Almost Heaven
Much has been written and said about heaven — what it looks like, who gets in or stays out, how we can find our place there, and more. The most important of these, however, is what Jesus himself asked his disciples to tell anyone who would listen — and those who would not.
“Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into the streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ [Luke 10:8–11]
To both those who will listen, and to those who won’t, the message is the same: the kingdom of God has come near. This is not an invitation, a call extended to a select few — this is a proclamation, a statement to be heeded by all. And in the ways that Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God/heaven hereafter, one thing is clear —
It is not WE who come close to entering the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdom of heaven that comes near to US.
When Jesus describes how it will be when we see heaven, he uses words that suggest we will be “taken” [Luke 17:34] “gathered” [Matthew 22:10], “brought in” [Luke 14:21] “compelled” [Luke 14:22], or simply “receive”. [Mark 10:15]
In fact, the only times that the word ‘enter’ is ever used in relation to the kingdom of heaven, are when Jesus tells us how seemingly impossible it is to enter it!
In the Gospel of John, however, Jesus makes a statement that may begin again with “No one can enter the kingdom of God…”, but gives us hope in the way that it ends —“… without being born of water and Spirit. [John 3:5]
Those who enter heaven cannot do so without being born of water and Spirit.
But what does this mean?
Jesus had spoken these words to Nicodemus, a leader among the Pharisees. When Nicodemus seemed to not understand, Jesus chided him gently, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” He expected Nicodemus (and those familiar with scripture) to recognise in what he had said, what God has said before. And sure enough, in God’s words to the Israelites through the prophet Ezekiel hundreds of years ago, we find the words water and Spirit being used together.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. [Ezekiel 36:25–27]
In these verses, we will notice a repetitive emphasis on the word ‘I’ — it is God who acts to do these these things — to cleanse us, give us a new heart, and put his Spirit in us.
But while God goes about doing these things, it is upto US to allow ourselves to be cleansed, to receive this new heart and to permit his Spirit to lead us.
The kingdom of God comes near to all people — but how willing we are to be reborn in this manner will determine whether we are able to receive it. Scripture tells us of those who allowed Jesus to complete this work of salvation in them — the eleven apostles, Mary Magdalene, Zaccheus the tax collector, Paul, persecutor-turned-evangelist, the repentant thief on the cross, and so many others. Their stories are lucid, but lest we fail to understand the need to allow ourselves to be drawn into the kingdom of God, Jesus told us several parables on how easy it is to accept — or end up rejecting — this trifold process of being born of water and the Spirit.
1. Cleansing
You may have heard of the parable of the prodigal Son —the posterboy of repentance — but have you read the parable of the dishonest manager? It immediately follows the parable of the prodigal son and stands in sharp contrast — if the prodigal son turns back and approaches his father in repentance, the dishonest manager does not repent or appeal to the mercy of the master.
Consider the similarities and dissimilarities in the two parables. Both son and manager squander property that is not theirs. Both son and manager come to a point of reckoning — the boy while starving in a pigsty, the manager when his dishonesty is discovered. Both son and manager make a decision about what they are to do in the event of their misfortune. But while the prodigal son decides to ask his father for mercy, the dishonest manager decides to turn instead to those whom he can be merciful to. Instead of relying on the mercy of his master, he decides to win the favour of others by extending his own ‘mercy’ towards them; instead of hoping for a chance to live in dignity as a manager, he is happy to live on the scraps that his own mercy will purchase for him. With repentance comes a decision to turn from one’s ways, but this manager does not want to do this. He may do what is ‘right’, although not to make amends —but to serve himself.
Is our own repentance like the prodigal son’s… or like the dishonest manager’s? Do we turn and throw ourselves at the mercy of our loving Father, knowing that we have nothing to offer him but our remorse? Or do we instead turn to show mercy to those less fortunate than ourselves, seeking to right our wrongs in ways that will ultimately serve us and take us to heaven?
This parable is not simply a case for almsgiving, then. The manager is not the only one dealing in ‘dishonest’ wealth, parceling out the master’s money as his own — ALL of our wealth, everything that we own, has come from God. The money we share with the poor, the time we spend with the elderly/sick, the talents that we use to help a social cause — all come from God and are our own “dishonest wealth”.
The question we need to ask is this — when we are faced with the consequences of our sins, do we turn to the One who can cleanse us of it… or do we pull out our wad of ‘dishonest wealth, trying to turn our wrongs into rights’ ?
This will determine if our ‘repentance’ is true — if we allow ourselves to be cleansed, acknowledging that we are in need of mercy.
2. Justification
Jesus told this next parable of the at a meal given by a leader of the Pharisees. Before he told it, however, Jesus said to this man who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” [Luke 14:12–14]
When one of the guests, hearing this, remarked on how blessed it would be to be able to dine in heaven, Jesus proceeded to tell the Parable of the Great Dinner.
“Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ [Luke 14:16–24]
Did you notice how the man in the parable who threw the great dinner changed his guest list in accordance with Jesus’ recommendation? Before telling the parable, Jesus advises the man hosting his own meal to invite ‘the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind’, and it is precisely this set of people that the man in Jesus’ parable too finally tells his slaves to go out and bring in from the streets!
