In his classic work, The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann points out that the twofold task of the biblical prophets was “to criticize” and “to energize.” To criticize is to call out all that is wrong with the world—the many hardships people face, the tears that fill our eyes. To energize is to point toward the future—the doors that will open out onto a new Jerusalem where every tear will be wiped away.

I admit that feeling compassion for the suffering comes more easily for me than feeling hope for the future. It is so easy to settle into despair, to believe that nothing will ever change.

Brueggemann argues that Moses was a prophet because, with the help of God, he could imagine a new future. He could see an alternative to the misery of the present. For the Pharoah of Egypt, there was nothing new. Everything had already come; no change was possible. “Forever,” writes Brueggemann, “is always the word of Pharoah.”

And then God bursts forth in a burning bush! God splits the sea, and frees the captives. Christ faces down the ultimate “forever,” death, and brings even it to an end. In doing so, he makes all things new.

What can stir us out of despair? What can energize us with the hope that things won’t always be the way they are? What can help us imagine an alternative future? In his parting words, Jesus points out the way: love one another.