What a wonderful picture of the glory of Zion. After the judgment of sin, there will be a
glory as has never been seen in the city.
All will be called holy. Again,
the picture of the city here is shared by John in the Revelation, "They
will bring into it the glory and the honor of the
nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does
what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the
Lamb's book of life." Isaiah
sees the city as covered by the same cloud and pillar of fire which accompanied
the tabernacle in the wilderness but now it remains over the city, a beacon to
the world, a sign that this is the city
of God. Do you long for that day? Even if you have never been to Jerusalem and
even if you have no particular interest in going there, surely the vision of
somewhere that the people are truly righteous and holy, a place without sin and
therefore without dying, pain, betrayal, fear, or any other consequence of sin
exists is a compelling vision. "Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Jesus doesn't exactly give a comforting or encouraging
picture of what is to come does He? He
does if you keep the long view in mind.
If we recognize that this is an imperfect world filled with sin and
rebellion against its creator then we should expect anyone who aligns him or
herself with the creator to be in the line of fire, an enemy. The long view recognizes that this will end
and there will come a time when the earth is restored and renewed to God's
original intention. We love this life
even with its challenges and pain. Most
of us do, anyway. Jesus, right from the
start in the Sermon on the Mount, tells us we are to have a God's eye view of
the world and love it while mourning over it.
We are called to see brokenness in lives, injustice, suffering even if
we ourselves aren't suffering. We are to
identify with the hurting and the hopeless while rejoicing with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. We are to be
fearless because we long for His kingdom to come and our hope is secure. We are to pray and work for the kingdom now
as well.
Paul says that we are to encourage one another by talk of the
end times. That works for those who see
this world for what it is and grieve over it from God's perspective. He says he doesn’t want the Thessalonians to
be uninformed about what will happen when Jesus returns. We can think it quaint that he speaks of
those who have died as "falling asleep" but isn't that closer to
reality for Christians than saying they have died? Death is final and falling asleep refers to a
different state altogether. Jesus said
Lazarus had fallen asleep and that is more precisely what happened than death
at that time. In the Orthodox memorial
service we find the prayer, "Within Your peace, O Lord, where all Your
Saints repose, give rest also to the soul of Your servant, for You alone are
Immortal." Rest is for the sleeping
not the dead. In that idea there is a completely
different hope, the hope of awakening to the redeemed world of the kingdom of
God where all things are made new. (Here's
a link to the Memorial
Service liturgy if you're interested.)
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