Back to the garden

 This week's verses are Luke 23:39-43:

One of the criminals who was hanging there railed at him, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we rightly so, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” 

These verses are interesting because they paint a picture of the final judgment. Men are gathered on Jesus' left and right. One rails at him and makes skeptical demands of him. The other is contrite and asks for mercy. As the song says, sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell. Jesus tells the penitent criminal that they will be together that day in paradise.

Paradise. We all have our own picture of what we would consider to be paradise, but the original word comes from a Persian phrase meaning a walled garden. Paradise is a garden. So in the end, after all that happens, Jesus is welcoming the condemned man back to the garden of Eden, back to being together. All of the drama with the snake and Adam and millennia of generations making bad decision after bad decision, separated from God, and we come back to the beginning.

The two criminals also represent our different approaches to the hardships of life. Some among us, most of us, make demands of God when things don't go the way we would like. We impose on Him our ideas of how God should be, and hold him accountable if he doesn't fit our ideal. We are the panicked thief, bitter and desperate, lashing out at a God we only superficially believe in.

Those of us who remain, the minority, accept what comes and recognize God for who he is. We don't impose our agenda on him. We ask only that he keeps us in mind. We are the penitent thief, humble and full of hope, placing our destiny in God's hands.

We can ask ourselves which of these two condemned people we are, but we also should ask ourselves if a return to the garden is something we actually want. What if that's all that was offered to us after death: work and a close eternal fellowship with God. Would that be enough?

Some of us expect a kind of hedonistic explosion. Forty virgins and a food truck. Holding stars and planets in our hands and petting their smooth surfaces like soft kittens. Creating universes, and jamming with the angels. But what if the biggest thing on offer was simply forgiveness? The divorce is over, all is forgotten, and you can move back in and do life together again. If you truly love and truly regret, there is nothing greater than forgiveness.

Would the first thief, after melting down and demanding to speak to Jesus' manager,  then be happy to quietly turn over mulch and trade inside jokes with Him for the rest of eternity? Probably not. But what about the second thief? After facing his certain and well-deserved end, his life 100% a failure, wouldn't he be delighted to have his dignity reinstated and to be able to live forever as though none of his mistakes had ever happened?

So which are you? Are the garden and Jesus enough for you? Or does he have some explaining to do? As for me, I'm happy to get back to the garden.