That Thing Called Hope

Hope can have some pretty powerful effects. Look at what it’s doing for people who have placed their hope for a cure to stubborn diseases in stem cell research: money is raised, and voices are raised, too; lobbyists are employed, laws are passed, opinions are shaped.

Meanwhile, the days march forward to Easter. This is the day of ultimate hope, in which Christians celebrate the centerpiece of their faith: Jesus Christ, on a specific morning in history, rose from the grave. And everything about his life and teaching certified that this death was not for his own fame but for our salvation – that those who are mysteriously but really connected to him by faith will also triumph over our twin enemies, sin and death.

Yet people don’t want this hope. It’s become a nationwide joke that, as soon as spring training begins, so do the latest TV specials and news magazine reports that (allegedly) undermine any version of Christianity that actually inspires hope. Whether The Gospel of Thomas or The Lost Tomb of Jesus, something is always unearthed, along with some dubious claims that are sexy enough to sway the unsuspecting viewer.

But why? Why has this become our Spring ritual, rather than a fresh examination of the evidence for the empty tomb? Well, there are many reasons of course. Money is one, of course. The “discoveries” are always perfectly timed to coincide with a new glossy book and a new TV special.

But money isn’t the only reason. New glossy books and TV specials about the evidence for the resurrection would attract a wealth of viewers, too. Probably more.

Could it be that we don’t really want to hope? Hope is hard work. It changes your priorities, determines how you spend your time and money, and even adjusts your moral compass. This is, in fact, the ethics of biblical Christianity: those who have hope in the resurrection of Jesus, and in their union and ultimate eternity with him, will live far differently than those without hope. They will live different, better, wiser, freer, if indeed that hope is allowed any leverage.

And so begins the other Spring ritual… The Christian witness to the empty tomb, offered to those who have spent enough on hopelessness and are ready for a change.