discover others finding “hope” among a pantheon of gods, all of them promising something bigger, something better, something more. Paul breaks in with a description of the One True God who promises the hope of a Better World. The proof of this radical, well-grounded hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection promises the hope of eternal life in a perfect world of love.
The people were seeking more! Inside their hearts were aspirations and desires for a better world. We have longings to be loved. They followed the crowds “for the next best hope,” but in this case it truly was the BEST HOPE. Jesus was sent by God and came in the name of the Lord. Like the crowd, our view of God is often too small. They saw Jesus only as a prophet, perhaps even the Messiah, but it was all too small. God promised more and delivered more than we could ever imagine, hope for or dream!