Words of Hope

A Word Study on the Biblical Word "Hope"

Study #50 - The Messianic Hope (Part V)

This will be our final segment on the Messianic Hope.  There is one last reference to the Jewish hope in a coming Messiah we wish to consider.  It is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 21:  "But we trusted  (Greek elpizo - hoped) that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done".  These words were spoken by the two disciples of Jesus who were walking along on the road to Emmaus after the death of the Savior.  It is the only place I know of in the New Testament where the Messianic Hope is spoken of in the past tense.  In the Greek text the verb elpizo is in the Imperfect tense indicating a continual action in the past.  The idea expressed is something like this:  "We were hoping all along up until his death that this Jesus was in fact the Promised Messiah who was supposed to redeem our people Israel."  The irony of this incident is that they were in fact unknowingly saying these words to the Risen Lord!  It is important to note that their hope in a Personal Messiah included the hope of redemption just like that of Anna and those she conversed with in the Temple (see Luke 2:36-38 and previous studies). However, like many of the followers of Jesus, including the Apostles, they had not yet come to know that the death of Jesus was the appointed means of that promised redemption and that it would be put into effect by the Resurrection of their crucified and buried Redeemer!  And so their previously confident hope that Jesus would be that Promised One had been temporarily dashed by the fact of His death.  They simply could not reconcile the fact that the Lord Jesus had come as "a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people" and yet "the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him" (verses 19,20).  G. Campbell Morgan wrote:  "Thus we see their attitude, and in it a wonderful revelation of what the Cross had done for the disciples of Jesus.  It had not destroyed their love for Him, nor their belief in Him, and His intention, but it had slain their hope.  In the Cross they saw failure" (emphasis mine).  They had heard the report of the women who had heard the angels declare that Jesus was alive, and they had heard the reports of an empty tomb, but they had not yet come to believe for themselves that these things were so (verses 22-24).  Morgan strikingly commented:  "That is where the whole Christian movement would have ended, had there been no resurrection"!  Likewise, William Hendriksen wrote:  "When the Master died, the disciples, too, died.  Their hopes, their aspirations, their deepest affections and fondest anticipations were buried with their Lord .... Never was there a more dejected, disappointed, crushed group of men and women!"  But then came the Resurrection and the Revelation of the Risen Lord to His disciples!  It was the Lord Jesus Himself, risen from the dead, who came along side them that day.  First He rebuked their slowness of heart, then He reminded them of the Scriptures that prophesied of the fact and necessity of the Messiah's death and resurrection, and then at last He revealed Himself to them (verses 25-31).  And so with their eyes opened and their hearts burning their hope was revived!  The Resurrection of Jesus was unmistakeable and irrefutable proof that He was indeed the promised Messiah:  He who has provided a ransom from the bondage and penalty of sin for all who will accept His death, burial and resurrection as the purchase price of their redemption.  That hope that was at one time all but dead has now become a living hope because of  the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Peter 1:3).