“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As far as the world is concerned, the way of Jesus is a way of weakness and failure. Well, weakness in a world dominated by what is perceived as strength invites aggressive people to challenge and persecute those who are given the unfortunate label. Those people and institutions and even nations that are thought to be weak are made into targets. They can become scapegoats for all kinds of problems. Eventually they are seen as less than fully human, and once that particular line is crossed in the minds of their adversaries, a whole range of awful things suddenly fall within the realm of reasonable, acceptable, and even good to do to them. The apostle Peter, who had once fully bought into the world’s narrative of strength, opens his first letter by offering praise to God because of the living hope He has given us through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The trouble with a resurrection hope is that it starts with a death. In this case it was a voluntary death that was not resisted. The world sees that as weakness and responds accordingly. How do we live with a living hope in a world that doesn’t understand such a thing?

This was one of those Friday mornings when I wasn’t sure at all what I was going to write when I got up. I was praying through that last night as I fell asleep, and picked up right where I left off when my mind drifted back into consciousness this morning. My first thought was to reflect on Peter’s question to Jesus about how many times he should forgive a brother who offends him. Do you remember that story? The cultural script called for three times. Three strikes and then you can justifiably knock them out. Peter raised it to seven so that he would look good in front of the other guys when Jesus inevitably praised him for getting the kingdom of God so profoundly right.

Jesus blew his mind and the minds of everyone standing around listening to Him by raising the forgiveness threshold to the moon. He then went on to tell a story that had two key points. The first was to reveal just how utterly ridiculous is unforgiveness in light of the forgiveness God has (or, in that particular moment, would) offered us through Christ. The second was to bring us face to face with the deeply uncomfortable truth that unforgiveness, regardless of what the offense happens to be, separates us from God’s forgiveness. Or, to put that another way, until we turn from our unforgiveness and forgive the offending person (not necessarily to their face, but in our hearts and minds), we can’t receive God’s forgiveness of us for our own sins.

There are some folks within my personal circle of influence who are dealing with issues of deep offense and the temptation to walk the path of unforgiveness. This was going to be a bit of an anonymity-preserving pastoral letter to them in the form of a good reminder to potentially who knows how many others of the handful of folks who will read this.

Then I sat down with a devotional when I was up that God used to further refine where I would be going this morning. That same Peter who unwittingly made himself into a teachable moment about the real and radical nature of God’s kingdom would indeed eventually get his heart and mind wrapped around how all of this was designed to work. He would later write a letter to a group of believers who were living in a pretty hostile cultural environment. He wrote to give them instructions, but also hope for living in a setting in which everyone around them hated them and felt perfectly free to attack and persecute them in all kinds of ways. In other words, they were the recipients of an almost unending parade of offenses. In the face of what amounted to a constant temptation to walk a path of unforgiveness, Peter called these believers to walk with a living hope powered by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

How is that supposed to work?

What does a “living hope” even mean? How can hope be alive? Well, I was thinking about that some this morning, and it occurred to me to look at the biological definition of living things. The analogy isn’t perfect by any means, but things that are classified as living from a biological standpoint have an organized structure, they require energy, they respond to stimuli, and they are capable of reproduction and growth. If you are a biologist, you could pick at my sampling there, but again, I said the analogy isn’t perfect. Still, let’s think about this hope we have because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead through this lens.

This living hope we have in Christ is organized. It is organized in that it is focused in a single direction: on the eternal future we have promised to us in heaven. It is organized around a central idea: that Jesus rose from the dead. There is nothing random or unpredictable about it either. It is very specific in its origin and intent. And, because of the contours for it laid out in the Scriptures, we can predict how it will respond to any particular situation (when it is operating healthily and as designed).

Our living hope requires energy. It does not exist on its own, nor does it perpetuate itself. We have to work on it, actively embracing it rather than the hopelessness and despair that are otherwise natural for humans to hold. Indeed, apart from this living hope and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, when this life ends, that’s it. We don’t have evidence of anything beyond it. We made up lots of stories to convince ourselves otherwise, but we always knew they were made up in our heart of hearts which is why every other religion is ultimately focused on very worldly responses to the challenges of living in a broken world. What’s more, this energy doesn’t ultimately come from us. It comes from God’s Spirit dwelling in us.

A living hope rooted in the resurrection actively responds to stimuli. When something around us happens to threaten our hope, it responds according to its design (again, when it is healthy). When we are faced with a tragic loss, rather than giving in to anger or despair, we mourn with hope knowing that in Christ, death isn’t the end. We react with forgiveness and compassion for our enemies because of Christ’s forgiveness of us and our trust that as the resurrected Lord of all creation, He will bring proper justice for all sins when the time is right. That execution of justice will include our own sins, which is why we have such understanding and compassion for our enemies. When our plate is so overloaded that we can hardly function, we turn to peace rather than anxiety because we know that our help will come at just the right moment and in just the right amount to enable us to keep moving toward God’s kingdom regardless of what stands before us. When we are attacked, we respond not in kind, but with kindness because that’s what our resurrected Lord did. Yes, He died for it initially, but He was raised again and now lives forever. Because we know that is our end, we are freed to love like He did no matter what kind of a response we get for our efforts.

Lastly, this living hope grows and reproduces. The longer we hold it, the deeper it grows. The richer it becomes. The more fully it expands in our hearts and minds. As we nurture it regularly with a steady diet of engaging with the Scriptures, engaging with prayer, and engaging with the body of Christ, it becomes stronger and bolder and more able to withstand the challenges of life. And it reproduces. When we live with this living hope as our guide, the people around us will eventually take notice of it and want to have it for themselves. We share it with them as Christ commanded, and it takes root in a new heart to start the process all over again.

This hope we have in Christ is indeed alive. Because Jesus walked out of that grave on the morning of the third day, we know what the end of the story is from the beginning. We know that life gets the final word. No matter what else happens in this life, if we are rooted in this living hope in Christ, life will be the final word on our story. This means that we can endure any manner of challenges in this life not simply as a drudgery that we have to plod through with resignation, but with peace and trust and even joy. We can live with the character of Christ in all our circumstances. We can love like He did. We can be kind and generous and gracious. We don’t have to be concerned about taking for ourselves before we worry about others because Jesus will provide for us lavishly in the end. We don’t need to concern ourselves with accumulating power for ourselves so that no one else threatens us because Jesus has all the power. He will make sure we have what we need when we need it. The world’s perception of weakness is something we can laugh at loudly and then respond to it with gentleness, meekness, and sacrificial generosity because we know that those types of things are where the real power lies.

No, as it turns out, a living hope is a very powerful thing indeed. But it is a thing that can only be found in Jesus. It will seem utterly counterintuitive if we try to look at it through the lens of the world, but it will always be proven right in the end. It will always accomplish good. It will always bring God glory. If you have this hope, live with it. If you don’t, consider making it your own today. You won’t ever make a better decision.