Finding Rest and Hope Through Intentional LivingSample

Every Tear Wiped Away

There is nothing more practical for sufferers than to have hope. The erosion or loss of hope is what makes suffering unbearable. And here at the end of the Bible is the ultimate hope—a material world in which all suffering is gone—“every tear wiped from our eyes.”

This is a life-transforming, living hope. Who was John writing to in the book of Revelation? He was writing to people who were suffering terrible things. Verse 4 shows you the list. He was writing to people who were experiencing death and mourning and crying and pain. This book was written near the end of the first century when we know the Roman emperor Domitian was conducting large-scale persecutions of Christians. Some had their homes taken away and plundered, while some were sent into the arena to be torn to pieces by wild beasts as the crowds watched. This is what the readers of this book were facing.

And what did John give them so they could face it all? John gave them the ultimate hope—a new heavens and a new earth that was coming. That is what he gave them to face it, and it is a simple fact of history that it worked. We know that the early Christians took their suffering with great poise and peace and they sang hymns...and they forgave the people who were killing them. And so the more they were killed, the more the Christian movement grew. Why? Because when people watched Christians dying like that, they said, “These people have got something.” Well, do you know what they had? They had this. It is a living hope.

—Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering 

Reflection: Think of a time in your life that was marked by suffering. How can you use that experience as a story of hope and encouragement for others?

Prayer: Father, sometimes it feels as if the darkness and pain in my life will never pass. Or that circumstances will never change. I imagine that’s how the disciples must have felt at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. But it didn’t remain Friday. And it doesn’t today. Your Resurrection reminds me that the darkness will not stay forever. It passes. May I have hope even in this darkness that a third day will come. Amen.