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Three words. The Easter story begins and ends with three words.

The agony of ‘It is finished.‘

The glory of ‘He is Risen.’

But in between, the skies darkened. Heads hung in disbelief. The crowds turned from the cross, unable to bear this twist in God’s redemption story.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

He was to be their King riding in on a white horse to save the day, not crucified wearing a crown of thorns.

He was meant to dispense justice and conquer evil, bringing peace, finally bringing peace.

Now their hope for the future was buried in a borrowed tomb.

Disciples trudged along the dusty road, reliving the agony of the past three days.

Four words give a glimpse to their agony:

‘But we had hoped’, they whispered. (Luke 24:21 NIV)

It was not supposed to be like this, was it?

This was not part of the plan.

‘But we had hoped’, they cried.

My thoughts exactly. You too?

Trudging along the dusty widow’s road, reliving past agonies and present difficulties, it is often hard to glimpse the possibility of a future still wrapped up in a shiny tidy bow.

‘But I had hoped…’, we cry on lonely days and quiet nights.

When Jesus came walking alongside the two, quietly listening to their hope-less, fear-full conversation, they were so busy wondering and worrying over it all, they didn’t recognize Him.

They couldn’t see that ‘He is risen’. They were still stuck on ‘it is finished’.

Me too. So often, this is me, too.

How often we let hope be eclipsed by fear.

When the disciples anxious torrent of words finally subsided, he quietly interjected “How slow you are to believe, do you not see? I am right here walking beside you. “

No answers as to how it would all play out. No shiny, tidy bow on His story.

Simply ‘believe’ and ‘I am with you’.

I am with you.

Lord, this Easter week, please help us to see You even when the road seems long and lonely. May we quiet our questions and confusion and choose to simply believe. Help us turn our cries of ‘but we had hoped’ into ‘my hope is in You, Lord’. In between the now and the not yet, help us to see You walking right beside us. Death is defeated. Hope has arisen. You stand strong and mighty as Lord of all! Amen.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf…
Hebrews 6:19-20 ESV