(PURPOSE — Transforming Futility into Meaning)
We are given the choice to entrust Jesus, the ultimate expression of God’s love, grace and truth, with our very selves so that we can have “eternal life” instead of perishing apart from God. We’ve looked at heaven and hell; one definitely seems nicer than the other. We’ve noted that eternal life, meaning life with God, begins now. Our choice makes an enormous difference in how we experience God, and our lives, in the here and now. That is, the difference between futility and meaning. In a word, Purpose.
Being Christian is often thought about in terms of “going to heaven when you die.”
I’m not sure that really catches the essence,
nor does it mean much for our life in the here and now…
it seems to be more about dying than living.
Interestingly, when Jesus spoke directly of “the kingdom of God” and “eternal life” he often used the present tense -- like it was something we are supposed to enjoy today. Yet, hymns and condolences and sermons and conversations seem to focus on the idea of going to heaven when we die.
One of the central promises of the New Testament is that in entrusting ourselves to Jesus, we will, by grace alone, be a part of God’s eternal kingdom, living forever with Him in Heaven.
But, we tend to see this as something that will happen only in the future:
as the little boy in Sunday school answered when asked how we get to heaven:
“You gotta be dead!”
That doesn’t provide much meaning
for our relationship with God in the here and now, does it?
Neither does it provide much meaning for our everyday lives in the here and now.
Our soul’s desire is unreachable, someplace else, some other time...
Is that all there is to this life -- waiting around for the afterlife?
When Jesus said that he came to give us life - “abundant life,” he couldn’t have had in mind just waiting around for the next one. That’s not very abundant… and it would mean that this life -- my life -- doesn’t matter!
That is clearly incompatible with what scripture tells us about God, his gift of life, and the Gospel’s message of hope. In fact, it is the enemy of hope -- if abundant life, eternal life, and the kingdom of God exist only for the dead, then our lives in the here and now don’t make any difference, and a smothering sense of hopelessness darkens my heart and mind and soul. What I am, or do, doesn’t matter: Best efforts doomed to frustration and futility, life rendered pointless because it can make no difference… that’s Hopeless.
Not a very inspiring picture. So, that bit that Jesus said about “abundant” life… What did he mean? Jesus has been talking about the good shepherd in this passage(1), saying: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
You would be right if you guessed that the thief must be Satan. He aims to steal and destroy your life…. and what better way to destroy your life than to convince you of its utter futility, hopelessness, and meaninglessness!
Jesus is offering exactly the opposite:
to energize, revitalize, invigorate our lives.
Note that he says nothing about “later” --
this abundant life is very much a “now” sort of thing.
Now? That is an amazingly encouraging thought if it is true.
Scripture says it is true -- we are talking about now. Jesus proclaims this emphatically, explicitly, and repeatedly: In speaking of the eternal life that he came to secure for us, Jesus intentionally uses the present tense: has eternal life (not “will have”), and has crossed over (not “will cross over”) -- “has...” as in already…
He is talking now, today. (2)
Likewise note Jesus' answer to the Pharisees who asked
when the Kingdom of God would come:
For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you (alt: “in your midst”). Luke 17:21
We are, in the present, a part of God’s eternal kingdom. Note that “eternal” is not the same as “future.” It is true that “eternal” encompasses the idea of forever, but in scripture, it denotes more than a quantity of life --
it is a quality of life, a life shared with God.
We have Eternal Life, a life with God, here and now.
To what end?
Those who have “eternal life” - those who desire and have chosen to live with God – have a meaningful contribution to make here, now, on this present earth: to build for, to contribute to, God’s Kingdom.
Bible scholar and author N.T. Wright puts it this way:
“You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. you are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are — strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself — accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures… all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make.”
In trusting Jesus, one is not doomed to the sense of hopelessness and futility that Satan sells. There is no need for a weak, escapist fantasy that says the meaninglessness is ok, ‘cause I’m gonna go to heaven when I die and it’ll all be good there. No, The kingdom is real, and it is being built, brick by brick, person by person, right now. It will achieve its full flower and perfection when Christ has returned to permanently eject Satan and claim this world for His… cleansed, restored, reinstated. To be clear, it is God who builds the kingdom -- but amazingly, we get to help, to contribute!
The bible says nothing about “beam me up Scotty, there’s no point being here” --
but it does have a lot to say about “making up there (‘heaven’) come down here.”
This is why Jesus taught us to pray:
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (3)
In praying so, we are asking God to use us in taking back from the forces of evil and sin all that was originally good and perfect, cleansing it, restoring it, reinstating it, recreating it, celebrating it… leading to a final, complete, and victorious redemption of the entire created universe. It will last forever, God is at its center, living side by side with us (4), and is being built today, through his power working in and through us.
This is Eternal Life, and it begins now; what we do makes a difference.
Sound like a fun job description?
It does to me -- it sounds like a life overflowing with meaning and hope and purpose!
We are blessed… to be a blessing.
We can indeed make a real and lasting difference.
Realizing this end, devoting ourselves to this end --
“...every act of love, gratitude, and kindness...” --
is the key to a life charged with purpose and meaning, right here, right now, every day.
It can be yours. May it be so.
End Notes:
Purpose
(1) John 10:10
(2) John 5:24
(3) Matthew 6:9-13
(4) Revelations 21, especially v.4