When you’re writing a story, it’s the bad guy who has the plan. S/he’s the one driving the plot forward. The good guy is just responding to the plan of the bad guy and always ends up thwarting the bad guy’s plan at the last minute. Think of any movie you’ve ever seen. Who was the one with the plan, driving the plot forward?
Is this true of the Bible too? Satan had a plan to pull us all to hell, but Jesus managed to outwit him at the last second with the cross and salvation, thank goodness? Who is really driving the plot of the universe forward?
Maybe we should take a larger look at life, at creation, at the universe, and see that the Good News of God is actually that God is the One who had a plan from beginning to end and it is a good plan. He wants us to thrive and enjoy life and live well and not go down paths that are bad for us or for others. He doesn’t want us to destroy ourselves or those around us.
Jesus says that His way of life (His yoke) is light and easy and leads to rest for our souls (Matthew 11).
This doesn’t sound at all like the street preachers downtown telling pedestrians that they’re on the road to hell.
This doesn’t sound like an invitation to fear and worry and fretting about whether we are in or out.
This sounds like wholeness and shalom.
It sounds like freedom to love our neighbor and the outsider and the stranger; to love our work and enjoy creation and add to it by becoming little creators ourselves. Paint, make pottery, do yoga, lift weights, start a business, tend your garden, dress in funky thrift store finds, look at nebulas through a telescope, write a poem, have coffee with your annoying neighbor, and all the rest of the elements of the good life.
It’s all part of the Good News.
The Bible is far less myopic than we often make it.
Let us never come to it again out of fear of hell.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
