A good time to make sequels would have been when George Lucas was planning on making prequels. Getting the original cast together again is fun, but it has been almost my entire lifetime since they were
Point being, he was a young man in Return of the Jedi. They were all young 31 years ago. And these days, that original cast will look significantly older (except Billy Dee Williams, who still looks amazing). And this the best image that we have right now of all flesh being grass. The march of time has a way of working on us, and when we see someone after a 31 year absence, they certainly look much much different. This is a pretty rare case, too, because it's not that often, outside of an entertainment expo, that we see someone after a long, 20-30 year absence, and see how much they've changed in the meantime.
But that cast has changed. And like it or not, so have we. In that 31 years, there's a good chance that a bunch of you weren't born. I was three when Jedi came out, and I'm 33 years old now. It's been basically my whole lifetime, and I've changed a lot since Jedi came out. So have we all.
Because all flesh is grass. We're all getting older, though we don't like to admit it. And because it takes place so gradually, we don't really notice it. But when we see it all at once, like with the cast of Star Wars, we realize that there's no picture of Dorian Grey. There's no fountain of youth (sorry Ponce de Leon). All flesh is grass, which, according to St. Peter, grows up one day, and then is gone the next.
So, that's unpleasant. We don't like to think about it too often, but it's true. And the other sad thing is that it's not just us, either. I picked up a small book in Montreal called 'the skeptical approach to religion' that had a really interesting opening chapter, which talked essentially about the eventual heat death of the universe. It talked about the fact that it's not just you and your family that are aging out of existence, but also the sun in the centre of our solar system, and all other suns, too. You may have a rich and lasting legacy, but on a long enough timeline, everyone's life expectancy drops to zero. And knowing that ought to give us pause for thought, given that on a long enough timeline, the life expectancy of the sun in our solar system drops to zero as well. Everyone we have ever known and loved, everyone we have ever held dear, all the things we have done, are worth nothing on a long enough timeline.
So what does that tell us? Well, we have a seed of eternity planted in our hearts that seems to want to lead us towards things that last forever. We have an idea that we, and all people, ought to last for all time. We have an idea that the stuff we do matters, that our lives have import and worth and meaning, which they don't if we're just on a dying planet in a dying solar system.
But this conception of eternity is actually phenomenally important to us as Christians. It's important because of who Jesus is and what he does. 1 Peter tells us that all flesh is like grass, and its glory like the flower of grass that grows up one day and is gone the next. But the word of the Lord is forever. And this is important for us as Christians. It is important because it tells us where our help comes from, and what our hope is in.
When Jesus met up with his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he told them everything about himself that was in the scriptures, beginning with Moses and the prophets. And that's something we forget, because after all, if we were to start telling the story of Jesus, we'd start with the story of a stable in Judea. But Jesus doesn't. He starts with Moses and the prophets, going all the way back to essentially the beginning of time. And that is where the story of Jesus starts.
In the beginning. In the beginning, John tells us, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was with God from the beginning, and through Him everything that has been made has been made. This is important. It's poetic, it's nice, it sounds beautiful and all that, but it is incredibly important for us to know.
We need to know this because we live in a fallen creation, and we're part of that fallen creation. We have decay, entropy, and collapse built into us and wired into us. As consequence of sin, all creation fell, and it became susceptible to entropy, and to collapse. All things became like grass, not just all flesh. Heaven and earth were set to pass away, and all creation was set to melt away like wax. And both faith and science will tell us the same thing. That all creation is winding down and wearing out. They'll give you different reasons, but will lead you to the same conclusion, that our sun is burning out and going away.
And this is why Jesus as the word of God is so important. This is why his presence as the eternal word of God is so vital, because of course God spoke creation into existence. God spoke, and it happened. God spoke the sun, the moon, the stars, the animals, all that into creation. His word was around before everything, and it will continue to be around long long after it all goes away. Heaven and earth will pass away, says Jesus, but my word will never pass away. He predates creation, and will postdate it too.
And this is what we as Christians cling to, not just to his goodness and rightousness, which we do, but also to his eternity. We cling to the fact that he is the only thing in all of creation that is not part of this decay. He doesn't wear out, he doesn't break down, he doesn't fall apart. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away. And through his work on the cross, we are yoked to him. We take his burden upon us, and he takes ours upon him. And all that decay, all that rot, he takes it with him to the cross, leaving us with his eternity.
That's how big forgivness of sins is, it's not just a matter of saying 'oh, well, never mind' about the things we do that we ought not do, it's a matter of reaching into creation, plucking us out, and giving us eternity. Making us last forever.
All flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Which is the source of all our hope. On May the 4th, and always.
PJ.
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