Placing Hope in Him

This is an excerpt from The Wonder of Advent Bible Study by Lifeway Women.

Hope is one of those words we use often but can be quite ambiguous. This Christmas, children may be hoping for a lot of toys. Parents may be hoping for their adult kids to come home for a family party. Someone may be hoping for a new job, new car, or restored health. We’re never at a loss for things to hope in, but oftentimes our hopes aren’t realized. This means the things we long for, desire, and even pray for don’t come to pass. What are we to make of this? Is hope nothing more than wishful thinking? What kind of hope can we rely on and put our trust in?

God wants us to hope, and He wants our hope to be rooted in Him and His promises. God knew His children needed something to look forward to and anchor their trust in, so He promised a Savior was coming. Then God delivered on that promise when He sent Jesus, His own Son, into the world. One of the aspects of Jesus’s earthly ministry was to provide hope to the hopeless—people who were sick, paralyzed, demon possessed, poor, widowed, shamed by their community, and on and on. Today we’ll look at one woman’s encounter with Jesus and the hope He brought to her hopeless circumstances.

In Luke 7, Luke told the story of a time when Jesus came across a funeral procession of a woman’s only son. Luke tells us she was already a widow. In the ancient middle eastern culture of Jesus’s day, a widow was taken care of mainly by her male sons or sons-in-law. Not only was the woman’s only son taken from her, but so was her livelihood and source of provision for all her needs. Without her son, she had no one to take care of her and no voice in her community. Surely, the mood of the funeral Jesus came upon conveyed the woman’s desperation and hopelessness.

Luke wrote that Jesus was moved by compassion when He saw this woman in her grief. He was so moved, in fact, that He acted on her behalf. Luke included two commands from Jesus. To the widow He simply said, “Don’t weep.” And to her dead son He said, “Get up!” Jesus’s words to the widow and her son remind us of His authority and power. Jesus, as God Himself, has the authority to change our circumstances so that we no longer have reason to weep, and He has the power to say to the dead man, rise again. He did this in Nain, and He continues to do this in our lives today.

1. Don’t Weep.

Jesus encouraged the grieving mother not to weep, and then He intervened in a way that wiped away all her tears. In Revelation 21:1-4, we read a passage that tells us a day is coming when our tears will also be no more.

This is not just wishful thinking. God promises this day to us, and we know from the testimony of God’s Word that He keeps His promises. One day, we will be with Jesus face to face, and all sorrow will cease to exist. Let this truth be a source of hope and comfort for you this Advent season.

2. Get Up!

After comforting the mother (v. 13), Jesus “touched the open coffin” and said, “Young man, I tell you, get up!” (v. 14). In this story, He restored life to a dead man and restored hope to his mother. Jesus brought honor back to the family when only shame was on the horizon.

In the story of our lives, Jesus also offers restoration. In Ephesians 2, Paul uses the death to life imagery to describe who a person is before meeting Jesus and how in Christ a person is made new. We were once dead to our sin, guilt, and shame, but through a relationship with Jesus we are alive. And this new life is all because of His sacrificial work on the cross to die for our sins. In Christ we can have true hope in life everlasting, and we can point others toward the hope that is found in Him as well.

Jesus had gained a following, in part, because of the miracles and healings He performed. This was one of three times Jesus raised someone from the dead. The response of the crowd was one of fear mixed with awe, an appropriate response. When we see life change in someone who has chosen to follow Jesus, or when we see everyday provisions God graces us with, we should also respond by glorifying God.

The crowd at Nain knew they had witnessed a miracle, something only God had the authority to do. However, in the end they failed to see who Jesus really is. They thought Jesus was a prophet sent by God. The crowds had not yet figured out that Jesus was truly God Himself.

Look closely, and you’ll see yourself in the crowd. Even in knowing Jesus, we forget what His true mission and purpose is. His mission isn’t to make us happy people in this world (although we do find joy in Him), and it isn’t to make us moral people (although we do live more rightly because of Christ). It isn’t even so we can have a holiday at the end of the year to celebrate Him and give and receive presents (although that’s an added bonus). Jesus’s mission is to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), so that we might have a relationship with God that lasts forever.

When we talk about Jesus being our hope, it’s not hope in having Him grant our wishes or desires. It’s hope in Jesus Himself, who walks alongside us in this life to carry our burdens, take away our guilt and shame, wipe every tear, give us new life, and help us to live with passion, faith, and love while we wait for our promised forever. Take some time now to thank God for that hope.