The Road to the Cross (Part Three): Keeping Hope Alive

Daily Scripture Threshing for Today, Saturday, April 4, 2026

Today’s Text: Luke 24:1–12; John 11:25–26

Key Verse: “He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee.” — Luke 24:6 (KJV)

Part three of “The Road to the Cross” brings us to the sacred edge of victory, where grief meets glory and sorrow gives way to astonishment. The women came to the tomb expecting death, but heaven had already prepared resurrection. This is the holy tension of Easter faith: we do not deny the cross, but we also do not stop at the cross. The road to the cross always moves toward an empty tomb, and resurrection in expectation means we live with the assurance that what looks sealed is not final. God has a way of turning burial places into testimony places.

At the tomb, the angels asked, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” That question still confronts the believer today. Too often we search for life in places of loss, fear, regret, or dead expectations. But resurrection faith learns to look beyond what is visible and to remember what Jesus said. “He is not here, but is risen” is not only a declaration about Christ’s body; it is a declaration about God’s power over every sealed situation. What men label finished, God can raise. What sorrow has covered, God can recover. What death has claimed, God can overturn. On the road to the cross, we learn that the final word belongs not to the grave, but to the risen Lord.

Resurrection in expectation also means that faith knows how to wait with hope. The women did not yet see the Lord, but they had the word of the Lord. That is where expectation lives: between promise and fulfillment, between the spoken word and the visible manifestation. Jesus had already told them He would rise again, and now the tomb itself became the witness that He keeps His word. If Christ is risen, then our hopes are not wasted, our prayers are not forgotten, and our future is not buried. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is still at work in the lives of those who believe.

Action Steps: Today, refuse to live as though your story ended at Good Friday. Bring your buried hopes, delayed answers, and dead situations before the risen Christ. Remember His word more than you remember your disappointment. Speak resurrection over your faith, your family, your calling, and your future. Walk through this day with expectant joy, knowing that God is able to turn tombs into testimonies and endings into beginnings.

Quote for the Day: “Resurrection in expectation is faith that keeps hope alive in the promise that victory over desth is sure even where others see only a tomb.” — (Simon Olatunji #quotablequote)

Let Us Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for the victory of the empty tomb. Teach me to live with resurrection expectation, even when circumstances look sealed and silent. Help me to remember Your word above my fear and Your promise above my pain. Raise every buried hope, every weary heart, and every dead place in my life by Your mighty power. Let my faith rejoice in the truth that You are risen indeed. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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Thank you for threshing the Word with me today. For further study on this topic, please read: Matthew 28:1–10; John 20:1–18; 1 Corinthians 15:12–22.

With love and prayers,

Simon Wale Olatunji, Ph.D.

Your Darling Bishop (DaBishop)

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