Today shalt thou be with me in paradise, not tomorrow, nor on the third day, but truly, today

 

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. 

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ἀμήν λέγω σοι σήμερον μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ.

 

-- Luke 23:43 

σήμερον is obviously in emphatic position. The promise to the penitent thief is that there will be no lingering death, and the conviction of Jesus is firm belief in immediate immortality for both himself and this thief, not in future resurrection.

Touch me not for I am not yet ascended, or Today shalt thou be with me in paradise?

 

The problem of the resurrected but not yet ascended Jesus telling Mary not to touch him but encouraging Thomas to do so in John 20 is hardly the only problem with John's death and resurrection narrative about Jesus. 

John never even gives us the promised ascension at all, despite all the talk in that gospel of the descending and ascending Son of Man.

The absence is not unique to John, however, which tells us that the thinking about all this was, if not fluid, at least not fully formed at the time.

Luke does not reconcile the ascension stories he himself tells in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9 with the words of Christ from the cross which he alone records, which imply that Jesus simply expected at death to go to heaven immediately, not to rise from the dead and ascend later, let alone descend into hell in the interim.

Compare Luke's Lazarus, who dies and goes to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man who ignored him dies and goes to hell (Luke 16:22ff.). This is what is supposed to happen, right? There is no resurrection until "the last day", as Martha informs us (John 11:24). Everybody knows that! But then John's Jesus raises her brother anyway.

And like Matthew's I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (28:20), the resurrected Jesus in John 21 never really exits the world either. He can appear at any time and say Follow me. Even to one untimely born (I Corinthians 15:8).

Matthew's Jesus doesn't leave in an ascension. He is always present.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. 

-- Matthew 18:20

The ending supplied to Mark 16, however, agrees with Luke that Jesus ascended to heaven and sat on the right hand of God. Its fascination with signs done by those who believe echos the early Christian history recounted by Luke in Acts, and doubtlessly comes from that part of the tradition and is not originally Marcan. Mark's Jesus eschews signs absolutely (Mark 8:12).

 

And [the other malefactor] said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. 

-- Luke 23:42f.

Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 

-- John 19:32f.

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.  

-- John 20:17

That son, affecting to subdue rational liberty

 Justly thou abhorr'st

That son, who on the quiet state of men

Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue

Rational liberty.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Creepy connubial Christ talk at First Things and the Book of Revelation

Loving with Mary :

Mary, the Shulammite, turns around to Jesus. In his voice and face, she recognizes her husband, her Lord. Jesus is the groom; we ourselves are Mary, the Shulammite. Her grief is our grief, her tears our tears, and her despair our despair. ...

We, his bride, hold on to him, united to him in faith. Every Eighth Day, he comes to us in the preaching of the gospel; every Sunday morning in the breaking of the bread.

When we walk into church and the doors close behind us, we enter into heaven. Eastertide begins; time and space are reconfigured. It is the Eighth Day; we are in Paradise. Eve, the Shulammite, Mary Magdalene—we all join Jesus at the altar. Bread and wine show up. It’s a marriage supper. Our groom, our Lord, unites himself to us, his bride.

Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to be clothed

with fine linen, bright and pure—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints (Rev. 19:6–8)

And you thought gender confusion was so . . . fringe.

This is priceless coming from an evangelical Christian, seeing that the foundation of evangelicalism requires buying into Pauline enthusiasm

“I Did Not Die. I Did Not Go to Heaven.”:

“The idea that someone could go to heaven and come back with visions and dreams and we should take that seriously is as far from historic evangelicalism as it’s possible to get,” Phil Johnson, the executive director of the ministry headed by MacArthur, the California pastor and author whose ministry Beth reached out to in 2012. “To me, one of the real signifiers that modern evangelical Christianity is badly astray and in serious jeopardy of even existing 50 years from now is the ease with which evangelicals buy into stories like this.”

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.

-- II Corinthians 12:1ff.

Thou wilt taste no pleasure solitary?

 

What think'st thou then of me, and this my state?

Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed

Of happiness, or not? who am alone

From all eternity, for none I know

Second to me, or like, equal much less.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Maybe the barbarism of Spain in the New World had something to do with its 800-year experience of Islam before Columbus

From "Islamic Spain in Middle Ages no paradise for Christians, Jews, women" by Paul Monk here:

The real thrust of Fernandez-Morera’s critique of the myth of Andalusia is that Islam in Spain, far from setting a high bar of tolerance, was characterised by plunder, domination, the harsh application of sharia law, the persecution of Christians or Jews who openly avowed their non-Muslim beliefs, and the violent suppression of ‘‘heresies’’ and apostasy within the Muslim community. ... There is no Andalusian golden age of Islam to emulate.

And of course Samuel Johnson's synonym for enthusiast, fanatick, also perfectly describes Paul of Tarsus

 

"A man mad with wild notions of religion", and "struck with a superstitious frenzy":

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

-- 2 Corinthians 12:1ff.

This corporeal clod

The spirit of man,

Which God inspir'd,

cannot together perish

with this corporeal clod.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)

The better ordered our life, the less our need for vacation

So observes John Cuddeback, here:

"During this time I have found myself wondering about our need for vacation. It seems to me that the better ordered our life, the less our need for vacation. By vacation I don’t mean just any down-time, but rather a length of time where we travel to some destination for the sake of ‘getting away’ and relaxing. The normal routine of our lives ideally should include wholesome work, quality leisure time, and significant opportunity to be-together with, or live in communion with family and friends."

---------------------------------------------

"On the sabbath they rested (ceased from labor and were quiet at home) according to the commandment."

-- Luke 23:56

"Make it your ambition to live quietly at home (rest), to mind your own business, to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you."

-- 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Bought some cheap shades at the Amoco station, they make me feel like I'm on vacation, on my own island, motor city paradise.

Both Thieves Revile Jesus In Matthew And Mark, But Not So In Luke

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads ... Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said ... The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

-- Matthew 27:38, 39, 41, 44 

Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.

-- Mark 15:32

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

-- Luke 23:39ff.

To Die Is To Become A Kneaded Clod

 

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world; or to be worse than worst

Of those that lawless and incertain thought

Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

-- Claudio, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 1

 

 

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Is "To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice" the source for Robert Frost's "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice"?

Roger Ebert Hath Said In His Heart: 'I Exist Only In Other People's Minds. I Will Be Forgotten.'

So Roger Ebert, here:

"We exist in the minds of other people, in thousands of memory clusters, and one by one those clusters fade and disappear. Some years from now, at a funeral with a slide show, only one person will be able to say who we were. Then no one will know."

So even Ecclesiastes 2.16:

"For of the wise man as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise man dies just like the fool!"

But consider this:

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."

-- Jeremiah 1:5

"Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me."

-- Isaiah 44:21

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you."

-- Isaiah 49:15

"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows."

-- Luke 12:6f.

"One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, 'Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.' And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.'"

-- Luke 23:39ff.

Actually, we exist only in the one mind which matters:

"One necessary, eternal, uncaused, unlimited (=infinite), rational, personal, and moral being exists;


Such a Being is appropriately called 'God' in the theistic sense, because he possesses all the essential characteristics of a theistic God;


Therefore, the theistic God exists."

In Memoriam

I took possession of Little Sheila one cold November night in 1990 from the Roselle Marathon gas station, thanks to Nick Pierotti, whose mechanics retrieved her from underneath the hood of a customer's car. Earlier in the evening while paying for my gasoline inside, I had heard her meowing and asked the cashier if she had a cat behind the counter. She hadn't. The cat was meowing so loudly outside she might as well have been inside. A stray, they were feeding her from the vending machine, Fig Newtons mostly, but had been unable to catch her. I went outside to try myself, but after a half hour all I got was a glimpse, which was all it took: I went inside to say I'd take her if they could just catch her. Which they finally did, just before the ten o'clock news. The minute she hit the living room she spotted the upside down lid of a cardboard box into which she jumped and presently did her business.

She was sickly from the beginning. One veterinarian advised us to put her down. Instead we forced the pills down her throat three times a day for two weeks. Somehow she recovered. She repaid us with eighteen years of companionship until her sad passing, this date, 2008.

A year later I think it's pretty clear that it was Little Sheila who did the possessing.

As a tiger, who by chance hath spy'd,

In some purlieu, two gentle fawns at play,

Straight couches close; then rising, changes oft

His couchant watch.

Milton's Paradise Lost