PARADISE RESTORED
A curious conversation.
When Jesus was dying on the cross, he was not the only one hanging there. On his right and his left were other culprits. Jesus knew them, as he knows all people, all created beings.
The story is told in Luke 23. The one victim confessed that he was dying for a valid reason, but that Jesus was a victim of mal-justice. The man knew that. He had followed Jesus’ life-journey. Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” End of story. Speculation galore.
Jesus was different. He started his short mission of a mere three years as an itinerant speaker/healer by making wine at a wedding. In that he foreshadowed the place of the constant wedding feast, Paradise Restored, which became the main focus in all his parables, and the destination of his people: His Kingdom, earth renewed.
Just as Jesus began his life’s task with making and drinking wine, he ended it with it too. At the LAST SUPPER Matthew 26: 29 tells us that Jesus said: “I tell you I will not drink of this fruit of the wine from now on (emptying his cup) until that day when I drink it anew with you in the Father’s Kingdom”.
The Father’s Kingdom?
That gives a pointer to our coming destination, a physical feature: Wine.
In the NEW Creation we ALL will drink wine of a quality akin to what Jesus made at the wedding in Cana, his first miracle. He also lived gloriously. His opponents called him a glutton and a winebibber. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” (Matthew 11: 19)
Still the questions linger.
Jesus, in the prayer he left with us known as THE LORD’S PRAYER, starts with the two matters he regards the most important: (1) HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME and (2) YOUR KINGDOM COME. Both point to CREATION, the old and the new. The Heidelberg Catechism, still a mainstay of the Reformed faith, teaches us that ‘Hallowed be God’s name’, signifies the sacredness of God’s name: “Don’t swear!” in other words. However, that is NOT its meaning. In her book, Sacred Nature, Karen Armstrong lists 50 names by which believers relate to God’s name, and states that God is beyond a name. God’s signature, His Name, actually, is found on every item created. Thus, the “Hallowed be your name” phrase, really requires us to keep Creation holy. We need to maintain the earth in a pure state, as God’s name, his very own signature, is evident in every creature great and small. Read that sentence again, and then ask ourselves whether our life reflects that ‘holiness’. Perhaps a prayer for forgiveness is in order.
“Your Kingdom Come”, the second line in that prayer, asks us to fervently pray each day for Jesus’ return when he brings with him the NEW CREATION. The New York Times, this past week, published a book report: “Fearing future catastrophe is nothing new – ancient Greek and Roman philosophers all visualized the apocalypse.” Why? Because THE END today is often in the news. People sense it.
REFORMATION DAY 2026
I love Luther, the monk who was so turned on by the Bible, that he challenged the religious monopoly of his day by going public with his objections 509 years ago on October 31 1517. The breaking away from the then all-powerful church unleashed a tremendous amount of creativity, evident in such great spirits as Shakespeare and the Flemish and Dutch painters, and cultivated new approaches to music and science, philosophy and literature.
That spirit of free thinking, of new thinking, of daring thinking, seems to have stopped today. Today when so much is changing and almost everything is up for grabs, many are too distracted, too confused, too afraid, too ignorant, to entertain new ideas. Especially in the church.
We are paralyzed. We know that Climate Change looms. To believe in Climate Change means to say farewell to the AMERICAN DREAM, which meant a nice bungalow in the suburbs, a double or triple garage and an infinite supply of fossil fuel, that miraculous substance that once Made America Great. It’s all part of the Age-Old struggle to erect a human empire on the basis of a human-dominated empire.
The Real Miracle.
The real miracle is that through all these attempts, God re-establishes his eternal, unequaled Kingdom. That is the ultimate meaning of history. To believe in the Restored Paradise also means that we must say farewell to The American Dream because it means a totally different approach to life. Paradise is the unspoiled world where the total harmony of all creatures entwines everything in total cohesion. Paradise is the kingdom as seen by God on the morning of Creation, when he saw all that God had made and behold, it was very good.
And there we will be, together with Jesus. In the restored Paradise we ALL will drink wine of a quality akin to what Jesus made at the wedding in Cana, his first miracle.
John 3: 16 comes to mind. Again. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Paradise restored. Forever. Everywhere.