The parable doesn’t state a reason for the host’s new preference in guests, but Jesus had already told us why this set of people ought to be favoured — “because they cannot repay you.”
Those who are poor, crippled, lame and blind cannot enter on their own — they are ‘brought in’ and know that they cannot repay the favour. Unlike those who are invited and give their excuses, they know that they are undeserving of the invitation. The host then goes on to tell his slaves to go out again into the roads and lanes and compel people to come in. Those who are compelled have no other choice!
It is only like this that we can enter the banquet in heaven — knowing that we who are as helpless as the poor/crippled/blind/lame, have been ‘brought in’, with no means to repay the favour. We are ‘compelled’ — without having to be convinced— because like Peter, we know that there is nowhere else to go, this is the only way to eternal life.
But once here, can we lose access to the grand banquet — can we be ejected from the kingdom of heaven?
The Gospel of Matthew tells this parable slightly differently, as a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. When the guests were invited, they gave excuses, made fun of the banquet, and even killed the slaves that had been sent to invite them. Enraged, the king destroyed their city and sent his slaves to invite everyone they found on the streets to the banquet.
Let us read from Scripture to see what happens —
“Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” [Matthew 22:10–14]
The slaves ‘gathered’ all whom they found, both good and bad. Here too, the guests who were able to enter the banquet hall were not worthy to be there — they did not enter on their own.
But Matthew includes another element to the parable — a guest who was not wearing a wedding robe. When the king asks him how he got in there without a wedding robe, it is not an interrogation — he calls him ‘friend’, and gives him a chance to explain that perhaps he was not given one when he entered. But the man was quiet, offering no explanation.
The truth is, that like all the other guests, the man had been given a wedding robe, to put on before entering. The king knew where his guests had been gathered from and would have made provisions for robes for them all. If the man had no robe on, it was because he had taken it off.
What’s the deal with the robe, you may ask — why did the man receive the harsh punishment that was meted out to him?
You see, the only thing that qualified these guests to be there at that banquet was this robe. If the man took it off, that meant he no longer felt that it was required; that the only thing that made him worthy to be at the banquet was no longer necessary.
The only thing that makes us worthy to be at the banquet of heaven is this robe — the ‘robe of righteousness’ that the prophet Isaiah referred to:
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” [Isaiah 61:10]
Jesus is this robe of righteousness. St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” [Galatians 3:29] In the verses preceding this, Paul assures the Galatians (and us) that as long as we have faith in Jesus, we are justified by his sacrifice.
“Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. [Galatians 3:23–25]
It is God who justifies us through our faith in his son Jesus; he covers our own righteousness (which the prophet Isaiah likened to filthy rags), with the righteousness of Christ.
But if, like the guest found without his wedding robe, we begin to believe ourselves to be worthy of our own account, we too remove the precious wedding robe we have been given through the grace of God. In expressing faith in our own righteousness, we rescind our faith in Jesus and reject the grace of God.
As we make ready to receive our place in heaven, is our faith in Jesus constant — or do we sometimes take off the robe of righteousness we have been given, and consider entering on our own? If we refuse to be justified by grace, we will have no place in heaven.
[Why did Jesus have to die for us to be saved? Read about it here!]
3. Surrender
The final parable that we will consider today (on which we will focus only in part) was told by Jesus because those that he was traveling with were expecting him to seize power and establish his kingdom immediately.
“A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’ [Luke 19:11–27]
The rest of this parable is similar to the parable of the ten talents (found in Matthew 25:14–30, discussed here), where we learn about the importance of knowing the goodness of the master in order to be able to serve him. But this parable of the ten pounds contains a few variations that bear mentioning, especially due to Jesus’ reasons for telling it.
Along with the slaves who know their master in varying degrees, there is also a section of people who are not his slaves and are referred to only as “the citizens of his country”. It is these who send a delegation after him, before they have even experienced his rulership, to say that they do not want him to rule over them. When the nobleman comes back, having “received royal power” – being accepted by the people of that distant land, he summons his slaves to see (on the basis of how well they have invested) how well they know him. He is pleased with two slaves, disappointed by another, and does not even mention the remaining seven. But the ones who had sent the delegation after him, who did not want him to be king over them, he orders to be brought to him and slaughtered.
This parable contrasts the faith the nobleman has in his slaves, with the faith his own countrymen had in him. Not only did they not want him to be king over them, but they wanted to keep others from receiving him too. Such were also the Jews that Jesus had come for, the audience of his parable — despite God’s trust in them, they refused to surrender to him, using their unbelief as a reason for others not to believe in God too.
But if we truly wish to be part of God’s kingdom, we must be willing for God to be king over us.
When we have repented, been justified by God’s grace, through our faith in Jesus, we need to surrender to him; to listen to him. It is only when, like the first two slaves who invested the full ten pounds, we are fully convinced of the love and trust that God has in us, that we will be able to love and trust him in turn — to say that we want him to be king over us.
It is only then that we will be able to listen to his Holy Spirit and do away with all the other things that we appoint gods over ourselves.
“And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like impure things; you will say to them, “Away with you!” [Isaiah 30:21–22]
This is when, (not how!) being born of water and Spirit, we can finally enter the kingdom of heaven — not because of what we have done to enter it, but because of what Jesus did for God’s kingdom to come near to us.
