“My crucifix, Miles
Davis’ Kind of Blue album and a photo
of my best friend who died last year”
“My PS3, cell phone,
picture of my family”
“My iTouch, my
electric guitar and my copy of Pilgrim’s Progress printed in the 1800s”
The most common
choices are computers and game systems. A few pets work their way in as
apparent afterthoughts.
This tells me most of
those responding are fairly young, but also suggests that in their minds heaven
is defined more by the things that are not there than by any positive features
(though perhaps the question itself demands that sort of response).
The apostle Paul tells
believers:
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
This seems a difficult thing to do if our
concept of the “things that are above” is underdeveloped, shriveled by
obsession with the features of daily life, or entirely nonexistent.
Not
So Shallow
But I like to think people are not as
shallow as they might initially appear. I have no interest whatsoever in
videogames, but it’s not impossible that some of what appears pointless and
trivial to me may actually be a misdirected, unfocused desire for something of
greater value. A teenage boy who spends too much time shooting things onscreen
could certainly be a budding psychopath; equally, he might be living what he
perceives to be an existence without any clear point and in search of something
that matters. Maybe even something actually worth dying for.
My youngest son grew up obsessed with the
Yoshi characters in the Super Mario Brothers games. It might have been because
he loved dinosaurs, or because green was his favourite colour, or just because
Yoshis are ridiculously cute. I had no clue. So when he was old enough to account for his fascination, I asked him. Without missing a beat, he responded: “It’s
because they’re a happy family”.
Sometimes heavenly values show up in places
they are not instantly recognized. Let’s leave some benefit of the doubt to
those who prize things we don’t (not that I want or expect a guitar or
cell phone in heaven).
Not So Intangible
Thankfully, Paul doesn’t leave us to
imagine what particular heavenly things he’s referring to. “Things above” could
easily be some airy-fairy set of intangibles, but it really isn’t. These
are the heavenly values to which he refers:
“Put on … compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Less tangible than an electric guitar, maybe,
but a whole lot more use. Our life is “hidden with Christ in God”, and as such, these “things that are above” are most perfectly modeled by the
One who sits at the right hand of God until such time as he is revealed from heaven
in glory.
Compassion
Compassion is a defining feature of the
Lord Jesus as man, something Matthew reveals over and over again. The people
who followed him had nothing to eat, and the Lord Jesus felt compassion for
them. On another occasion it was not their hunger, but the fact that they were “harassed and helpless” that drew out his compassion. On yet another occasion, their infirmities prompted healing. The reason?
Compassion. If there is a more heavenly value than compassion, I cannot think of it. I have
eternal life because of the compassion of Christ, as do millions of others.
We are welcome in the Father’s house because of Christ’s compassion. Insignificant,
ignorant, inferior human beings are not only tolerated but loved because of it.
Heaven is not some yawning absence that
needs to be filled with the toys we devise with our limited, pathetically
inadequate imaginations. It is brim-full of glorious compassion.
Kindness
The kindness of God resulted in the pouring
out of the Holy Spirit “through Jesus Christ our Saviour”. The entire trinity is suffused with kindness. God’s kindness is rich,
manifesting itself in “forbearance and patience”. If we can’t be bothered to repent, it is not because God has failed to reach us
with his message, but because our defective, selfish hearts have failed to
respond to it.
It is no surprise, then, that the One who
is Kindness Incarnate expects the same of his children. Heaven may or may not
have PS3s. It will definitely be kind.
Humility
What on earth (or in heaven) does Jesus
Christ have to be humble about? That is a conundrum for any thinking human
being. And yet he is unspeakably humble. Scripture makes this clear repeatedly: He was in the form of God, but “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”. That was the mindset of the Son of God while he was still in heaven. It wasn’t merely that becoming a man was a humbling experience for him, but that it was characteristic of him to be humble, even up to the point of death; ultimately death on a cross. Let this mind be in you and me.
Hard to imagine as it may be, heaven is a
place where humility is exalted and service, not power, is ultimately valued.
Even if there is no golf course, I’ll get
by somehow. So will Bernie.
Meekness
“They say the meek will inherit the earth. How long will you keep it?”
— The Police
The answer is forever. Meekness is not only
a feature of the earthly people of God, but a characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
Heaven is for the meek, folks. Our eternity depends on it: it is because Jesus
Christ is “gentle and humble in heart” that we can guarantee we will “find rest” for our souls.
Meekness is strength under control. Anyone
with muscles, youth and intensity can be strong. It takes a bigger man to rein
in that strength.
Paul entreats his readers “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ”. He is not for a moment pleading from an enforced position of weakness, but
assuming one out of sheer generosity of spirit.
Heaven is for the meek. Meekness Incarnate
sits on its throne.
Patience
The patience of Christ is legendary. Paul
tells the Corinthians:
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the patience of Christ.”
The love of God is displayed in the
patience of Christ. His love is not some emotional wind that blows arbitrarily
over the human race, but a steadfast rock of faithful character. His patience
with Philip and Thomas, just by way of example, assure us that
he never overreacts or responds inordinately to the failures of his own,
whether they be failures of performance or imagination. And let’s not even
start with Peter.
Valued and Valuable
There’s much more in the character of Jesus
Christ to show us what is really valued and valuable in heaven. Heaven is not an
absence, but an overwhelming and very, very personal Presence.
The sort of person who can’t go five
minutes without playing a videogame or checking her phone for a text message
may not see much in it, and to be honest, if it’s only curiosity or a rush of adrenaline that spins your world on its axis, there may not be much in heaven to
excite you.
But if there’s anything at all in the
things of earth that makes you long for something bigger, better and more eternal,
Jesus Christ is all that and more.
Maybe you can’t take a photo to heaven of
your family, or your best friend who died.
But what if you find them there?
Male that I am, I found myself wrestling for the umpteenth time with the theological mystery of how one eternally equal with God did not count upon it as a thing to be "grasped". I have thought, and I think heard it in the past, of this as something to be contrasted with Satan's desire to be like the Most High. But such a comparison is not hinted at in the context. That would shift us from thinking only about He who existed in the form of God to see Him only as one to be valued for NOT being minded as was Lucifer -- so making the Lord Jesus to be prized only for being for what He was not.
ReplyDeleteEnough of that.
"Grasped" may be understood instead, as meaning something He did not consider He must maintain or cling to; it was unquestionably His eternally.
However, reputation is not necessarily something inherent but what is accorded to you. He enjoyed full glory with the Father (John 17) and along with it a deserved reputation. In stooping as low as He did, He made Himself of no reputation. He was not only "sent" but "came" into this world at Bethlehem. Throughout His life, He characteristically "received not honor from men" even to the point of dying on the cross and thus becoming a spectacle for men to gaze upon and be saved -- while angels must have held their breath. In His ascension He has taken those who believe on Him with Him into the glory which He earned by His obedience to the Father.
In this way He could rightly request an additional glory; one earned by the obedience He displayed in His human condition: "Glorify Your Son that Your may glorify You ..." and also speak of the glory which He had with "the Father before the world was".