All the Way, Always--November 9, 2023

All the Way, Always--November 9, 2023

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age'." [Matthew 28:16-20]

For as much as we've distorted it and repackaged it, the Christian faith really isn't in a God who says, "See you when you get here [to heaven]," but rather in the risen Jesus who says, "I am with you always already on the journey, right up to the destination."

Being clear about that means everything, because a lot of harm can come from misrepresenting the gospel as "the steps you need to take to get to heaven," rather than "the life informed by God's presence with us now and even beyond death, too."  The one version, the counterfeit, makes it sound like we're on our own to get ourselves acceptable to God, and if we pull it off correctly, then (and only then) God will be waiting at the door to let us into the gate.  The way Jesus tells, by contrast, he is with us right now already, facing what we face, enduring what we endure, weeping when we weep, and bringing us to life along the way.  

In other words, we can still certainly say that Jesus will one day say to us, "Welcome home!" as we enter into God's new creation, but he will say it from alongside of us, having shared the journey the whole way there--rather like a family car trip when you were little, and a mom or dad would announce to the kids in the back seat, "We're home, everybody!" as you all pulled into your own driveway together.  Or as that beautiful line attributed to Catherine of Siena put it, "All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, 'I am the way'."  Jesus promises to go with us now and to the end, not that he will only be available to us once we get to the end on our own.

That turns a lot of pop religion on its head, if you give it a moment's thought.  An awful lot of Respectable Religious Voices are selling a product they call Christianity or "the gospel," but which boils down to, "Here are the things I will tell you that you have to do or say if you want to get to heaven when you die."  And it's everywhere--it's the sales-pitch evangelism that sells Jesus simply as a way to avoid hell, or as your "ticket to heaven," which is not at all how Jesus ever talks about himself.  It's the mindset that uses the gimmick "The word 'BIBLE' stands for 'Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth'," a line I've heard an awful lot from people who don't realize that makes it sound like the whole goal of the Christian life is to die, rather than to live abundantly and blessedly even now.  And it's the kind of spiritual malpractice that tries to scare people into "making a decision for the Lord" (again, not the way the Bible actually talks) with questions like, "If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would wake up?"  All of those religious sentiments, even when they are well-intentioned, imply a set-up in which Jesus/God is "up there" in heaven waiting on me to get my part right, and willing to let me "in" to some future thing depending on my performance on whatever their litmus test.  Jesus, however, looks at his disciples--who are actively still wrestling with their doubts about him even after he has risen from the dead, as Matthew notes--and just says, "Hey, you know I'm with you, right?  All the way.  All the way. Always."  

This life is not some spiritual audition to try and get into a spot in God's club or avoid getting cut from God's team, according to Jesus.  But rather, this life is the journey Jesus makes with us, always, and his presence with us along the way is what assures us he will guide us all the way home.  When Christians or the Scriptures talk about "eternal life," it doesn't merely refer to "life that goes on forever but which only starts after you die," but rather, it involves a certain quality of life opened up to us now, which cannot be cancelled or undone even by death."  Same for Jesus' frequent phrase, "the kingdom of God," or "the kingdom of heaven," which are interchangeable--Jesus is never merely talking about a place that is only accessible after death, but about the way things are when and where God reigns.  According to Jesus, the kingdom, or reign, of God, is "at hand" and "near," not "off beyond the distant horizon, depending on how many years of life you have to slog through now here in this mess."  It is a reality into which we step, at least partially, with every step of our lives walking with Jesus, not just the destination at the end of it.  Or, as Dallas Willard put it in his classic The Divine Conspiracy, "Jesus tells us we have no need to be anxious, for there is a divine life, the true home of the soul, that we can enter simply by placing our confidence in him: becoming his friend, and conspiring with him to subvert evil with good."

I wonder--how many of us have ever really thought about our Christian faith in those terms?  I know that's not the way I usually have framed it in my mind.  As a friendship with Jesus that happens now as well as lasting forever?  As a shared conspiracy with Jesus to subvert evil with Jesus' kind of good?  As a 'true home of the soul' that you don't have travel in order to get to, but which goes with you wherever you roam, like a turtle is at home in its own shell?  When you realize that's what Jesus has in mind, it makes the challenges of this life--even that part about resisting evil with good--much less intimidating... because we know we are not on our own.  Jesus isn't the Olympic judge evaluating how well we leap over the hurdles of sin to decide if there's a place for us on the medal platform--he's at our side racing with us, and his is the voice saying, "We're going to get to the finish line together. I promise."  When you realize that's what Jesus has been saying all along, it changes everything.

Today, there are going to be lots of folks around us who have only ever heard some sales-pitch version of Christianity marketed to them as an afterlife insurance policy--something that means nothing in the mean time but will pay off upon death with a ticket to a pleasant destination.  Maybe we can be the ones to actually just echo Jesus' own words and say, "He has promised that he's with us already.  This is not about impressing him.  He's already in love with you."  Maybe we can be the ones who find ourselves more fully alive today because of Jesus' presence with us.  Maybe we'll be a part of Jesus' work to subvert evil with good, too, knowing he's with us every step of the journey home.

After all, Jesus is with us all the way.  Always.

Lord Jesus, open our lives up here and now to the fullness made possible by your presence as we walk on your way.