Hope makes Friday Good

The ground has warmed, and the lettuce seeds from last fall's plants are sprouting. The truth is, I don't know what is sprouting yet, maybe lettuce, mustard greens, or kale. The warming ground means that spring will soon look less like winter 2.0 and more like summer is almost here. As the weather warms, trees blossom, and annuals peak out of the ground, the Earth erupts with the hope of new life. Hope is important. Hope is powerful. Hope is what makes Good Friday a good Friday.

Hope is different from mere expectation. Merriam-Webster uses concepts like desire and belief to define hope. Therefore, hope rises above wants, expectations, and anticipations. Hope is rooted in a desire that can affect the very core of a person. Solomon addresses hope in the thirteenth chapter of Proverbs, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12, NLT). In this verse, "heart" speaks of a person's very core, mind, soul, and vigor. Hope is also rooted in the belief that the object of our hope will come to pass.

Hope in our own actions is not hope, it is expectation. Expectation is like the sprouts in my garden. I desire that the sprouts are not weeds. Because the sprouts do not look like the weeds commonly growing in my garden, I expect they might be plants. If I believed they were plants, I would water, feed, and transplant them right away to ensure their vitality. But they might be weeds, so I will wait until they grow until I know. Expectation? Yes. Hope? No.

When we hope, we confidently believe that our desire will happen. Expectations are within our control; we cannot control the fulfillment of hope. When we truly hope, we surrender the fulfillment of our desires to someone else's authority. Therefore, who we hope in is as important as what we hope for.

And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently) (Romans 8:23-25, NLT).

Hope, real hope that desires and believes that our desires will come to pass makes Good Friday good. Yet, hope makes Good Friday good not only because we hope for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and His second coming. Hope makes Good Friday good because of who our hope is in—God. Paul reminds us earlier in Romans chapter eight that just as God raised Jesus from the dead, He will also give us life. Good Friday is the day our savior entered into the same death we live each day. And in three days, we celebrate the reality that God raised Jesus from the dead. We hope for new life, and our hope is true because, in surrender to Jesus, our hope is in God!

And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you (Romans 8:10-11).

When did you first become a follower of Jesus?

How has the Holy Spirit given you life as you follow Jesus?