We live in discouraging times. With deep government debt, a plunging stock market, wars with no end, record-high mortgage failures and bankruptcies…we have to wonder, where is the hope? We see evil go unpunished. Suffering surrounds us. We fall into despair. Things will never change. They will always be this way.
Peter struggled to bring believers through just such despair. He spoke to them about the certainty of suffering—of being criticized, attacked, even hated—for sharing the Gospel. His greater concern, however, was damage that could come from within the ranks. Peter cautioned against complacency and encouraged followers to live out what they believed. He charged them to hold fast to the truth. He warned of leaders among them who would distort and subvert the Gospel message.
In his second letter, Peter assured the church that they would have false teachers among them. Preachers would ridicule those looking for the second coming of Christ. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?...everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4).
The people faced physical persecution from the Jews and emotional abuse from their own teachers. How bleak the world must have seemed. Where is the hope? How easy to slip into a sense that God had forgotten them. Things will never change. They will always be this way.
One of the great carols of the Christmas season comes from a time of deep despair. Tragedy had fallen on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He lost his beloved wife in a freak and fiery accident in 1861. Then two years later, his eldest son was severely wounded while serving in the Union Army. On Christmas Day, 1864, with the Civil War raging, Longfellow penned a holiday poem of seven verses. We’re familiar with five of the stanzas that begin:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
This last line, repeated in all seven verses, seems to mock the truth played out in America that day. Longfellow’s despondency is transparent in two lesser-known stanzas:
Then from each black accursed mouth, the cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men.
It was as if an earthquake rent the hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn the households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men.
And then with the sixth verse, the poet acknowledges his despair. He cries out with words that seem to say, “Where is the hope? Things will never change. They will always be this way." In the misery of grief and the futility of war, had God forgotten Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?
No. Longfellow confidently concludes:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead; nor doth He sleep!”
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!
Peter similarly encouraged those he addressed. Though mockers scoffed and accused God of breaking a promise, Peter reminded the people that God was neither dead nor asleep. He was at work. He had not withdrawn His promise, nor was He delaying it. He was still working through it. Peter says: The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
God was and is using this period of time before Jesus returns to draw people to Him. With the promise of Christ’s second coming, God extends an incentive to join His fellowship. It is His greatest desire that no one would be left out, that no one would be lost on that last day. The message of Christmas is a message of hope: God first sent His Son to save the world. Despite the dire messages of the world (where is the hope? Things will never change), we take hope in the continual work of God. We find hope in believing His Son will return. As Longfellow said, The Right will prevail.
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