Jesus Crossed Boundaries: The Present and the Eternal
Jesus Crossed Boundaries: The Present and the Eternal.
God created many fixed boundaries in His creation of the universe. Some of these boundaries, separating male and female, light and dark, holy and unholy, the Sabbath Day, good and evil, love and hate, and many other examples, were not intended to ever be crossed. But there were some other separations that evolved and were waiting for the only Person who could cross the boundaries to reconcile the world as God intended. Jesus united what seemed like impossible differences, He broke many barriers, He joined together what seemed like inherent opposites, only to create something new, life-giving and fresh out of the new combination. There were curtains and veils all over creation, and some of those barriers seemed unbreakable. Examples might include heaven and earth, God and sin, life and death, the spiritual and the physical, and even those people during the ministry of Jesus who were accepted by Him and those who were not. This entire category about Jesus’ crossing boundaries in His ministry of reconciliation is largely a mystery. My meager thoughts don’t even remotely approach the final word on something this profound and large-scale. My thoughts are more of an exploration than a final discovery. I would like to explore in a preliminary what Jesus accomplished on earth by considering various boundaries He crossed. In this article, let’s explore how Jesus crossed the boundary between the present and the eternal.
“One day the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him, ‘When will the Kingdom of God come?’ Jesus replied, ‘The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by your speculations or by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, Here it is! or It’s over there! For the Kingdom of God is already among you. It is in your midst and within your grasp. The Kingdom of God is present and an active spiritual reality that is breaking forth.’” (Luke 17:20-21).
An ancient Celtic legend had determined somehow that the curtain between heaven and earth was three feet thick. This impenetrable curtain kept the eternal separated from the present, except in those unique places known as “thin places.” The veil in these places was especially porous and paper-thin and thus could be penetrated. The “thin places” were where people were allowed to experience both heaven and earth in the here and now. These sacred places were where one could step into a direct experience of the eternal God and cross the threshold into heaven. These holy sites could be on mountaintops, or a special place set apart for intimate worship and meditation, or wherever nature seemed to draw one closer to God.
If the Irish had developed a taste for wine instead of whiskey, and accompanied Jesus in first century Israel, they would have observed that wherever Jesus went there was a “thin place.” In fact, they would have claimed that Jesus Himself was a walking, breathing “thin place,” where the boundary between the eternal and the present was paper-thin. Jesus, a “thin place” in the flesh, didn’t actually hide a veil within Himself at all. In Christ, the boundary between the eternal and the present had been crossed. In Christ, the Kingdom of God was not a place, it was a Person. Wherever Jesus lives and reigns is the ultimate “thin place,” because He dwells in both the eternal and the present. The Kingdom of God is Jesus.
Believers have two hands, so let’s use them. On the one hand, Christ is of the eternal. He came from the eternal realm and was destined to return there to be at His Father’s side when His ministry on earth was finished. His destiny is also to return from the eternal realm and completely and perfectly establish His eternal reign in the new heaven and the new earth. So Christ contains within His being the “not yet’ KIngdom. He dwells beyond time, outside of time, living now in the eternal sphere where he awaits the fullness of His Kingdom. So, on this one hand, Jesus walked this earth and in His Spirit there was an eternal quality that could accurately be called a “thin place”.
On the other hand, Jesus dwelt on earth in the present reality of that time. He was uniquely dwelling in the “here and now” Kingdom. The eternal Kingdom of God was present wherever He went. Wherever He exerted His divine power and influence, the Kingdom of God was present. His followers were citizens of this portable Kingdom by virtue of trusting in Him. His followers were within His domain in His presence, and they were enveloped in His Kingship. They didn’t need to be residing in the King’s castle to be a part of His Kingdom. They could carry His Holy Spirit with them and extend the Kingdom of God through His presence in His Spirit. But this extension of the KIngdom was only partly accomplished at this point on earth. The Kingdom was not fully completed. We see glimpses of the eternal meeting up with the present, but only dimly and partially.
So on the one hand, Jesus was operating in eternal time, and on the other hand, He was living in His present time. His Kingdom combining heaven and earth was in the here and now and it was in the not yet. Jesus Christ was the only possible Person in human history who could cross that boundary in real time. He was the only One who could be that “thin place” where that three-foot veil could be torn asunder. And now, wonderfully, those that welcome Jesus into their life, who seek to trust Him to the point of dwelling inside Him as well, carry a “thin place” within them. We carry both the eternal and the present within us. We are both citizens of heaven and pilgrims on earth simultaneously. Believers don’t have to nervously anticipate heaven, but instead can realize that heaven starts right now. Believers in Jesus don’t have to twiddle their thumbs until they taste the eternal. The eternal starts right now. With Jesus, believers are able to enjoy the eternal and the present right now.
With the reign of Christ and the Kingdom of God being present all around us through His Spirit, let’s complete the circle back to the Irish where we started, and drink in these words of St. Patrick: “I bind unto myself the Name, the strong Name of the Trinity; By invocation of the same, the Three-in-One and One-in-Three. Of whom all nature hath creation; Eternal Father, Spirit, Word: Praise to the Lord of my salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord. Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.” (attributed to St. Patrick, 372-466). May we all succeed in living inside that “thin place” in Christ our Lord.