Things Passing Away, and Things Raised

Here we are in the season of Easter, when we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection as just the first crop of the harvest (1st Corinthians 15:23, Common English Bible). That harvest will be the Resurrection of the whole world. But if God the Father loved this world enough that God the Son came to die for it (John 3:16), then why does 1st John advise Christians, “Don’t love the world or the things in the world?” (1st John 12:15). If the world was destined to be obliterated by the hand of God, it might make sense not to get too attached to it. But “God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Shouldn’t we love this world that God made and has saved from eternal death through Jesus Christ?

The clue to unraveling this seeming contradiction comes in the next two verses, though you might not know it from some translations. “For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever” (New Revised Standard Version). The truth is that “desire” is not always a bad thing. But to “crave” something, as the Common English Bible puts it, is always a bad thing. To crave something means that a thing has more power than we do. To crave something is to be so fearful of its loss that we desperately cling to it because we can’t imagine life without it.

The things of this world are “passing away.” But they are not passing away into nothing. They are to be transformed in the Resurrection of all things, of which Jesus is the first crop. As the resurrected Jesus has become “trans-physical”—still physical yet transformed—so shall we and all the things of this world become trans-physical. But we must not crave, or cling to these things now. In their passing away, the things of this world will be like the air through our fingers. But the Holy Spirit, which blows through this world like the wind, will hold you in its arms, and give you safe landing. In that landing there will be new things, gifts from God, to love. And at the end of all things, those things will be raised. Hallelujah!