Preparing for heaven

In his teaching Jesus sometimes uses the formula; if someone who is bad can do X then how much more should you or how much more will God do X. He uses it, for example, when he talks about God giving the Holy Spirit: if father’s who are bad know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

What Jesus does in this parable from Luke’s Gospel is similar (Luke 16. 1-9). Here he says that if shrewd, worldly people, like this dishonest manager or steward, can come to see the importance of relationships, then how much more should we do the same. Not following the example of the manager in using dishonesty to build relationships but following his example of learning to prioritise relationships in life and in work.

Thinking about the work-life balance of the Manager helps us to see what is really going on in this story. At the beginning of the story, friendships and responsibility seem low on the Manager’s list of priorities. He is managing his employer’s property but he’s also wasting his employer’s money. It seems likely that his life is focused primarily around his work and money. However, when his job comes under threat, he suddenly realises that relationships – friendships – are actually more important than work and money and then figures out a quick way of building friendships. At the end of the story, if we return to his work-life balance, work will have decreased in importance to him while friendships and responsibility for his own future will have increased.

Prioritising relationships, Jesus says, is about preparing for eternity. He specifically tells us this story that we might be welcomed into the eternal homes. Why is this so? Well, the answer is very simple. In heaven there will be nothing to fix, nothing to solve, and therefore no work to be done. In heaven there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. In heaven there will be nothing we can do for others, because God will have done everything for us. So, what will there be to do? Heaven is all about our relationships; being with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation. Heaven is all about enjoying our relationships to the full for what they are.

In Philippians 3 we are told to imitate those who set their minds on heavenly things because our citizenship is in heaven. Citizenship is all about belonging to a particular community together with all the other members of that community. In relation to heaven, it is about being in relationship with God’s people. So, if heaven is about anything at all, it is about relationship.

Jesus wants us to prepare for heaven. The writer to the Philippians wants us to set our minds on our citizenship in heaven. They are calling us to live God’s future now, to anticipate what heaven will be like in the here and now, in the present. We do that by doing what Jesus told this parable to encourage; prioritising relationships – prioritising our being with God, being with ourselves, being with others and being with creation now.

That is what incarnational mission and ministry is all about. Jesus spent 90% of his incarnation in Nazareth being with his friends and family. Just as he prioritised relationships in his life, so he wants us to do the same because that is how we anticipate heaven and live God’s future now.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nickel Creek - Reason's Why.