"Hopeless" isn't in God's Vocabulary

5^th sunday after the epiphany

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church

Mark 1:29-39 

29As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31So he went to her took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. 32That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33The whole town gathered at the door, 34and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.  35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"  38Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." 39So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. (NIV)

I want you to listen once again to the words of Job.  However, as you hear them this time, instead of hearing them from a man you never met who lived several thousand years ago, imagine a friend or family member speaking them to you:

“Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

When I lie down I think ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again” (7:1-7).

What on earth would you say to someone experiencing all of that?  How do you console him?  He is convinced his situation is so completely and utterly hopeless.  Is there anything you could possibly say to change his mind?

More than likely, you’d be inclined to resort to the safety net from our Second Lesson this morning.  To Job (or a friend), you might say, “Keep your head up.  After all, ‘we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him’” (Romans 8:28).  But I’m not so sure Job would have bought it at the time.  Could one fault him for failing to be able to see the “good” around the corner in a life comprised of days marked only by futility, sleepless nights of restless misery, a body covered in sores and disease, and a spirit that is crushed and deflated, one that had all but given up on life?

Bad as it was, Job’s life wasn’t always that way.  In fact, there was a time in this world when no one’s life was that bad; a time when the word “hopeless” had no place in the world.  But that was thousands of years ago, and even then it lasted mere days after creation when all was perfect and well.  Then sin entered the world, and hopelessness with it. 

We heard last Sunday how things looked hopeless for the man Jesus met in the synagogue that morning “who was possessed by an evil spirit” (Mk. 1:23).  The demon had been tormenting him for who knows how long.  It had led him to yell and spew out uncontrollably.  It led him to behave in ways that resulted in awkward stares from on-looking eyes.  It led him to do things he wouldn’t have imagined doing had he not been possessed.  And he was helpless to change his situation.  His situation was hopeless.

Neither did things look so promising for Simon’s mother-in-law (v.30).  She was bedridden with a serious illness.  This was more than just allergies acting up.  It was more than just the common cold.  The doctor Luke in his Gospel reveals that this was a high fever that caused her a great deal of suffering.  The medication wasn’t cutting it.  Her situation was hopeless.

And then the whole town came a-knocking.  That evening all the ailing, the dejected and diseased showed up at Simon and Andrew’s house.  I’ll bet your little wait in the doctor’s office doesn’t seem so long compared to waiting in line for a whole village to be healed.  The demon-possessed, the mentally ill, the virus-inflicted, the degenerately diseased, and hosts of others came because no other treatments worked.  There were no magical cure-alls; no cutting-edge procedures.  Their situations were hopeless.

Are there those who feel the same way today?  Do you feel the same way today?  While we’ve got the luxury of countless drugs and medications today, they still can’t guarantee a cure for the loved one diagnosed with cancer.  And speaking of the wealth of drugs and treatments available today, they don’t seem so effective in light of periodic reports of rapidly evolving bacteria.  It seems antibiotics aren’t packing the same punch they used to.  What does that mean for us a few years down the road?  What does that mean for our children?  Is the lack of potent drugs eventually going to leave us hopeless when we have nowhere else to turn?

Things do not always take a turn for the better just by stepping outside the field of sickness and medication.  What of ruined relationships?  What about once rock-solid marriages that seem to be slowly crumbling to pieces?  We’ve tried to repair them.  We’ve read and reread what all the experts have to say.  We’ve gone to counseling.  We’ve even forgiven.  We’ve bent over backwards to try to glue what’s become unglued.  Yet it all seems so hopeless.

And then just when we think things can’t get any worse, we experience heart-wrenching loss that hits us like the Titanic slamming into an iceberg.  The job that once brought security and a regular income—gone.  The savings that we planned on living off of during retirement—nearly depleted.  And to top it all off the phone rings and the voice on the other end of the line informs us that someone dear to us been severely injured or has died.  Such losses can weigh us down and cause everything to appear hopeless.

But isn’t that what sin does?  Doesn’t it color everything with the hues of hopelessness?  Doesn’t it put up what appear to be dead ends in our lives and leave us with nowhere to turn?  Doesn’t sin so often choke the joy out of life?  Isn’t sin – and not just others’ sin, but our sin – isn’t that what’s really at the root of all of our problems, sufferings, heartache, and depression?  Isn’t that what’s really at the heart of hopelessness – sin?

If that’s true, if sin is at the heart of hopelessness, then what’s at the heart of hope?  It’s not “what,” but “who.”  And the answer, of course, is Jesus.  When Jesus arrived in our world, hope arrived with him.  Jesus was the difference between hopeless and hope.  He rebuked the demon possessing the man in the synagogue with the words “‘Come out of him!’  The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek” (Mk. 1:25, 26). “Hopeless” had been replaced with hope.  But Jesus’ work had only just begun.  Later that day he also healed Simon’s mother-in-law with the touch of his hand.  “Hopeless” had again been replaced by hope.  That evening was no different.  No matter what disease showed up at the door, every variety was cured by Jesus.  For an entire town “hopeless” had been replaced by hope.       

Look at all our Savior has done to bring hope!  He healed – disability or disease or even demon-possession was no match for him.  Then notice how he spent his time the very next morning: he prayed.  And do you suppose Jesus prayed only for himself?  We have the example of his High-Priestly prayer from John’s Gospel that reveals a sample of his prayer life – and it’s filled with prayers for others, including you and me.  Still today he intercedes on our behalf.  And after he prayed, he moved along to preach the good news of the gospel.  He brought hope through healing, hope through prayer, and hope through preaching salvation.

But it would not have been sufficient for Jesus simply to preach about salvation; it was also necessary for him to secure it on our behalf.  That is why he ultimately ended up at Calvary.  That is why he hung from the cross with arms spread wide.  And hope did not remain bottled up in Jesus’ tomb, but instead burst out of the grave with him.  Jesus’ death and resurrection resulted in hope for a hopeless world.  Jesus today is the difference between “hopeless” and hope.  Your baptism confirms it.  The Lord’s Supper assures you of it.  Everything that has ever been discolored by the hopelessness of sin has been restored by the hope that comes from forgiveness; the assurance of a “not guilty” decree by our just Judge in heaven.  That same hope heals where medicine cannot, where marriage counselors fall short, and where employment is no sure thing.  The hopelessness of all sin; our sin, your sin, my sin, has been replaced by the hope that comes from our being forever forgiven.

That forgiveness is the foundation on which God’s promise in Romans 8:28 is based.  We can know that in all things God does indeed work for the good of those who love him, because he already has.  He’s already worked for our good in the one eternal area that mattered – our sin has been covered by his grace.  Let the devil throw all that he can at me, just as he tried with Job.  I can suffer every evil imaginable in this world, but he cannot rob me of God’s grace.  That is mine.  That is yours.  Because his grace is ours, so is hope.   

Brothers and sisters, after realizing the significance of that hope in our own lives, and continuing to regularly be renewed by it as we digest it daily from God’s Word, let us share that hope with others.  Make no mistake; the world is a hopeless place without Christ.  But how can the world know about the hope Jesus offers unless someone tells them?  Will your neighbor ever know that Jesus offers hope after divorce unless you tell him?  Will your coworker know that Jesus offers hope for abuse unless you share it with her?  Will your friends and classmates know that Jesus offers hope for addiction unless you let them know?  How will your own family know about the hope you have for eternity unless you use every opportunity you have to make that abundantly clear?       

The word “hopeless” isn’t in God’s vocabulary.  It was done away with through Christ.  Hope has been restored; hope for all people; hope for your neighbor, your coworker, your friends and family; hope for you.  Amen.