Thursday, April 19, 2007

Is everything sad going to come untrue?

At one point in the Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee asks Gandalf, "Is everything sad going to come untrue?" There seems to be so much sadness in the world lately, especially with friends who are hurting and grieving. I have found myself asking along with the Psalmist, "How long, O Lord...." Perhaps as never before, I have prayed along with the Apostle John, "Lord Jesus, come quickly."

I was reading this afternoon in the Gospels and was struck anew at not only WHO Jesus was, but also WHAT He did. Over and over, the Gospel writers tell us that Jesus went around healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. And people were amazed and glorified God and said things like, "We never saw anything like this!"

One of the things that struck me afresh was that in the life and ministry of Jesus, He was directly assaulting the kingdom of darkness, which is just another way of saying that He was assaulting everything that is wrong with this world. Think of Jesus' miracles in two ways: Each was both (1) an act of restoration, and (2) an act of anticipation. Jesus was both reversing the curse and ushering in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was at once assaulting the way things are in their current state of being not they way they are supposed to be, AND making them the way they are supposed to be. Jesus gave those He ministered to a foretaste of Heaven.

All this to say that Jesus brings us back into Paradise which now flows from His throne. Jesus has already caused His blessings to come (in His incarnation and ministry) and will cause them to come in all their fullness when He delivers the Kingdom to His Father, and Heaven descends and Earth and Heaven become One.

So, will everything sad become untrue? If we understand the ministry of Jesus, we can say "Yes!" Not that it becomes untrue as in it never existed, but it becomes untrue in that evil does not have the final word. How do we know this?

Simple. The Resurrection of the Son of God proves this. "We never saw anything like this."

This will be said At the Restoration of All Things, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21)

Be of good hope my friends. One day, Jesus will answer our prayers of "How long, O Lord..." with the answer, "No longer!"

2 comments:

Dabney 11 said...

Thank you John,
Marian

Nan said...

Beautiful, beautiful post John. Thanks for this.