The most important thing going on in the world is what God is doing.

Despite this truth, it’s easy for us to get distracted by things that compete for significance: politics, economics, health issues, social upheaval and bad religion. I want to remind you that as real as they are, these things are not ultimate. True Easter hope comes from knowing that the person and work of God envelops our reality in a decisive, transcendent way.

The people of God have always believed this—even when all evidence pointed to the contrary. Ancient Israel hoped for God to rescue them through the Messiah. Their common worship testified: The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid…the Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation (Ps. 118:6,14).

From our vantage point in history, we know the Israelites’ hope was about to be tested. Though the Messiah came, his message was confusing, and he was murdered by the state. Jesus’ first followers would later come to understand that his death had spiritual meaning far beyond a fear-based state crucifixion. Nevertheless, Jesus was dead. What was God doing now? Didn’t betrayal, arrest, unjust trials and crucifixion imply God’s abdicating absence? Didn’t they precisely call for hopelessness? I can’t blame the disciples for wondering: Death is the end, not the beginning of anything, right? 

Confusion and darkness destroy confident expectation in our time too. Many of us need hope right now. We need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that: Even the darkness is not dark to God (Ps.139:12). He always sees and does the right thing, guiding history to the fulfillment of his purposes.

I’m lost; God isn’t.
I am stumped; God isn’t.
I am muddled; God isn’t.
I am worried; God’s got this.
I am anxious; God is confident in himself.
I feel drawn to over-activity; God is settled.
I feel thrown off; God is true within himself.
I fear certain outcomes; God is poised in his omnipotence.

Hope comes to us as a gift from God’s own being—his stable, steady character. When life seems oppressive and suffocating, our hope for resurrection is settled in God. He has lovingly, unwaveringly bound himself to humanity. We are his eternal project. When we seek him, we find hope. We experience the reality that while death and other painful aspects of life are real, resurrection and the hope it infuses into human life are more real, more definitive, more representative of the Divine perfections to come.

We have specific hope in the tough moments—we hope in Easter resurrection because of the nature of the One who raised Jesus from the dead:

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
(Ps. 62:5,6)

This Easter, may you find calm within chaos and conflict. May hope replace fatalistic doubt about the future. Good triumphs. That is your story. It is your destiny, and it makes sense of and heals all the broken bits of our lives. In Jesus’ resurrection, this reality is both coming and already here:

Look!
God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.
(Rev. 21:3,4)

Resurrection wins.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Todd Hunter is the founding bishop of The Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others and founder and president of The Telos Collective. He is past president of Alpha USA, former national director for the Association of Vineyard Churches, and retired founding pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Costa Mesa, CA. He is the author of Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others, Giving Church Another Chance, The Outsider Interviews, The Accidental Anglican, Our Favorite Sins and Our Character at Work.