The Removal of the Intruder (Week 51)

Readings

  • Genesis 1:31–2:1, 2:15–17, 3:16–24

  • Isaiah 65:17–25

  • Revelation 20

Silent Reflection

Remarks

When the story begins, there is no “other place.”

There is no heaven and earth—perfect place above where God is and broken place below where we are. In the beginning, God creates the heavens and the earth and there is just one conjoined reality, a pure overlap and integration of spirit and soil.

Not only is there no “other place,” but there is also no death. By this, I don’t mean the physical reality of biological death, but the Order of Death. Creation did not start with two orders, Life and Death dueling in a binary tension. Creation began with one reality—the Order of Life.

As the story is told, death (and everything that comes with it) follows after the beginning. It may not take long for death to enter the story, but it is very significant that, however early, death has to make an entrance. The Order of Death was not part of God’s good world.

And when the story ends, there is no “other place.”

We must always remember that the Order of Death gets tossed into the lake of fire at the end of the story. Afterward, heaven (the “other place”) comes down and is reintegrated with the rest of creation. What this means is that death is an intruder; it does not have a true home in the world of God. To phrase it in the words of another, “Resurrection reminds us that those things belong to the Order of Death, and Death does not belong.”

The story does not begin with anything other than goodness, and the story does not end with anything other than goodness.

But, as we unfortunately know all too well, in the meantime, there is something other than goodness. As many other teachers have expressed, we live in that world of tension. Life and death. Rest and struggle. Light and darkness. Spirit and soil. Weeds and wheat. Good and bad. This is the reality we live in; many of those teachers have called it “living between the Trees” as a reference to the Tree of Life in the garden at the beginning and the Tree of Life in the city at the end.

And so we dedicate ourselves to the work of faithfulness in this world that groans for redemption. We engage in the work of what the Jews call tikkun olam, or the “repairing of the world.” We do this because this is the work God is up to. Although the prophetic picture is certainly of a future day when evil is removed for good, there is plenty of discussion about how this is also ongoing work in the present. We are not simply waiting and hanging out for some glad morning—we are actively participating in the work of restoration.

In one passage, Peter says that by doing good deeds we “speed up the coming of Christ.” This is a different idea from what most of us were handed. Many of us were given the impression that Jesus’s return is some fixed date in the future, whether because of God’s foreknowledge or simply the nature of our eschatology. Yet the Bible uses language that would challenge this understanding.

In fact, Peter is simply speaking from the general understanding of their day. Such an idea of “speeding up the age to come” was a very common idea in the world of Pharisaic theology. We partner with what God is doing in the world and God’s project is able to “ramp up production.”

One of the expressions you’ll find in Jewish teaching is that by engaging in good work, we “plant the trees of Eden.” What a beautiful expression that seems to ring so similar to Peter’s ideas in his own teachings.

And so we get involved with this “already but not yet” reality of the Kingdom. Our present actions truly do have eschatological ramifications that will ripple throughout eternity. We extend generosity and we love our enemies and we pursue forgiveness and look out for the alien, orphan, and widow because one day, God will remove the old order of things that held the world in bondage. We look forward to that day, but we also strive for it now, believing that in doing so, we are planting seeds that will be the very trees of that future earth.

Silent Reflection

Response

  • How does the idea that there was no evil in the beginning and there will be no evil in the end hit you? Even though we talk about such an idea all the time, does your knee-jerk reaction actually assume there has always been (and will always be) a dualism of good and bad in the world?

  • Consider the following: What is the most true truth? Which reality is more real?

  • What things are you currently engaged in to remove the intruder of death? How are you fighting for a more ordered world?

  • Reflect on the following: Those things belong to the Order of Death, and Death does not belong.