Today we’re going to talk about Paradise. In your mind, what does Paradise look like? When I was 11 years old a movie came out that I became obsessed with. It was called “Footloose”. For Christmas that year I got the Footloose Soundtrack and it was, by far, my most favourite present that year.
The big love power ballad of the movie was “Almost Paradise.” Does anybody remember this song? It was sung by Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart. And it goes like this:
And in your arms salvation’s not so far away
It’s getting closer, closer every day
Almost Paradise
We’re knocking on Heaven’s door
Almost Paradise
How could we ask for more?
I swear that I can see forever in your eyes
Paradise
Paradise
Paradise
These are interesting lyrics because the movie Footloose is about a teenager stifled by Conservative church culture. And so this guy is saying that this girl is bringing him his salvation and that she is what’s getting him into heaven, and eternity can be found in her eyes. What is this song saying?… It’s love that takes you to Paradise. And for a young girl feeling all the feels, this was golden.
I bet you didn’t wake up this morning thinking we’d be talking about the theological points of the movie, Footloose, right?… and yet here we are!
The real question is…
What is Paradise?
To get there we need to look at the one, single, passage where Jesus talks about Paradise. He only mentions it once. He talks about it when He’s at His most painful moment, as He is mocked on the cross. Jesus was hung, between two criminals…
Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!”
But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
And he [turning to Jesus] said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And He [Jesus] said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Interesting. Now according to this story, what does it take to get to Paradise? It seems that you just believe. You don’t have to live your entire life proving that you deserve to get there. This repentant criminal believed, in this instant, that Jesus was the King and He was going to His Kingdom… and that was enough.
But notice, that the criminal didn’t expect to get to Paradise, all he asked for was to be remembered. And what’s Jesus’ response?
Today you will be with me in Paradise.
This criminal wouldn’t be just remembered, he’d be brought into the Kingdom, and that Kingdom was called, according to Jesus, Paradise.
So, again, what’s Paradise? Jesus didn’t use the word heaven in this stressful moment. He used the Greek word paradeiso.
Take a guess on how many times this word is used in the New Testament. About five times? Thirty times? One hundred times?
The answer is THREE; it’s only used three times in the New Testament…
- Here, on the cross, when Jesus speaks of it to the repentant criminal
- It gets used in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 12:2-4)
- And finally, we read about it in John’s Revelation (Rev 2:7)
So, let’s take a look at Paul’s example:
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.
What? What is Paul talking about? What’s the “third heaven”? And how is it connected to Paradise?
This is one of those weird Paul passages that makes you say, “what are you getting at, Paul?” What are you trying to say? Now, once upon a time I would have just thought, “you know what? I just don’t get it. I’m just going to skip ahead… and let that just sit there.” And if that’s you, I totally understand. But, I hope one of the reasons you come out on Sundays is to learn more about God’s word. It’s important to seek answers. If we don’t seek, we’ll never find. So we’re going to tackle this weird stuff!… and let’s admit it, the thing Paul is saying here, to our ears, sounds pretty bizarre!
Most scholars agree that Paul’s speaking about himself, here. And it’s very possible that he’s referring to his otherworldly experience on the Road to Damascus… although some scholars argue (due to the timeline of “fourteen years ago”) that he had another in-or-out of body experience elsewhere. Either way, Paul found himself in the Presence of God and he called it “the third heaven”.
What is that? The Bible, apart from this single passage, never mentions anything about a “third heaven” again.
This is where getting to know ancient Jewish belief systems in first century Israel, and their extra-Biblical literature, is helpful. They divided “the heavens” into 3 layers or categories.
- Earth- first layer, within the heavens. Earth is in heavenly space.
- The earth is part of the heavenly realm (we think of it as a planet in the universe). It’s part of “the heavens”
- Sky- second layer of the heavens
- Remember, at creation God created the heavens and the earth, what’s up there and what’s down here… earth and sky. At some point Jewish leaders started to associate “heavens” with God space… and so they imagined…
- The third heaven… which was God’s throne room and dwelling place
And so, Paul is writing to people in Corinth that have this 3 layered heaven in their minds… and he’s telling them that he was in, what they call, the third heaven… in the Throne Room of God, in the Presence of YHWH, in His dwelling place. But in the next line he gives it another name. He calls it Paradeiso. The place where God is, is Paradise.
