Two young men dead in the last week. Both known to my son. One was known to me. They guy I knew died of an overdose and we do not know if that was intentional or an accident. The other was beaten to death and dumped outside the city Two stories in a litany of seeming hopelessness in our culture around drugs and violence. Could hope have shown up for these young men? Could Jesus have been ‘hope’ to them?
Wonderful “words” warm our heart this Christmas season as we talk of Jesus as the ‘hope of the world’. How nice & even charming. However, Jesus The Hope of the World is not some ethereal, ‘spiritual’ or merely future reality. His hope ‘showed up’ when He showed up on earth. He did not merely talk and preach hope. If He came to us today (and He does), He would show up in the ditches, drug houses, dysfunction and desperation where humanity lives and struggles.
WHERE DO YOU SHOW UP?
Jesus is the hope of the world ONLY if we who claim to be His ambassadors show up in our actions to address the issues with which our society struggles.
I recently came across the Hebrew phrase “tikkun olam”. It means ‘repairing the world’. God intends to restore and repair the world. He signaled that intention soon after humankind broke their relationship with Him by promising a Redeemer, a “Repairer of the World”. He then sealed the deal when Jesus came to the earth to usher in a new way of being; a renewed Kingdom order. Jesus is not just a representative or figurehead of hope. His life & His ways actually deliver hope in the now.
BUT…
…unless and until we get out of the confines of current church practice, or organizational and business 'arms length' charity, to be with the poor, to advocate for the oppressed, to give shelter to the lonely and come alongside those rejected by society, to walk the hard road with an addict, to engender positive identity in a young person etc., then HOPE has no currency. God Himself said that only once you have expressed these actions (which He considers as true worship – Is 58) can you be known as the repairer of walls and purveyors of real, tangible, life-changing hope.
This season, find a way to BE hope to the world. The Jesus in you is real, tangible hope.
And maybe we can save the next two kids.
