This world is not my home?

have you ever heard anyone say "this world is not my home?" People say it all the time and it's usually followed by "heaven is my home." the past few years it's been hard for me to make sense of that statement. Afterall the goal isn't to go home to heaven it's to bring heaven here where we will spend eternity with God dwelling among us in a unique way. In the end this place is heaven and therefore it is my home.

Now I am realizing there is some truth to the statement, at least to what prompts people to say it. The truth is that none of us feel at home here. Ever since before Plato people have felt like their real home had to be somewhere else because this place just doesn't feel right. Plato even said that the heavens are "where alone there is true exsistence" (Phaedrus 247b. see Alan e. Bernstein the formation of hell). It's an ancient idea that we don't belong here. If we did things wouldn't be so hard, life wouldn't be so hard.

But what if this is our home and that's just the problem. Truth is things aren't alright. the world's messed up and so are we. But the reason isn't because we don't belong here it's that there's sin here and we weren't made for that. And it's not just the world that has the sin it's us too and it will follow us wherever we go. Have you ever heard the saying "wherever you go there you are?" As long as you're messed up, as long as you have sin the problems will follow you wherever you go. So going somewhere else won't solve our problems. We can't escape our problems not even by going to heaven. The problems have to be dealt with. And as Christians we believe that that is exactly what the cross was all about. It wasn't so we could "go home" when we die it was to deal with the problems the hard way. Jesus died to heal the world and us so that we'll fit in it, so that we will belong here, so that no matter where we go things will be as they were originally intended to be. He died to bring us and this world back to what we were created to be. This is the reason Jesus told us to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Ty will be doneon Earth as it is in Heaven."

Just as Jesus said "It is finished" the world was, in one important sense, healed. Jesus did all the work simply because of how desparately he loves this world. Now we're the only ones that stand in the way. We've been given heaven, now it's just bringing it into our reality, another thing Jesus will eventually do. But we share His task because He asked us to be His disciples. He's graciously given us a job in the work of redemption. And this job of ours is not waiting for Jesus to come back, it's not asking everyone we know to "get saved" before the world burns to nothing. Our job is to do God's job by His Spirit. It's not a burdensome task it's a Father letting His kids help remodel the house. It's beautiful work that allows for creativity and passion. We are declaring the presence of God and His Kingdom in all the least likely places even here on this Earth. In the end it's all Gods work, He'll make all things new. And when everything is renewed this world really is the greatest home we could ask for.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Excellent post. Besides the Jewishness of Jesus, this is one of the most important things I've learned in my journey the past year or two - that God's intention is to heal this world, not burn it up so let's all accept Jesus and escape.