Growing hope in the face of sorrow

First radishes

These days, I've been acutely aware of the things I hope for.

Starting with the little things, I hope for my vegetables to mature. I'm not alone in this: I recently came across a news article with the headline 'In the face of so much sorrow, we turn to gardens and plants for a sliver of hope.'

Some of the bigger things I hope for include being with family again, worshipping among a church community again and seeing relationships and nations filled with righteousness and justice. 

Perhaps this is why I've been struck lately by the Apostle Paul's words on hope: 'We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope' (Rom. 5:1-3). 

In other words, we can look forward to 'the hope of the glory of God,' which can develop in us even though our sufferings. 

Thus, this blog post is not about growing vegetables, but about growing hope, which comes through suffering. But before we explore the relationship between suffering and hope, first we must understand what St Paul means by 'the hope of the glory of God.'

What is the glory of God?: Becoming Christlike

St Paul describes this glory a few chapters after the verse above as 'the glory that will be revealed in us' (8:18), meaning it is something within us that will one day emerge for others to see. Then he writes that God has destined those who love him to be 'conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be firstborn among many [siblings]', and indicates that this act of conforming them to Christ is God's glorifying them (v. 29).

Thus, the glory of God is our becoming Christlike.

St Irenaeus puts it this way: 'The glory of God is a human fully alive.' We become fully alive when we become like Christ because he is our life and the Life (John 14:6).

In other words, God the Father loves and delights in God the Son (Matt. 17:5) and wants us, the people he has made, to become like the Son. Not only does God want this; the whole creation longs for it because it means that God's purposes for humanity and the creation can finally be fulfilled and set free from the curse of death (see also Gen. 1:26-28; Rom. 8:18-21; Eph. 2:10).

And beyond God and the creation, we ourselves long for this transformation: St Paul writes that we 'groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as children, the redemption of our bodies' (Rom. 8:23). This last part about 'the redemption of our bodies' means that becoming Christlike is not only a spiritual activity; it is a process that involves even our bodies, just as Christ in the flesh was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. We, too, will be raised from death with bodies that resemble Jesus' resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:35-57).

Then St Paul connects this with hope, saying that 'in this hope we were saved' (v. 24).

In this hope we were saved: Motivated by the bigger picture

Although St Paul says that we were saved in the hope of becoming Christlike, I don't usually associate hope with salvation. My understanding is that we are saved by God's mercy through believing in Christ (e.g. Eph. 2:8), so how does hope contribute to saving us?

This idea of the hope of becoming Christlike saving us is echoed in the words of St John the Evangelist: 'Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as [God] is pure' (1 Jn. 3:3).

St John has been describing that although we, the children of God, do not know exactly how we will be transformed on the day Christ appears, we will become like him--and our hope for this event cleanses us (1 Jn. 3:2-3).

I believe this hope cleanses us by showing us the bigger picture, which motivates us towards Christlikeness. Perhaps it's like when someone is out walking and has got lost but then pulls out a map, and after studying it and the wider surroundings, they then understand where they are and how to get home (or at least back to their car). This reorientation and recognition of where they are in the context of the bigger picture energises them to keep going when otherwise they might have got even more lost and sunk into despair.

Hope Valley, Peak District, UK

Hope, then, comes from seeing the bigger picture of our suffering, which helps us navigate our journey home.

What is that bigger picture? In short, it is that our suffering can lead to Christlikeness, which gives us hope. Now we will look at the relationship between suffering and hope more closely.

Suffering and hope: Joseph in Egypt

As I quoted earlier, suffering develops perseverance, and perseverance builds character, and character generates hope (Rom. 5:3-4).

The cause-and-effect relationship between suffering, perseverance and character is quite evident: our trials prompt us to settle in for the long haul, and sticking it out makes us stronger. In other words, as St Peter writes to believers who have endured all kinds of grief, our trials can transform our faith like metal refined through fire, purifying it and proving it to be genuine (see 1 Pet. 1:3-9).

But what does this have to do with hope?

I believe character produces hope because, as we persevere through suffering, we can recognise that our character is being shaped intentionally; that is, in the likeness of Christ, whose own suffering has brought about our salvation. There is a larger purpose behind our pain; we are going somewhere with all this; our suffering is not the end, but it can be used to bring us to the end that God intends for all creation.

One example is Joseph, a Hebrew patriarch who knew suffering. His brothers, who hated and were jealous of him, attempted to kill him but later changed their minds and sold him into slavery in Egypt. Once there, Joseph had begun settling and earning a name for himself when he was falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison. But even in prison, God was with him, and several years later, God helped him to interpret one of Pharaoh's troubling dreams, and as a result, Pharaoh put him in charge of all Egypt on the brink of famine (see Gen. 37, 39-41).

This famine was so severe that even Joseph's brothers suffered, leading them to travel to Egypt to buy food. Thus Joseph and his brothers were reunited, and Joseph explained that behind the evil they had inflicted upon him, God had ultimately sent Joseph to Egypt so that he could one day save his family and, beyond that, secure their future descendants (Gen. 45:5-8), as God had promised their ancestor Abraham (12:1-3).

Through his suffering and perseverance, Joseph becomes like Christ, who through the cross and resurrection ventured into death for our salvation. For both Joseph and Jesus, what people had intended for evil, God used for the salvation of many people (Gen. 50:20).

It is when Joseph recognises this bigger picture that he acquires hope. He realises that his pain has not been meaningless. This hope empowers Joseph to forgive his brothers and reveal the truth to them, and in this way, hope saves them.

Growing hope: Some final thoughts

Yesterday I harvested our first whole 'cos' lettuce. Its leaves had filled out to become as thick and large as a loaf of bread.

There are many smaller 'cos' lettuce plants behind that first one, and I trust that they too will follow in size, shape and taste as the first.

'Cos' lettuce

We are like the younger 'cos' lettuce plants, growing to become like Christ, who is like the mature one. Because we believe in Christ, who has gone ahead of us, we have hope that, through responding to our suffering in Christ, we will mature to become like him, triumphing over evil and death.

Becoming Christlike, then, is our bigger picture. And this is the purpose of every other good thing we hope for.

In the midst of this pandemic, we hope for the healing of bodies and communities through a vaccine, through care work, through wise decision-making and other means.

In the midst of injustice and racism, we hope for the healing of relationships, hearts and lands through truth, justice and mercy.

These hopes point to the great hope of the healing and reconciliation that will be revealed when we become like Christ; when he returns to unite God and people, eradicating death, pain and sorrow (Rev. 21:3-5).

Not only that, this hope energises us to live in the mysterious reality that Christ is already in our midst, by whose wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5) and in whom racial, socio-economic and gender divisions are replaced by a new creation (Gal. 3:28; 6:15).