Eternal Life and Other Whatnot: So Much Baggage, So Little Time

The rabbis of Jesus' day would frequently have three requests made of them by their band of disciples:

1. What is the greatest commandment?

2. Teach us to pray.

3. What must I do to gain eternal life?

Ever since forever there has been, found somewhere in our core reality as God-breathed, created beings, an innate desire to live forever, to escape the clutches of death and laugh in its face as it tucks its head between its legs and lumbers home. Our desire to live forever has bred a number of iffy theologies and assumptions that generally involve us dying and going somewhere else, a place with chubby, winged naked babies and clouds that smell like cotton candy. And there are mansions somewhere, too. Oh, and Jesus. No one can agree on how to get there exactly, who gets a map to find the place, and what you are supposed to do when you get there.

Growing up all I heard was how to "get to heaven." This was the goal of life. Survive here, be good, don't end up on Santa's bad list, eat your veggies, and get baptized (by immersion, please). If you did all of this you were rewarded with an invisible, but nonetheless, real ticket for a one way trip to the pearly gates, entering into a glorious place where all of your dreams come true and you get everything you ever wanted. And Jesus was there, too. It's a "pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die" theology. It's built on the idea that there is something much better than where we currently reside.

Ever heard this one: "I can't wait to die/for Jesus to come back so I can get out of here." In layman's terms: this place sucks and I want out. It's an escapist theology: "Let's make like Houdini, throw off these chains, and get out of this box before we run out of air. This world has nothing for us, no hope of being anything but corrupt and evil. Get me out of here." Escapist theology is rooted in despair and hopelessness, and, perhaps, spiritual laziness. "This world is hopeless and not worth working on, not worth my efforts."

Piggybacking off the idea of getting out of here and into heaven is the reverse motive of "staying out of hell." "Well, I don't want to go to hell, so my other option is to get baptized, go to church and end up in heaven." Several months ago a small town newspaper printed a religious article that contained the following line:

Jesus talked more about hell than he did heaven, so we should do the same.

Even better than that is a line I found on a website called raptureready.com:

Hell is a prime motive for evangelism.

Here is where this all leads us: our lives, our acts of service (if there are any) are based on fear and not love. Our terror of being chucked into and becoming a permanent resident of hell (and there isn't much in the way of good beach-front property there) motivates us (maybe) to do just enough (in our own minds at least) to please God. Our motivation isn't love, obedience or grace, but fear and anxiety and guilt.

We need to be weary of any theology, sermon, or book that is rooted in the idea of escape. Can we honestly believe that God put us here, created us with his own breath, and called us "good" so that we could spend that life trying to escape? Is that the abundant life Jesus promised us in John 10:10? Is escaping our only task, our only goal for life?

Yeah, I don't think so either.

shalom, matt