Eternal life, 1

When I was younger the big focus on Christianity seemed to be on eternal life. First, it was getting it – getting your boarding pass for the next level of living. After you’ve got that down, you have to make that eternal life even sweeter by ‘storing up treasures in heaven,’ to make life comfortable once you’ve died and moved on. Scripture seems to suggest this: in various verses Jesus advises people to “receive” (Mt 19:29) or “inherit” (Lk 10:25) it, people “endure” to it (Jn 6:27), and people “shall have” (Jn 3:16, 6:40) it in the future. Jude 1:21 admonishes believers to “wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life,” showing that in the future we will receive this idea.

Really, if you think that eternal life after death is important, it seems like a valuable lesson in perspective. Life as we see it right now fades away quickly, and since eternal life is, well, eternal, it seems like a good investment of time to make that stage in life as good as it can be. I learned a lot living that way, but I’ve been thinking recently that there might be more to this existence than waiting around here, making sure my bags are packed for that next stage.

Eternal life is taken as a synonym for future, unending life. It begins upon a person’s conversion, and from there it goes on forever. But, I think the implications of “eternal life” go beyond simply the far-and-away.

Webster (actually, only dictionary.com) says the primary definition of “eternal” is:

“without beginning or end; lasting forever; always existing (opposed to temporal).”

(one note – I don’t know Greek, so I can’t refer to what the text actually says, so I’m using English definitions with possibly misleading connotations. Perhaps, if I ever become more educated, I might be able to come back and address this. Perhaps not.)

Anyway, it seems like I’ve always had the “without end” part down, but I’ve never stopped and considered that I’ve been leaving out half of the story. Since eternity is also “without beginning,” the eternal life that we gain when we become sons and daughters of God applies to the whole spectrum of time.

Scriptures also hint that the “eternal life” the Bible talks about goes beyond this future-only interpretation:

• John 17:3 – “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent,” suggesting that much of the character of eternal life is knowing God – something we can begin to do in earnest right here, right now.
• John 6:54 – “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” saying we have life now, and that we will also be raised again as well.
• 1 John 3:15 – “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him [emphasis mine].” So, eternal life is present as a kind of reality within us (now), and it in some way also affects how we relate to and interact with other people.

So, eternal life means that our future have incredible significance, but so does our present, here and now. And, I’m thinking now that eternal reality also has some root in our past, as well. It involves and transforms the entirety of our beings: our past stories & histories, painful and hard as they may be; the current problems and realities we face; and future hopes and longings that will make so many wrongs we face ultimately good again.

In the future I’ll write a bit about each dimension, and why thinking with this “eternal” perspective might have some significance towards understanding ourselves & our past, the present here & now (what we may supposed to be doing now), and our glorious future.

“I am blessed,” for whom?

Abram is in his home in Babylon, and out of the seeming blue, God calls out to him. The ‘call’ of Abram seems to be an exciting thing. And from the beginning, you can tell that Abram’s a pretty special guy. God says:

“And I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you
and make your name great,”

And God did. Abraham, over time, did found a great nation and he’s revered and honored still today. But, if you continue on in that verse (Genesis 12:2), God adds another aspect about what it means to be blessed.

The full verse says:

And I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing. (NRSV)

So that you will be a blessing…All the wonderful honors God bestowed on Abram weren’t just to make Abram revered and celebrated. He’s supposed to be a blessing for other people.

With that in mind, a blessing has a different connotation than before. I’ve thought that a person who’s blessed ‘has it made,’ in that they reap the benefits of God’s favor (be it spiritually, financially, physically, etc.). This view of blessing, however, suggests that you can tell a person is blessed not by their lives but instead by those of the people around them. Blessing isn’t something for an individual; it’s about making neighbors, friends (and enemies) feel loved, valued, and respected.

A common blessing in Jewish times comes from Numbers 6:24-26 (I’ve heard it often in church benedictions):

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace [shalom].”

If we look in Psalm 67, we begin to see how this blessing can then be taken to look outward, to other people:

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us, (Selah)
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth. (Selah)
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Again, the focus of the psalm is towards those on the outside – all the nations and peoples of the earth. They see their role as a servant to those on the outside of God’s community, not as a worldwide symbol of their own divine ‘chosenness.’

