Expectations

We all experience doubts in our faith at some point. The last few days had been horrible. His followers had seen Jesus mocked. They had seen men spit on Him and beat Him mercilessly. Then they saw Him callously paraded through the streets. It had ended horribly. They gazed in unbelief as the Roman soldiers pinned Him to the ground and took out that awful hammer and drove those huge spikes into His wrists and His feet, nailing Him to the cross. They could feel the pain as they saw His body hoisted up, and the vertical pole was dropped into the hole. It seemed like the jolt was going to tear His writhing body from the horrible death machine. The whole promise of a resurrection faded in their minds. It was finally put to rest when they saw Joseph of Arimathea take the body down and lay it in his tomb. It was over. They were too traumatized by the present event even to begin to imagine that something different might be coming. They had no expectations.

After a few days had passed, they went back to the tomb. They didn’t go back to it with one ounce of belief or any expectation that what He had said about rising from the dead had come to pass. They weren’t going there to celebrate a resurrection as He had promised. They were going to finish the task of anointing a dead body. They had NO EXPECTATION THAT HE HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD. We, too, sometimes struggle to take Jesus at His word. Things look too grim. Things look too hopeless. Things don’t turn out how we thought they would. Our expectations for something better fade away. And then, just as we’ve given up hope beyond hope, we look and see an angel sitting by the tomb. That angel is there telling us the exact same thing he said to those hopeless women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said.” This same Jesus who rose from the dead is alive and well. He resides in heaven, and He is interested and involved in every situation and circumstance of our lives. It’s not “over”. Even when we’ve given up hope beyond hope, we must utter the words of the Psalmist, “When I am afraid, I will trust in Thee” (Psalms 56:3). He is faithful and just, and even when it seems like we’ve been abandoned, the risen Christ will come to our rescue. He has told us that He will never leave us or forsake us. And that's a promise.