Questions (2)

Hopelessness

When have you felt most hopeless?

Now, you may say, I’m an optimist. I never feel hopeless.

Well let me offer you a possibility for the feelings.

Have you ever had your car break down at a most inopportune time?

You have some place important to be or the situation is dangerous and need to move?

We were driving from our home in Minot, ND to my parents’ in Wichita.

Being a dad I wanted to make the trip in 1 day w/out any overnight stops.

It was over 1000 miles, we had traveled all day and into the night, I’m tired.

We get to Salina, KS, about 2 hours north of Wichita, turn south on I-135, and about an hour south of Salina and an hour north of Wichita our minivan quit running.

Dead.

After 1 in the morning. 3 babies, 5, 3, less than 1 asleep in the back. The interstate was under construction in that section, no shoulder, just dirt, and semis are whizzing by.

This was before cell phones and I didn’t have AAA.

I get out of the car and realize the danger we are in. I’m a dad. I’m responsible for the safety of my family. And, I’m blowing it.

If it was just me, a different story. But it was my wife and kids, too.

No answers in sight.

That feels hopeless.

When Jason was born, October of 1991, we were excited, he was our second child, but our first son.

Back in that day, I got to go back and watch the nurse clean him up and check him out.

But then she took his BP. I could see the worried look on her face, but she was professional and tried not to show her concern that his BP was sky high.

Interestingly, he was born w/ 6 fingers on each hand. One was like a skin tag. The other had a nail, but it was attached w/ just thread of skin.

They tie them off and remove, no big deal.

But, the hand and heart develop at the same time in the womb. A cardiologist friend of ours asked us if they had checked his heart b/c of the defect in his hands.

Yes. And, sure enough, Jason has a hole in his heart.

I hadn’t heard this information yet so when I came to pick them up at the hospital to take them home, Sara had a concerned look on her face telling me they may not let us take him b/c he has a heart problem.

As a parent, as you process all this, one of the first places you go is, did we do something wrong? Did Sara fall or have a virus during pregnancy that affected his development?

Then, it’s what do we do now? Is he going to live? Will he have a normal life?

What will his future be? And, there was nothing we could do. That’s hopelessness.

Hope is about the future. Hopelessness is about a fear about the future.

Ironically, Jason and Kristen had their second child 2 year ago, a son, and they discovered he too has the exact same defect.

The doctors say something like this is not hereditary. But they also admit we don’t know much about the genealogy of the heart.

And no one in my family tree has the same defect.

Then, to make a stressful situation even worse, the day before their cardiology appt for Myron, their car died and they had no way to get to the appt.

So, even though they have the benefit of Jason living w/ it, now it’s their son. That’s different.

I called him, we’ve talked about what it’s like to have a son w/ a heart problem and the feelings that go along w/ it.

Those same feelings of hopelessness came back to me as I was talking to him.

He’s dealing w/ it okay. But he will have his moments.

It’s the feelings of hopelessness and questions that overwhelm

Why?

How did happen?

What next?

The future? From does he even have one? to How normal will be?

Whatever the science says, it’s your son.

We know that from this pandemic. Whatever the science says, we lost George and the feelings of fear and hopelessness are real.

It’s Good Friday. And Good Friday is filled w/ questions about what now?

If you were there, imagine the questions that would roll thru your mind as you watched your Leader, Savior, Teacher, Miracle Worker; be railroaded in a kangaroo court, beaten beyond recognition, then horribly executed.

Why did he let this happen?

Why didn’t he fight back?

What are we supposed to do now? We left our families, our careers, faced our own persecution and ostracization.

No place to go. Nothing to do.

Good Friday is filled with tough questions that stir deep feelings of hopelessness.

Jesus is dead. They’d never seen an innocent man treated so brutally.

They’d never seen Jesus in a vulnerable position. He was always powerful and in charge.

Tonight I’m going to pose 3 of the questions I know I would have had if I were there and consider them in a little more detail.

Question #1

What Will Happen To Jesus?

Matthew 27:22–26 NIV

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The believers all knew that the religious leaders were out to frame Jesus.

They knew He was innocent. Surely the Roman government who didn’t really have a dog in this fight, would see thru their fake news and false accusations.

However, the dog Pilate did have in this fight was Rome held him accountable for keeping the peace and restricting riots.

He was known to imprison or even execute innocent ppl the keep the peace.

