A wall poster says, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Interesting, because it can be read both positively and negatively: ‘get going’ is positively ‘get to work’ or negatively ‘get out of here – flee!’

When the going gets tough, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus call us to life and to hope. When the going gets tough, followers of Jesus are to ‘get to work’!

Life is full of uncertainty. It is full of good surprises but also bad ones which can knock us off our feet: a loved one diagnosed with an illness and we are shaken. A bushfire suddenly threatens the area, and plans and priorities lurch to a different tack. It might be an issue with the kids at school, a relationship that becomes hurtful or the prospect of unemployment.

Whatever the situation, the richness of our response is found in our embrace of life and hope at the time of uncertainty.

The message of Easter is a message of life and hope.

Jesus talks about himself as “the good shepherd.” He is not some hireling who will run away when the surprises hit, and the going gets tough. Rather, he is ‘the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.”

At his end, Jesus experiences among the worst of the worst of human existence – injustice, false accusation, flogging and ultimately a most cruel death. Yet throughout these experiences Jesus holds on to hope. And it is demonstrated to be a real hope, not a vain one. When Jesus is raised to new life, life and hope combine.

This hope and life in Jesus calls us, moves us and encourages us.  It empowers us to not abandon those who are inconvenient, difficult or burdensome.  In Jesus we find care, boldness, self-sacrifice and courage.

But unfortunately, we do not always act in this way.

Some difficult questions have been raised within Tasmania this past year. Regrettably, the civil discourse that surrounds these questions has not been marked by hope and life but by belligerence, pride and antagonism.

Social changes which have been brought forward in the name of freedom have appealed not to our common life, but to the apparent almighty interests of individuals. Such a path will not lead to life, hope, or freedom. Such a path does not face difficult circumstances, it avoids them. It takes us to a place where we are more willing to eliminate the inconvenient, redefine the difficult, and silence the provocative.

Jesus did not avoid the inconvenient, the difficult or the burdensome. He did not turn aside but embraced life and hope through to the bitter end and beyond. We would do well to follow him.

May God give us the wit and will to ‘get going’, to follow Jesus more closely in our chaotic world.

Remember: In Jesus, life and hope combine.

Shalom

+John J

Bishop of Tasmania