The Hope of Easter

The Hope of Easter

Each of us must eventually deal with the grief of losing a family member or close friend. For many years, my family experienced few deaths, but in the past four years, I have lost a brother, an uncle, and recently, my dad.

The Christian faith provides a foundation for me to lean on during these losses. My family and I are comforted by the hope that physical death is not the final chapter of life.

The Apostle Paul wrote about the hope Jesus’ followers have, “…if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless… And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 19, NLT)

Simply put, Paul writes if Jesus was not resurrected, the Christian faith offers no hope. If, however, Jesus came back to life after being buried for three days, his followers can have confidence that death is not the end. When Jesus died, his disciples felt overwhelming grief. Their emotions soon rebounded when an angel informed them he was alive.

The hope they experienced is revealed in a story that took place later that day. In Luke 24:13-34 we read how two close followers of Jesus were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village seven miles away. As they traveled, Jesus joined the two, but God kept them from recognizing him.

The men were talking about Jesus’ death and the early reports of his resurrection. When he asked what they were so intently discussing, the disciples told Jesus about his death and the early reports that he was alive. Using many Bible passages, Jesus explained how, hundreds of years earlier, scripture predicted what had just occurred. As the travelers neared their destination, they invited Jesus for dinner. When he blessed the food, they suddenly recognized him, then Jesus vanished. “They said to each other, ‘Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:32, NLT)

Jesus’ disciples experienced incredible hope when they learned he was alive. We can feel similar hope as we realize that since Jesus did not stay dead, we, too, have hope after death. This hope sustains my family as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and it can sustain your family as well.