Hope

The ancient Greeks, when trying to explain their world, came up with a story that caught people’s attention. Here’s how it goes:

The Greek god Zeus ordered the god of craftsmanship to create the first woman, which he did, out of water and earth. The gods gave her many talents: beauty, music, persuasion, and so on. Her name, “Pandora,” means “all-gifted.”

Pandora was given a jar (sometimes referred to as a “box,” but the original story is about a jar), and she was told not to open it, no matter what the circumstances. Does this sound familiar?

She was, of course, gifted with curiosity among all her other gifts, and she just couldn’t stand the suspense. When she opened the jar, all manner of evils escaped and filled the whole earth: disease, despair, malice, greed, death, hatred, violence, cruelty, war … they all got out even though she quickly closed the jar again. There was just one thing that still lay at the bottom of the jar, unnoticed by Pandora: HOPE.

Pandora did eventually let Hope out of the jar as well. As some tell the story, this is why Hope always arrives in our lives a bit late, after the disasters and evils have come and left us sore and injured.

The story of Pandora is just a myth, but it reminds me of another story, a story of a woman in Roman-occupied Israel who had been ill for years and years, ostracized and criticized by society because of her illness. And then she heard that Jesus was coming to town. She had heard of his healings, mostly healings of men, but hope sprang up in her heart. “If I can just touch the hem of his robe,” she said to herself, “I will be healed.”

When Jesus came to town, this woman was there, waiting with Hope in her heart. She worked her way through the crowd, unnoticed by anyone, bent down—perhaps as if to pick something up—and touched his robe. Still no one noticed, except Jesus. “Take heart, Daughter,” he said to her. “Your faith has healed you.” And indeed, she was healed.

You see, hope and faith are so closely related. It was her hope that fed her faith.

But there’s one more piece. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul connects three points in this equation: “Now these three remain,” he says, “Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” And indeed, it was the love of Jesus, God in human form, who healed the woman who had been made ill by the evils of the world.

Let’s go back to Pandora’s jar. In the end, her jar held Hope, which helped to heal the sores caused by the evils that had escaped. There is another container, a tomb, which held Hope. But that tomb is now empty because Jesus, our hope, has risen. Because of Him we have hope every single day of our lives. And in the end He will not only heal us from the illnesses and pain and loss caused by evil, but he will destroy the evil itself--wiped off the face of this earth when all is made new!

I can’t wait for that day!