How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing when everything we build is destroyed in an instant. We think life is a simple product of chances and luck; you are lucky if your life is “up” and you are sorry when it is “down”. In Luke 24: 13-35, the two disciples discussed about Jesus. Jesus lived a good life but died a terrible death. For them, it was a sad fate or destiny, a bad ending for a good beginning of one’s life. Worst, the body of Jesus was missing instead of seeing it laid down in the tomb to rest. The disciples could not do anything to prevent what had happened. Life is indeed beyond one’s control. In this kind of mentality, one’s future depends on pure luck or chances. In this kind of mentality, one lives in the randomness of the world events. It will only lead one to think: Why work so hard today if in the future, you will lose everything that you have earned? Why be good today if in the future people will destroy your name or reputation? Drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die.
It is at this point that Jesus drew near and walked with the two disciples. Jesus knew that only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So He explained that everything happened according to the will of God. It is not pure luck and chances which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God. And if we know this God, then truly pure luck or mere chances no longer have the last say; rather it is the will of God. This explanation of Jesus is not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: Jesus does not merely communicate things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life. Jesus teaches the essential art: the art of being authentically human—the art of living and dying. He shows us the way to live according to the will of God. He also shows us the way beyond death. Everything that is happening in our world is in God’s hands.
By saying this, we can say to ourselves that Jesus knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; He has conquered death, and He has returned to accompany us now and to give us the certainty that, together with him, we can find a way through. Our life is not a product of pure luck or chances; it is not a result of accidents and coincidence but of God’s divine providence.
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