Advent Week 1 - Hope
From the moment sin entered the world, from the moment that our evil choices broke relationship with God, humanity has struggled to find meaning and purpose. We look around ourselves every day at the crooked and bent lifestyles of violence, greed, and hatred that are so prevalent in our world and it is difficult to figure out what can be done about any of it.
Even King Solomon, one of the wisest and wealthiest people in history, wrote the book of Ecclesiastes as his answer after searching out the meaning of life, and he opens the book with this striking phrase.
“Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” Ecclesiastes 1:2
He goes on to say:
“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.” Ecclesiastes 1:14–15
Futility. Pursuing the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, what has been ruined can not be set right.
This is a worldview that lacks hope. So what are we to do if everything is hopeless? How do we spend our pointless lives?
The Israelites tried to follow the Law, to keep their covenant with God, but they were unable to stand beneath the weight of their own idolatry and lusts, and eventually God sent them into exile, just as He promised He would. Many good and moral people throughout history have tried to do the right thing, yet one thing that Solomon discovered always remained true, sin has made us crooked, and what is crooked cannot be straightened.
Yet, throughout history, despite our sin, despite our refusal to return to relationship with Him, God’s constant promise has always been that He would not leave us hopeless. He promised that He would step in, He would make straight what was crooked. He would restore meaning and life to His people.
Several thousand years ago, a young woman named Mary was in desperate circumstances. Her nation was enslaved, her people starving under the oppression of Rome. For centuries her people had cried out for salvation, for restoration, for hope, yet God had not yet fulfilled His promise. But to this young woman, hope finally came. An angel of God delivered the most thrilling news in the history of the world. Salvation had come through a baby, one that she herself would carry and raise.
Hear now the promises of God, words spoken long before the first coming of our Savior Jesus Christ:
“This is My Servant; I strengthen Him, this is My Chosen One; I delight in Him. I have put My Spirit on Him; He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or shout or make His voice heard in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed, and He will not put out a smoldering wick; He will faithfully bring justice.” The nations will put their hope in his name. Isaiah 42:1–3
Jesus Christ, hope of the world, came to do the impossible and set the crooked straight, to defeat sin and death, to eternally take His place as the true King and Savior of the world. Now, thousands of years after His first coming, we still celebrate the coming of Hope, our Savior, our King. And we eagerly look forward to His second coming, when Hope will become complete, and all will be remade in His image, the image of the only one who is perfect and just. In the name of Jesus Christ we find hope, joy, and fulfillment. In His perfect name we find the completion of all of our hopes.
