Sabbath and Paradise

Maybe it's the word "weekend." But probably it goes much deeper than that. Why do we feel we have to earn rest? And heaven?

Once upon a time, I was a busy, anxious college student at an Ivy League university full of status-conscious over-achievers where student suicide was not uncommon, nor was alcohol related death. Mixed in with the major revelation that became the pivot point of my life was a smaller revelation. I caught myself in the act one day. Trudging across campus on a beautiful spring day, ignoring everyone and everything around me, staring intently at the sidewalk, chewing again the cud of everything I had to do that day--pages to read, assignments to do, problem sets to hand in, etc. I suddenly realized the drain my autopilot mind was circling, and I made a choice then and there to take back the wheel. "Stop making lists," I told myself. "And look up."

Guess what I saw? That it was a beautiful spring day!

In hindsight, this moment was like a single domino. When it fell, it caused a chain reaction. I adopted this as my intentional spiritual discipline in the months that followed: "Stop worrying. Look around you." Soon, I changed my major from computer science to history. And my classmates who went on to work for Google and Facebook looked at me sideways and said, "You're throwing money away." Little did they know, I would end up going to seminary!

"Today you will be with me in paradise," Jesus said, hanging from the cross, to another hanging from his own cross. On its face, an absurdity. They'd both be dead within hours. But is there something to believe in here or not? If there is, is it a promise only for the dead--today we will be with Jesus in paradise--or also for the living?

Once upon another time, I was an intern pastor in Bradenton, Florida, in a congregation full of locals, retirees, and those affectionately known as "snow birds." And as I got to know people, a theme I heard repeated--not in a majority but in a significant minority of stories--was this: "We worked hard all our lives. Then we retired. And six months later my spouse died." The rest they imagined together never came. By the time they'd earned it, it was too late to share it with each other.

What makes us think we'll enjoy paradise later, when we don't stop to enjoy it now? And I'm not talking about some spiritual "sit there like a good boy and like it" kind of way. I mean, today's paradise of a spring day. Of people who love you. Of sharing our burdens with each other. Of the tasks can wait because life is here now. And death. And today's paradise of Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Today we will be with Jesus in paradise because Jesus defied all the powers that steal life away. Jesus  regularly did the right thing on the wrong day. On purpose. Even though religious people would scold him for it. Jesus took the heat and healed and liberated people anyway, so one old woman could finally rest on the Sabbath. Jesus died, sharing forgiveness and love with all. So I'm not surprised anymore when I have to learn the lesson all over again. When I--again--push into the future what God has given us today.

Yes, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, along with patience. And so is love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness. Faithfulness includes imitating Jesus's defiance. Because of Jesus, our joy defies death and suffering and all the forces that draw us away from God. It's not about stopping. Days off and retirement are all well and good. It's not even about times when everything going right. But even those are no good to us unless we plug into the living, loving presence of Jesus here and now.

Just stop and look up. Jesus is right beside you, ready to sweep you up into paradise with him now. Now before it's all finished and put away. Now before everything is perfect. Now before you have perfected yourself. Now as suffering and foolishness and injustice keep pretending they rule the world.

The smallest change can open the floodgates to drown all the deadness and awaken us to life now. It's why some of us have pets. It's who children are, and likely why Jesus insisted they be central. It's why some of us garden and participate in sports. Because paradise is now, in this living, God-given moment, full of mercy, despite the lies of our anxious minds, despite the reality of death and sin. Jesus lives, and so can you.

"Today, you will be with me in paradise." If it was true for a condemned criminal moments before his death by execution, it is true for you too.

Thanks be to God.

Pastor Clark Olson-Smith