Last week we learned how we are made for work – when God created (his work) the world and us, we were meant to engage in work with him. But it didn’t take long for humans to rebel against God and his plan for us, and now everything is not as it should be…including work.
We went off the metaphorical train tracks we described last week – God had given us a good context, direction and plan for life, but we decided to strike out for ourselves. We are now missing the context for our lives, and life is no longer integrated.
This is what happened after that rebellion from God, in Genesis 3:17-19
And to Adam he said, …cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
God was stating the natural consequence of humanity’s departure from him and his care – life will now be painful labour. It can take everything out of you – if you have ever tried to start something new, grow food, win a game, or lead people well, you know this is true. Things are never as easy as they should or could be. Something is broken in us.
We can also see this in our frustration with the little things. Things that should be easy can be really hard.
What followed is that humans clothed themselves in an act of self-protection, which we also see in them is trust and anger we regularly have for other people, especially those we work with.
The humans also started to blame each other, the rest of creation, and God. Sound like your workplace?
So how does work end up being broken today?
At one extreme, we can live for work. We can be driven by a goal, but the problem is those goals are always fleeting – the goal itself never lives up to its hype. We are always finding we arrive somewhere, only to be driven ahead by something more, or something better. The product never matches what was in your head.
Or work becomes pointless, running after something with no real value, simply because it’s the “logical” next step in a career path.
Or work becomes selfish, all about becoming famous, wealthy, or powerful, rather than producing or generating a good for society. We can start to break rules, hide things, or violate some ethics because we are so driven.
We always need to come back to the question of why – why am I working? Why has God put me here? Given me these resources, these skills, this power, this place?
Question: Why do you work? Whatever effort you exert – why do you do it?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in a cemetery because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of death, and in fact, Jesus resets death itself.
In yesterday’s passage, a Christian leader named Paul calls dead Christians “those who are asleep”. The suggestion is that they will wake up in the kingdom of heaven, and be no different from those who might be alive when the kingdom of heaven arrives fully. How does Paul figure?
They will wake up because Jesus woke up. There is a direct connection.
Jesus Died – definitely. We have lots of great textual evidence that matches science to say that Jesus definitely died, it was no mistake. See Christianity 101 for more! He spent Saturday in the tomb, and rose on Sunday. In that time in the tomb, he destroyed death’s power. Usually death is final, but Jesus treated it like a 3 day nap.
Death is nothing to fear for one of Jesus’ followers. Paul asked elsewhere: death, where is your sting? He taunts it, knowing it has no power. Jesus’ victory is not just someone else’s victory to celebrate. He was the first, not the last, so we can follow him not just in life, but through death to new life.
He doesn’t promise that we’ll never die a physical death, like the Thessalonian Christians apprently thought. But if we do, he will raise us.
One pastor asked a child whose mother died: would you rather be run over by a truck, or its shadow. It’s shadow, because it wouldn’t hurt. Well, your mother has not been run over by death, but by the shadow of death.
Regardless of whether we are alive or dead when the kingdom comes, it comes. We arrive there not by our own power, religiosity, etc. but by Jesus’ pioneering work on the cross. He went through death, conquering it first, and invites you to follow.
But that’s just death, how does this impact life? You may know the song, “Live like you were dying”. The idea in that song, and else where, is that if you’re dying you waste everything you have, party it up, before it’s all gone and you’re over.
But if death is destroyed by Jesus, death is now a state we pass through, so living like you were dying means living like every day brings you closer to God’s kingdom. That means using our resources wisely, no wasting them. It means preparing for the kingdom of heaven, so often described as a party, not just partying it up for a moment.
For a Christian, living like you were dying means not taking the short view, but the long view of eternity.
Question: How does Jesus’ death impact your own view of life, and death?