Therefore, being blessed isn’t really something to trumpet and proclaim (as is the common temptation), but instead a sober recognition of the responsibilities God has given. To bless those on the outside (something they must feel responsible to do), the community of believers must understand the source of their own energy is in God, and nothing they can provide on their own. Reaching that point can be difficult. For Abram, it meant leaving is whole life behind to travel to the land God had set up for him. Being blessed doesn’t necessarily make life easy; it seems like more often than not it may make life much much harder.

the pesky kingdom

The large majority of the parables Jesus uses have to do with the Kingdom of Heaven. Growing up, I always heard parables described as “Earthly stories with a heavenly meaning,” signifying that in the simple images used – seeds, bread, a lost coin in a house – there’s a deeper meaning relating to the spiritual reality of how God’s way is.

I appreciate how that little description shows that the stories hint at a greater reality, but by describing the meaning as ‘heavenly’ it hints that the parables have more to do with life ‘up there’ than down here. While they certainly are portraying spiritual realities, these earthly images further imply that Jesus’ kingdom has do to often with very present, earthly realities.

The nature of this reality, however, is significantly altered. Very often Jesus took something well known (a phrase, a household item, etc.) and spins it to change perceptions and reveal the paradoxical nature of the Kingdom. He does that in a couple parables in Luke 13.

Verses 18-19:
He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’

The basic idea of the parable seems simple and clear – something tiny (what was considered the smallest known seed at the time) can grow into something mature, large enough to provide comfort and security for birds. From very humble and simple beginnings the kingdom can develop into something mature. But back in the day, a mustard seed often took on a different connotation. Pliny, an ancient historian, talks of mustard seeds:

“With its pungent taste and fiery effect, mustard is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand, when it has once been sown, it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.” (Pliny, “Natural History” 19.170-171; Rackham et al. 5.528-529)

So, yes, mustard seeds do grow. But, once they begin to sink in roots, they’re kind of hard to control. Suddenly, a cute, ordered garden is overrun with mustard plants.

If we look at a mustard seed this way, it seems like Jesus is suggesting that, once his kingdom gets going inside you, it can’t be stopped. And often, what you thought was a controlled environment, in which the gardener has complete control, is forced to just let the mustard seeds go, to take the place over.

Immediately after, Jesus continues (vv. 20-21):
And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

Nowadays we like our bread with yeast. But for a people that celebrates its history and identity each year in the Passover by eating unleavened bread, yeast isn’t always the positive image. In fact, at one point Jesus describes the poisonous, rotten attitude of the religious leaders of the day as their “yeast,” since the image evokes a strong negative response from his audience. But here, it’s apparently an apt description for his kingdom.

It seems like again Jesus is shooting himself in the foot. If he’s trying to get people involved with what he’s establishing, he should choose some better images.

So what might he be doing here? One suggestion (and I’m sure there are many others) emphasizes what this change is like: from a “normal” perspective, the kingdom of God will destroy or ruin what a person’s been working on for a long time. A gardener, who has spent many seasons readying the soil, controlling weeds, and growing a productive crop wouldn’t be too happy with these new mustard seeds. Might as well give up on the garden, since those mustard plants have taken it over. Suddenly, the gardener’s regular actions are meaningless and he/she can’t keep up with the way things were.

The Kingdom of God changes things. It may start as a small part of a person’s life, a peripheral characteristic of what a person does, believes, and hopes for, but, if it keeps growing as Jesus suggests, it begins to take over. Slowly (often painfully so), a person comes to realize that the previous way he/she lived suddenly isn’t feasible, when compared to the new reality the Kingdom has brought into reality.

kingdom reality vs. caesar

This new kingdom appears to be going against the way the world works.

Establishing a kingdom is a loaded concept in first-century Israel, because it hints at the joyful history of the nation under its greatest king David, its subsequent fall into division, corruption and then two brutal periods of exile, and the current subjugation to the Roman Empire. Like many other oppressed peoples throughout human history, they longed for sovereignty, to be free of foreign control and reclaim the position of peace and abundance God had promised them. By the time Jesus came around, this hope had transformed into a clear, almost codified belief in their savior-king, the “messiah.”

