“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4 NRSVue
Reflection:
Often, the Gospel we preach is not very gospel-like. By that, I mean we often preach a gospel that is not Good News.
I remember being scared as a kid. This isn’t about being scared of the dark or startled by the test sirens from the nuclear facility near my childhood home. I remember those. More significantly, I also remember being afraid of God. Similarly, my wife developed a profound fear of death in her childhood, directly tied to preaching from within the church.
The preachers of our youth often tried to “scare the Hell out of people.” I wonder sometimes if they actually did more to scare the Heaven out of them.
The priest at our current church likes to remind us that we are Easter people. It is a wonderful turn of phrase that every Christian ought to remember. Our faith is not about Good Friday. It is about Easter morning. It is about the hope of resurrection. Our faith is Good News because we believe in a God who loves us so much that He reached down into His creation and provided a way for us to transcend our human frailty and brokenness.
We believe in a God who wipes away, not just tears, but EVERY tear. He makes death, mourning, crying, and pain no more. In eternity, in the Eschaton, the “first things,” the protos, will have passed away. The first creation, with its pain and suffering, will be replaced with an eternity that is free of all the scary, dark things we currently endure.
The Gospel is Good News. It is not hellfire and brimstone. The Gospel is God’s love and mercy made flesh so that our brokenness can be reconciled with God’s wholeness.
A Quote to Consider:
“A hunger for beauty is at its heart a hunger for God.”
–Michael Card
Beauty is not just an aesthetic term. It is also not a shallow term referencing trite prettiness.
Beauty is profound. It is transcendent. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder but a reflection of the being of the Creator.
Because we are made in the image of God, we long to glimpse Beauty just as we long to experience Good and to know Truth.
One of the lies of the modern world, even found, most tragically, in the church, is the reduction of humanity to mere utility.
We are not just economic units seeking our temporal good. We are meant for far more than life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
People are the image bearers of a transcendent God. We are meant to embody Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. We are meant for Faith, Hope, and Love.
Prayer:
God of mercy and hope,
Thank You for the promise that You will wipe away every tear. Help us to live as Easter people—drawn to Your beauty, grounded in Your truth, spreading Your Love, and resting in the Good News.
Amen
Image: Pamela Reynoso
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