Day two of the Cool, Chic and in Christ series looking at
the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross and we are back in Luke’s Gospel and
still at the foot of the cross in search of transformation.
“Truly I tell you,
today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
I love travelling. Be it on foot which is my personal
favourite, as a passenger in a car (I still, shockingly, cannot drive),on a
train seeing towns and villages zip by with me straining to read place names,
or several thousand feet up in the sky with only the journey mapper on the seat
in front of me charting the kilometres flown, I adore the whole process from
beginning to end. For me, even when the destination is somewhere I have been a
dozen times before, the journey is equally thrilling. However, as
Christos this verse in Luke speaks of a journey with an incredible destination;
Paradise.
Theologians refer to this verse as ‘The Word of Salvation.” as
it is directed to one of the two criminals, crucified on either side of Jesus,
who asked to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom. By this man’s faith
and plaintive request, whilst he is dying, Jesus gives him the gift of a life
everlasting. Yet, what I see in this verse is something else, a sinner, i.e. a
person chock-full-of flaws like the rest of us, getting an immediate ticket to
a heavenly destination that is without
compare and will never disappoint.
There are clues in the sentence of both the veracity and
celerity of Jesus’ statement. Jesus begins with the word ‘Truly’; this is a
case of no filler or B.S., but the honest to goodness truth. Then, we have the
use of the word ‘Today’. There is no commercial break, the thief has asked and
God in his ever-ending goodness has responded, pretty much immediately, in the day itself. And
then the best bit of all ‘with me in Paradise’. There is no separation for
those who choose Jesus. Instead, you come into an intimacy and a companionship
that trounces all others. It is why we are ‘in Christ’ rather than ‘of him’ or ‘beside
him’ or ‘a few feet behind him’. His very nature becomes our own, should we
choose it. And finally the destination itself, Paradise; a metaphysical space
that it eternal in nature. Over the centuries since Jesus used the word,
Paradise as a term has been somewhat cheapened. It has become synonymous with
untouched beaches and days with nothing more taxing than selecting another
exotically coloured cocktail from a drinks menu. However, although this in itself can be fun and I love
nothing more than sippng a gin and mint martini on a beach where the azure blue
sky and sea morph into one, signing up to be in Christ is not a fast pass to
chillaxing. On the contrary, being in Christ for eternity means being part of
the God project, one that at its centre has love, creation, compassion and peace-making. It is a Divine
Appointment, the biggest and most important role that any of us have.
So, in the midst of Day Two of our transforming Holy Week what
does this mean in practical terms? Well first, we do not need to wait for our
dying moments like the thief on the cross did to get our invitation to
Paradise. We need only look at the Lord’s Prayer for a clue to our activities
in the here and now: ‘Your Will Be Done
on Earth as it is in Heaven.’ We can
be in Paradise or Heaven, right this minute, assuming we abide by God’s will
and not our own. A tricky proposition for sure. I am Queen of trying to
shoehorn my own heart felt desires into something a little more spiritual, so
to speak. But for those of us who have spent a little time praying, fasting, communing
with God, there is always a certain ‘sense’ that one is doing what God would
want us to do, rather than something random and disconnected. Try it a couple
of times today and see where the promptings take you and don’t forget to post,
share and tweet, elegant evangelist styles...
Until tomorrow, and no, I couldn’t resist…
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