Husband tells me that I have an annoying habit.  Hmm. I have many!  The one we’re discussing here is a bad habit I have when reading a book.  I often read the last chapter first.  If it seems satisfying, I read the second to last chapter.  If that’s good, I start at the middle and read toward the end.  Husband says I’m being rude to the author.  I say I don’t have a lot of time to read, so I have to pick my books carefully.

We all love a happy ending.  Maybe that’s why I love the Bible so much.  It has a happily-ever-after ending.  But it doesn’t pretend that it’s easy getting there.  It isn’t easy for us and it wasn’t easy for Jesus.  The last week  before his death was a roller coaster.  He was welcomed into the city of Jerusalem by cheering crowds and only 4 days later he faced a jeering mob.  He rode in as a folk hero, but was taken out as a criminal.  He was lauded and mocked in the space of a few days.  He came in riding on a carpet of branches and coats and went out stumbling into the dust under a cross.  He came in with many friends and followers praising him and went out with soldiers prodding him. 

He did it out of love for us.  He didn’t have to submit to cruel humans.  He could have called down fire from heaven, but he chose to die a painful death after being beaten and ridiculed.  Our reaction is to turn our eyes away.  It’s too ugly.  Too raw.  Too unfair.  Too sad.  Too painful.  Deep down we know the dark truth.  We helped put him on that cross.  He was paying for our wrongdoing.

The beginning of the rest of this story began in the early morning of the third day after the darkest day.  That part of the story is far different than the beginning of the story.  It was so impossible that even those who were there had a hard time believing it.  After all, they had witnessed the labored last breath as he died of suffocation on that torturous cross.  It would take them forty days of random encounters with an alive-again Jesus before they really grasped what was happening in this part of the story.  And none of us to this day fully grasp what the end part of the story will be like. 

 We know that he arrived in this world as a baby with a human body that was limited by fatigue, pain, hunger, and thirst just like us, and that he left this world with a better-than-human body that wasn’t limited by space or time just like we will have one day.

He left this world with little fanfare when his feet lifted off the Mount of Olives and a cloud carried him silently out of his followers’ sight.  He will return with a shout and a trumpet blast and the attention of the world.  He was abused and rejected during his time on earth, but every knee will bend to him when he returns.  He came in weakness and humility the first time.  But the second time he will come with power and authority.

He will deal with his enemies. Starting with those who saw his power and divine nature in the earth and sky, but refused to worship him or even thank him, and ending with the one who first rebelled in heaven, all will be abandoned to what they wanted, a God-free environment… for eternity.  After this, the old order of things will be removed.  All the evil that crushed lives.  All the pain that wrung the life out of us.  All the injustices, all the wars, all the tyrannies, all the tears, all the death will be wiped out in an inferno. 

Afterwards, he will remake all things and establish a new order where his peace rules.  All the beauty, all the good, all the true, all the light, all the life, all the love will be amplified to a degree we can’t comprehend.  And we who contributed to his death will join him in this new world as honored guests.

Marantha!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!