For centuries, artists and dreamers have tried to portray Heaven. We’ve been brought up on the images of pearly gates and streets paved with gold. Less known are the pastoral scenes of the perfect Garden of Paradise as described in the other-worldly book of The Revelation to [St.] John [the Divine]. Dante, John Bunyan and all kinds of medieval sculptors conjured up gruesome demons to scare us into morality. Today’s reactionary pre-occupation with televised stories of the supernatural indicate a fascination with Whatever’s Beyond. We attempt to build our own heaven with bricks of earthly terms and the mortar of earthly valuables.
Haggai, perhaps one of those who remained near Jerusalem during the Babylonian Exile, writes words of encouragement to those who’re building a new (second) Temple: “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now?” (2:3) In 520 BC, would the building stand as merely a shell of the faith, and would Yahweh in all splendor ever reside there again? Haggai continues to share the Lord’s promise that silver & gold from all the nations would “fill this house with splendor”, and that prosperity will come again to Israel. OK, this isn’t exactly Heaven; but to the faithful returning from Babylon’s corruption it does become a renewed City of God.
To the congregations in and around Thessalonica, St. Paul writes, “For this purpose [God] called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (II,2:14) This “glory” is more inclusive than that of Haggai, radiating not so much from blinding wealth as from the holy “wealth” of Jesus. Here Paul IS talking about heaven, not as a celestial rest from the slings & arrows of our mortal journey, but a participation in God’s Kingdom which endows us with “comfort and good hope”.
The passage from Luke’s Gospel begins with frivolity and moves to dead seriousness. (Sorry!) The Sadducees came up with this silly illustration of some woman (“Typhoid Mary”?) who wed seven brothers, one after another, and managed to outlive them all! So, in the after-life, whose wife would she be? “No one’s,” said Jesus.(20:35) Marriage is an earthly term and custom, but there’s evidently only one heavenly family. Again, these folks were trying to impose mortal terms and laws on the hereafter–upon which they didn’t believe anyway. The question, of course, is of Resurrection: to Moses, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac & Jacob are yet alive in God! “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(v.38) Henry the Eighth can now relax.
Where’s Grace, in all of this? It’s implied, in between the lines: God’s official residence, whether in the Second Temple or the unfolding Kingdom which has now drawn near, is full of glory. And not so much in our terms, jewel-laden though they be, but in what is considered of divine value…sometimes hard to detect. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised”; God’s glory is beyond our understanding.
God Bless Us, every one! H B King
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