Bringing Hope to the Hopeless

What do we do when we find ourselves losing hope? Our lives today give us plenty of opportunities to fall into despair and hopelessness. How do we keep our hope when our circumstances seem so difficult? How can we be a people of hope, making our own what St. Paul calls our "steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Thess. 1:3)?

Today's Gospel reading gives us a lesson on hopeless situations. We see a woman who has been ill for twelve years, and who has become poor and socially outcast because of her illness. We see also a man whose 12-year-old daughter, his only child, lies on her deathbed. Both of them have lost hope, and they come to Jesus in their hopelessness.

In both of these situations, Jesus brings an unexpected result. When the woman who had been ill for so long touches Jesus’ garment, he makes the new creation known to her. “Daughter, your faith has made you well,” (Luke 8:48). When she touched him, according to Old Testament purity laws, he should himself have become unclean. Her uncleanness should have been passed on to him, as always happens when a clean person is touched by an unclean person. But Jesus reverses our expectations; his life is passed on to her, his cleanness is passed on to her, and she is healed.

In the same way, when Jesus reaches Jairus’ house, he takes the body of the young girl by the hand. Again, by touching a corpse, Jesus ought to have become unclean according to the Old Testament purity laws. But again, Jesus reverses what we expect to happen. "Child, arise," (Luke 8:54). His life becomes her new life, and she immediately gets up from her deathbed. Jesus enters into these hopeless situations, and he brings new hope, new life, and a new creation.


When we lose our hope, we gain the opportunity to invite Jesus into our hopeless circumstances. When Jesus enters into our hopelessness, then we enter into the hope that Jesus brings. Hopelessness, then, becomes an opportunity not for despair, but for hope in the new creation of Jesus Christ.

As Orthodox Christians we are called to live within Jesus Christ's new creation. As members of Christ living in the new creation, we are called to take up the new life that Christ offers to us. Living in the new creation means changing our way of life, putting on the new humanity of Jesus Christ in place of the old humanity that had been defaced through sin. Living in the new creation means living a life of hope in the midst of the hopelessness that we see around us. It means seeing that hopelessness is passing away, and that our life in Christ is only beginning, a new life of hope that has no end.

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