THERE’S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN Hope and Hope~so

Within a week, two of my friends died. Interestingly, both worshiped at the same church, at different times, in Old Harbor, Jamaica. Both deaths brought much grief and challenged friends and family members to consider their own mortality.  

At both funeral services, mourners were invited to consider how the deceased lived their lives – that’s not unusual at funerals. However, what was unusual was the element of hope alluded to at both events.

To introduce the subject of hope as an afterlife reality is to introduce the metaphysical in a culture that is growing in its disbelief of the afterlife. In 1948, only 2% of Americans did not identify with a religion. Today that Gallup Poll number is more than 13% claiming no religious identity. Disbelief in the afterlife is integral to this group.                  

Disbelief in the afterlife is a growing trend, not only because of the growth in humanistic movements, but also because of religions that share that worldview as well as Christians whose theology cannot handle non-scientific phenomena.  

Is the Christian understanding of hope in the afterlife a reality or a hoax? In the first place, we need to establish that the Christian understanding of hope is not an issue of luck or chance. Neither is it an aspiration or desire without substance.
 

In the New Testament, hope is a favorable and confident expectation. It has to do with the unseen and the future. Hope is characteristically a Christian virtue which enables the Christian to regard death with serenity and composure.

 

The Christian does not see death as the final chapter. In referring to the death of the Christian the apostle Paul uses the metaphor sleep, implying that death is mere rest. However, the focus is not so much on the nature of the rest as much as on what happens when the Christian is awaken from that rest. Imagine this discussion with Christians from Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

 

A NON-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING

The Thessalonians were from a Greek background where they formerly supposed the dead went down into a dark underworld from which there was no return. The Greeks believed that a person’s hope was uncertain and consequently dangerous – that invited feelings of disappointment. Stoicism had no place for hope in its system of thought. The Roman stoic Seneca defined hope as “an uncertain good.”

 

In his commentary on first century Greeks, William Barclay notes that on their tomb-stones, grim epitaphs were carved with words like: “I was not; I became; I am not; I care not.” In the face of death the pagan world stood in despair. They met it with grim resignation but with bleak hopelessness.

A CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING

In light of this Paul contends, “…we do not want you to sorrow as the rest of people do, because they have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Have you every wondered what hopeful sorrow looks like? It is a sorrow that is mindful of the limited impact of death. Paul borrows the language of the Old Testament prophet Hosea and expresses hopeful sorrow in this way:

                “Where, O death, is your victory?

                  Where, O death, is your sting?”

“… but thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57).

 

The crux of this view is rooted in the historical Jesus. As though Paul anticipated the Thessalonians asking, and how do we know if this is true? He responds, “… just as Jesus died and came back to life, so too will all those Christians who died, they will come back to life.” In essence, Paul is contending that what happens after death is not rooted in some novel Christian philosophy. Rather, the view is rooted in something that actually happened – Jesus died and Jesus rose again.

This is how Paul develops the argument in his letter to the Corinthians: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). In other words, just as it happened to Jesus, it would happen to Jesus-followers.

I run the risk of being repetitive, but it is necessary: For the Christian, hope is not “ah hope so…” Hope is “ah know so…” How come? Our understanding of hope is rooted in history – just as Jesus died and rose again, similarly, Christians who die, will rise again – that is hope…that is confidence!

Man can live about forty days without food,
About three days without water;

About eight minutes without air,
…but only for one second without hope.

~Anonymous