Thursday, August 13, 2009

We've Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden

Apologies to CSNY Joni Mitchell, but we are neither stardust nor golden.

The problem is that we can't get ourselves back, and no matter how it's done, it won't be our way. But we must get back. And that it is not wishful thinking; it is God's plan.

The long road of cursed banishment out of the Garden of Eden meanders (give or take) 3500 hard years until it crashes into the climax of the covenant. Rough places are made smooth, high places brought low, crooked roads made straight, valleys raised.

They called him Jesus.

Jesus is the great reversal. In the redemption of his perfect obedience leading to the reconciling condemnation of the cross, he lays his body to be crushed in the gears of time and doing so stops their turning.

The curse dies with him.
It stays dead. He does not.

And the gears start turning the other way.

I believe it was J.R.R. Tolkien who invented the word eucatastrophe. It refers to a catastrophe of goodness and glory. It is an eruption of un-damage, an explosion of unbrokenness. It is the un-unraveling. It is the sudden turn of wonderful events at the end of the story. It is a cataclysm of beauty and wonder, the reversal of darkness and death.

The eucatastrophe of history is the resurrection.

And the road back begins. Like the roads of the old covenant they are difficult, meandering. And long.
But we are on the downhill slope of history, the turning point of time in the cross of Christ and the eucatastrophe of the resurrection are casting warm sunlight at our backs, and before us lay not an armed cherubim blocking the way into the restored garden, but the saints who have gone before us and the Father, for whom a thousand years is like a day.

The kingdom is at hand.

We will enter the promised land because it has been purchased by Jesus and what is his is ours and he is carrying us there himself.

Christ is golden.

10 comments:

alvin_tsf said...

hi jared.

my name is alvin, i'm from the philippines. i have been reading your blog for the couple of months and encouraged, challenged and convicted by your writing. this post is fantastic! i'm hoping your book will be available here in manila soon.

thanks and have a blessed day!

diane said...

This is beautiful. Just beautiful. Thanks for writing it.

Matthew said...

Great stuff Jared.

By the way, I'm about half-way through your book, and I'm LOVING it. Really accessible, yet meaty. I"m thinking of giving it to a non-believing friend to help introduce him to the real Jesus. He was raised Catholic and thinks he knows who Jesus is, but based on things he says, he doesn't seem to know much about him at all. Any other recommendations there for good books to give him?

Jared said...

Matthew, John Stott's "The Incomparable Christ" is comprehensive but concise and simply written. It covers Jesus through the New Testament and church history.

Pete Scribner said...

Just recently found your blog and have enjoyed it very much (in fact I've enjoyed it so much that I just got your book yesterday). Today's post is no exception, although I would add one thing: The thing that I find really exciting is that when we get back to the Garden, we will find it not just as it was left, but as it was intended to become. We will see that the trajectory that was interrupted by the Fall has been restored and carried out to its completion. My thought is that the wonderful "garden-city" of Revelation 21-22 is even more glorious than the Garden of Genesis 1-2, sort of a Garden on steroids. Christ is golden indeed. Your thoughts?

Jared said...

Pete, I think I agree.

I love that in the new heavens and new earth, we won't need the sun. Jesus will be our light. That just rocks my awesome meter off the chart.

Anonymous said...

Yes.... golden indeed...

And, you seem to have quite a little shine, yourself!

I so appreciate the place from which you share the gospel, Jared...

It's 100% transparent and translucent... like the streets of gold are... or so I hear... but haven't seen... yet...

So, goodbye yellow brick road.... where the dogs of society howl....

Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby...

Okay... I'll stop... : -)

Woodstock was about "us"... anyway...

The garden (and our return) is all about Him...

Blessings,

CEL

Randi Jo :) said...

pastor jared,
either I'm doing something wrong - or your website is hard to navigate to look at archives/search for past articles. I'm trying to find that list of 99 somethings - I can't remember the title... but there was a section about pastoring that I wanted to re-read. Do you know what month you wrote those series? 3 or 4 different blogs with different sections/listing out theses or what was the word you used? I'm sorry I'm not making sense. Maybe you can decipher what I'm trying to say. Thanks :) Hope you're doing well and the book is moving right along!

Jared said...

Randi, was it the 95 Theses thing? I think you can search "95 theses" and find the series that way.

If that's not it, let me know, and I'll poke around some more and see if I can find what you're looking for.

Randi Jo :) said...

95 theses yes that's it! thanks !:)