Ordinary people – from here to eternity
From Here to Eternity was a great film, but we have our own real-life version of from here to eternity –from the here and now of our temporal life to the eternity of God’s immediate presence. That was Jesus’mission. During his lifetime, Jesus showed people the way to God. In his death and resurrection, Jesus opened that way to God.
And when our days are over Jesus will lead us home to God
Watch what Jesus does. Jesus meets people where they are and leads them to where God is to be found.
When Jesus was in the Samaritan district of Sychar, he and the disciples stopped at Jacob’s well.
A woman comes unobtrusively to draw water from the well.
Jesus broke with convention by speaking face to face with the Samaritan woman.
To her surprise, this Jewish stranger asked her for some water.
“Sir, the well is deep and you need a bucket to draw the water,” she replied.
Then Jesus drew the woman’s attention to God’s new life available for everybody: “If you knew who was talking, you would ask and receive living water to satisfy the thirst of your soul.
“For I will give the water of life welling up to eternal life [because] God is spirit and those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth”(John 4.1-15 & 24).
An identical scenario is found in John 6.1-35. The previous day Jesus had fed the five thousand (John 6.1-14).
The following day, the crowd followed Jesus. Jesus told them: “You have only come because of yesterday’s picnic.”
Jesus then attempted unsuccessfully to focus their attention upon the new life found in the kingdom of God.
The crowd were riled. They retorted:“Prove yourself, our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, that showed that Moses was a prophet chosen by God”(John 6.30).
Jesus’reply was harder for them to stomach.
He told them:“The manna that Moses gave to the people was just like the bread I gave you yesterday. It only satisfies your physical needs.
“Strive to gain the spiritual food that belongs to God’s new life.“
When they asked for it, Jesus gave that wonderful reply:“I am the Bread of Life”( John 6.35).
These two incidents are remarkably similar.
First ,Jesus sought to lead the woman of Sychar then the crowd from the here and now of their ordinary existence to the vision and reality of God’s new life in the kingdom.
It is the same with Jesus’ teaching.
If you read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) as a mere homily for decent living, then you have failed to appreciate its significance.
The reality of the eternal kingdom is the backdrop to the Sermon on the Mount.
But for words to convince, for eyes to be opened, for souls to be won, for people like us to experience eternity while still in time, requires one clinching deed, one ultimate argument.
That final deed, that overwhelming argument, was the Cross of Calvary.
At Calvary, Jesus showed the human race, in the here and now of our transient life, the reality of eternity and the open highway to reach God’s final destination.
And in the resurrection, that eternal way was opened for us to journey.
Easter’s light is the eternal radiance that reveals the real Jesus.
In Easter’s light, we see that the “Spring of water welling up to eternal life”flows from that Cross.
In Easter’s light, we realise that Jesus is the Bread of Life only through being broken on the Cross.
When we break the bread in Communion or in the Mass, we go straight to Calvary.
In Easter’s light, everything that Jesus taught becomes meaningful for this life and for eternity.
Right now, Jesus is opening our eyes to see and our souls to yearn for the things of eternity.
Easter shows that Jesus was really serious with us.
Will we be the same with the Lord?
Paul writes brilliantly: “For we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
“For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4.18).