Since the whole country was longing ardently for this coming deliverance, someone wandering around the countryside proclaiming that “the Kingdom is coming” was bound to cause a stir. Most people following Jesus had this expectation – crowds clamor around him, attempting to take him and crown him king over them (John 6:15). Even those closest to Jesus show a belief that he was going to reestablish the kingdom – even after his resurrection, the disciples asked with notable excitement: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

It’s interesting that Jesus chose to emphasize and seemingly manipulate the hope of the people to gain a following. For people longing with all their hearts and souls on the vision of this reality, it seems almost cruel that Jesus would evoke this imagery and then never bring it into existence. I’m sure many people in that group felt deceived and disappointed that Jesus never went that way.

However, using this explicitly political image provides an important contrast between Jesus’ kingdom and world’s system of order and domination. During his trial before his crucifixion, Jesus explains to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Jesus here emphasizes that this new reality doesn’t resemble the basic structure and pattern; instead of describing the kingdom as something heavenly, with little impact on the world, it instead engages and transforms the world’s order and structure. Therefore, Jesus’ new reality was a response to the oppression and injustice of Roman rule: a new way of living that affirmed justice, equality and goodness for all people.

Early Christians continued in this tension: they took political phrases and claims from the Roman Empire to describe Christ and the reality he has brought in. Therefore, much of early Christianity is establishing a new reality in conflict with the Roman order of oppression and subjugation.

• The word “Gospel” was originally a declaration of the good news of Augustus Caesar, a message brought from Rome to foreign peoples who then were forced to accept the Roman way of life.
• Caesar was, at other times, described as the “Savior of the world” who brought order to all existence.
• “Caesar is Lord” was a common declaration of allegiance required of subjected and oppressed peoples.

Therefore, when Paul refers to Jesus using these descriptions about Caesar, he’s not just describing God but instead describing how the Christian reality exists in contrast with the prevailing order of the day. He writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Php 3:20), declaring Jesus’ supremacy over Caesar and his new reality replaces the oppression and domination of Roman rule.

The kingdom of God, now placed in our hands, should continue this same role for our world today. It presents an alternate reality, a reordering of things that values love, compassion, and reconciliation over our dominating systems of today.

I believe the Kingdom of God still has this role of presenting a new reality in contrast to the way the world operates. But, Caesar’s long gone, and new systems of injustice and oppression have replaced him. What do they now look like? What should members of God’s kingdom be looking out against?

The kingdom, now

Starting this guy up again means I may be throwing out some ideas here & there, so I figured I might start with a basic idea that has huge implications throughout the Bible. The kingdom of God exists here and now, and it’s possible to be a part of it in the here and now.

Jesus had one sentence he repeated over and over again as he traveled around Galilee preaching. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). This was the central aspect of Jesus’ teachings.

People still debate what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God. Part of it seems to be a description of heaven, how life will be once Jesus establishes his reign and sets everything right. The horrible things of this world, its sufferings and injustices, will one day be overturned and this new Kingdom will reverse the natural order of the world. Because it’s something in the future, people get meaning out of Jesus’ words’ about the kingdom by spiritualizing them – they speak of an individual’s heart and how to get by in this world until the kingdom arrives.

But, when we leave an understanding of the kingdom at that, it makes Jesus’ insistence on the kingdom a bit strange. Jesus traveled all over declaring this basic, one-sentence message. The kingdom is present now: Jesus said “it is at hand” (some translators simply say “it has come”) not “it’s coming later on, but you should get ready now!” Life, as we see and experience it right now, is influenced by the present reality of the kingdom.

I’m recognizing more and more that this kingdom is fundamentally different from the order and structure of how the world works. It’s difficult to suddenly accept and enter into the kingdom because it values things that the greater world downplays, ignores, and abuses.

For many, entering into a kingdom way of life requires a drastic change in how to live. For that reason, Jesus said to “Repent and believe the good news!” The kingdom requires its members to change themselves, and the kingdom then stretches out to change the world.

“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within [or among] you.’” Luke 17:20-21