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“Heaven, the Eternal Party?”
Categories: Meditations
I suppose it makes sense that the New Testament figure with the most to say about the afterlife is the One who had actually seen it beforehand. I’ve known for years that the Bible records more teaching about hell from Jesus than from any other source. It makes for an amusing rebuttal to the people who claim to be followers of a sweetness-and-light Jesus while rejecting the teachings of His mean ole followers. Wherever they found their Jesus, they didn’t find Him in the Scriptures.
Recently, I’ve come to realize that Jesus is also the source most responsible for Bible teaching about our afterlife in heaven. Sure, you’ve got a goodly chunk of material in Revelation 21-22, but I’m only about 55 percent certain that it’s about heaven (as opposed to being about the victorious church), and John’s efforts to conceal his point from Scripturally ignorant contemporaries also serve to conceal his point pretty well from many Christians today. Unless you’re playing Old Testament Reference Bingo as you work through Revelation, you’re not going to get it.
Jesus, on the other hand, talks about heaven in Matthew 22:1-14, 25:1-13, Luke 13:22-30, 14:15-24, and 22:28-30. Toss in the description of paradise as “Abraham’s side” in Luke 16:19-31, and you’ve got a considerable body of teaching that all employs the same accessible metaphor. To Jesus, heaven is a banquet, a wedding feast. I don’t think we’re doing the text a disservice to say that Jesus wants us to see heaven as an eternal party.
At this thought, a number of brethren become alarmed. In our society, after all, “party” has some ugly connotations. We hear “party” and think “frat-house kegger”. However, even for us, the essence of partying isn’t in getting drunk and sinning. Somebody who gets drunk by himself isn’t a party animal. He’s an alcoholic.
Instead, having a party is about being around other people and having fun with them. Certainly, I would choose different companions than the boys down at Delta Psi, and I would do different things with those companions, but for all of us, a party is about companionship.
As ideas go, that one is awfully close to the Biblical concept of fellowship, and fellowship is exactly what Jesus is attempting to convey with all of his feasting imagery. In Luke 16, Lazarus isn’t in Abraham’s bosom because they’re snuggling. It’s because they’re reclining at table, and Lazarus is leaning back against Abraham. In the final working-out of the kingdom of God, pauper and patriarch will celebrate together.
In No Exit, Sartre famously declares that hell is other people. He is exactly wrong. Hell isn’t other people. Heaven is. It’s impossible for us to get to heaven without loving others, and heaven will be filled with those who return our love. The joy that we experience there will be like the joy of an evening spent with dear friends, only intensified and prolonged for eternity.
Of course, the centerpiece of this eternal feast will be the bridegroom Himself, Jesus. I’ve never had a conversation with Jesus, though I desperately long to, but in heaven, the yearning of every honest heart for Him will be satisfied. Forever with the Lord, forever with His people—that’s a party that everyone should strive to attend!
