Misguided Hope

The pasta aisle at my daughter's store in England. 

Scripture:

Mark 15:³⁵ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” ³⁶ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 

Observation:

From the perspective of Mark, Elijah had already come and played his role in and through the life of John the Baptist. The focus on the drama was now on Jesus alone but again, the witnesses didn’t understand what they were seeing. They failed to comprehend the significance of all that had already seen and experienced. 

There was popular belief among the Israelites that Elijah would come to their aid in times of mortal danger. Running to get Jesus the sour wine was probably an act of compassion as they hoped that they could keep him alive until Elijah arrived. This is misguided hope as a result of unbelief. 

Application:

While there were bystanders who were mocking Jesus, this group seems to have had genuine concern. The problem was that they had failed to see who Jesus was all along and now, in the moment of crisis, they were reaching out for solutions from their past. Elijah should come and change everything in that moment — that was their hope — only he’d already been there and they had missed him.

Our hope becomes misguided when we fail to recognize the hand of God in our midst. God is at work and doesn’t need us to try and manipulate the situation. We shouldn’t pray in an effort to coerce God into doing what WE think is the right thing in the moment. Of course we bring to him our prayer requests and our needs and God listens. At the same time, prayer becomes a season in which we are able to participate in the heart of God. The more that I know God, the more I know how to pray. 

The people misunderstood Jesus. They thought he was crying out for Elijah, probably because they had not taken the time to know the scriptures. They missed out on the Psalm of lament and immediately though they had to do something to solve the problem of the moment. 

This is the very danger that we face today as we jump to the conclusion that WE have to solve the problems of the moment. What if we are supposed to slow down and allow God to open our eyes to the reality of Jesus? The One who suffered on the cross is with us now in our pain. That journey of pain includes the cries of lament, and instead of lamenting with Jesus,  we think we have to “fix” everything and the result is fear. Misguided hope is putting all of our trust in humans and expecting them to run in at the last moment and “save” us. Jesus was in the midst of saving the world, only the bystanders couldn’t see it. 

I don’t want to live with misguided hope. The temptation is to begin the day with all the latest updates on COVID-19, employment, and the markets. All of that is like crying out for Elijah when the Messiah is inviting us into His peace. Let’s begin the day with the hope that we find in Jesus.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:3-5)

Prayer:

Lord, today we cry out to you for we need to live daily in your peace. Amen.