So, rather than face another Jewish uprising, he gave them what they wanted; Barabbas was freed and Jesus was killed.

The believers are watching this.

Jesus, this is your moment. The world is watching. Rome and the Jewish leadership was the world in that day.

Show them Who you are and what you can do!

W/ a word he could turn the world on its ear.

Wreck Rome. Jam up Judaism.

But He didn’t. Not a word.

All the miracles he performed. The power and authority he displayed. And, he let them kill him.

He didn’t defend himself.

This could have been his big moment. Together they could have ruled the world, beginning w/ Rome and Jerusalem.

When God doesn’t do what you think He could that would show the world just how good and powerful he is, what is going on?

We suffer b/c He doesn’t perform.

Now what?

You Peter snuck in to watch the proceedings. Much of the information we have about how they treated Jesus came from Peter.

And while Peter was there watching, he made, perhaps, the biggest mistake of his eternal lifetime.

Question #2

What Happens to Peter Now?

Luke 22:54–62 NIV

Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

He didn’t just let Jesus down.

Just a few days earlier he had sworn he would not let Jesus die. He would stand in front of Jesus and take the bullet for him.

He promised he’d never let it happen.

This was his friend, his teacher, his mentor, and his Messiah.

And he lied about his relationship with Him when he was questioned about it.

In his defense, he was afraid they might to do him what they were doing to Jesus.

Who of us wouldn’t wimp out either?

But, we hadn’t just promised Jesus we’d be the bravest soul on the planet?

I guess it’s easy to make that promise when there’s no heat in the kitchen.

Like standing at the altar and promising to act like you love someone you barely know for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part.

In that moment you might only be thinking about the honeymoon or how beautiful she in that dress and not about dealing with a teenager who is dividing the two of you to conquer his curfew.

Peter had to have been thinking about the momentum they had built up over the 3 years. People had been healed at his prayerful touch. What couldn’t he do?

And when Jesus, his brother needed him most, he disowned him.

He violated the relationship, violated his promise, was untrue to the people who asked and untrue to the vow he had made to God Himself.

Now what? I’m sure he believe his reservation in Hell was secure.

You don’t disown God w/out dealing w/ the consequence of God disowning you, right?

You claimed you didn’t know me. Well, I don’t know you. Hope you like it hot!

Hopeless. He went out and wept for the guilt, disappointment, the feelings of the assured destiny apart from God.

What hope did he have?

And his cohorts. Jesus was dead. Peter was nowhere to be found. Rumor had it Peter quit. (John was there, too).

So their spiritual leader was gone. Their fisherman turned disciple-leader was gone.

Everybody had scattered. What once looked like a promising, counter culture revolution is coming apart at the seams overnight.

So, Question #3

What Happens to the Followers?

Matthew 26:55–56 NIV

In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

They split. They ran like cockroaches when the kitchen light gets turned on.

Jesus said even the gates of Hell could not prevent it from happening.

But, he’s dead. Maybe, like all promises, they are annulled when the promiser dies.

Jesus had given hope to ppl whose lives were a wreck.

Women who had allowed men to mistreat them, if they had had a choice in it at all.

Women could not stand up to man in this culture. So they felt like trash until Jesus gave them value.

Men who were steeped in the culture of stealing from ppl in the name of tax collection. And the social rejection from their behavior combined with the guilt of their own self-conviction.

Lepers who had been rejected socially and were as good as dead were restored and given their life back.

Those possessed by demons and controlled by the occult were freed.

Those suffering from paralysis, deformities, and diseases that rendered their career possibilities to begging were given new opportunities to be blessed by earning an honest wage and supporting their families.

And those who had died, Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter, and widow’s son, were given their lives back their families given their loved-one back.

This is a powerful foundation to build a church on.

But, Jesus was dead.

His followers scattered.

Will they have to go back and apologize to their families for leaving the synagogue?

Apologize to the Rabbis?

Own their behavior for contributing the unrest and riots in cities where the Pagan priest protested this new organization?

What happened to Jesus?

What happened to Peter?

What happened to His followers?

Good Friday is filled w/ questions.

Easter comes w/ all the answers.

As tough as Friday was on Jesus, Peter, and His followers. Sunday was a breath of fresh air.

It’s Friday. Good Friday is filled with tough questions that stir deep feelings of hopelessness.

Hopelessness is in the air.

But, take heart, Sunday is coming.