Okay, the third NT reference to paradise comes in the final book of our Bibles:
Revelation 2:7
The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
This passage gives us the biggest hint to what the Greek word Paradise actually means… can you guess? Do you know?
What is Paradise? Paradeiso is the Greek word for… drumroll…
GARDEN.
And Paradeiso comes from the Hebrew word pardes (Strong’s 6508). And guess how many times pardes shows up in the OT?… THREE times! In three separate books: Nehemiah, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
In the OT pardes is another word for garden, but it seems to be particularly associated with trees and it is usually translated as either park/orchard/forest. Keep that in mind, because in Paradise trees are highlighted… the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil; the Tree of Life… Trees with leaves that heal the nations… This is Eden!
Pardes-Paradise… Hebrew has a bigger impact on English than you think!
So… Jesus, while he’s on the cross, literally says to the criminal, “Today you will be with me in the Garden”
We need to stop imagining heaven as fluffy clouds in the sky… it’s a garden with soil and plants, fruits and vegetables, flowers and trees. It’s Eden, where God resides, where God has always resided. The goal has always been to be reunited with God in the Garden… walking in the woods with God, like Eve and Adam once did. The whole Biblical story is how we left Eden and how we get to go back. We are, by nature, Paradise people.
Now, full disclosure, Paradise does mean Garden but there were other more common words for garden in the Bible… so, the three times pardes was used in the OT and the three times paradeiso was used in the NT is worth paying attention to! They could have used generic terms for garden, but they didn’t… paradise stands above the rest… It’s a garden above all gardens.
Paradise, (Paul’s third heaven) is a Garden… so it makes perfect sense that when Mary Magdalen goes to Jesus’ tomb she meets a man who she thinks is the Gardener…
John 20:10-18
Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” they asked.
“Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I do not know where they have put Him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not recognize that it was Jesus.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Jesus asked. “Whom are you seeking?”
Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him off, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Mary thought He was the Gardener… and in a way, she was absolutely right. He’s the king of the Garden. He is the Gardener! She just didn’t realize that Jesus and the Gardener were One and the same.
Jesus came along and lived His life so that we could be ensured of continual growth in the Garden… if that is what we seek. Jesus’ death opened the Garden Gates for us! So it’s not surprising that, while He was alive, He used garden imagery A LOT in His teachings. The Parable of the Sower is just one example:
Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23
And He [Jesus] told them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and they sprang up immediately, because they had no depth of soil. But after the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. But others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times as much. The one who has ears, let him hear.”
A little later on, Jesus explained the parable to His disciples:
…“Listen then to the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown with seed beside the road. The one sown with seed on the rocky places, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one sown with seed among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, and the anxiety of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the one sown with seed on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times as much.”
The message: plant yourself in God’s Word and actively seek understanding. That will strengthen your roots. Without strong roots, you will easily fall over. Don’t let the weeds of this world choke you out. Notice that Jesus points out two specific weeds: anxiety produced by this world and deceitfulness of wealth. They will stop you from bearing fruit. And they will muddle up your identity of being the Paradise People you were born to be.
Listen, if you have the gift of gardening… that’s a holy gift. And for some of you here, it’s your livelihood as farmers. You are cultivating God’s land, helping it grow and flourish! Making it a beautiful space for all God’s creatures to live together in harmony… humans, hawks and foxes, amphibians and dragonflies… and all the plants and trees that help sustain and nourish life. This is the image of Paradise. And it is here and it is now!
Farmers deserve a lot of our gratitude! Think about it… next time you eat a meal that didn’t come out of a box, acknowledge that you have a bit of paradise on your plate. What an artist our Creator is and what a gift we’ve been given in this Paradise on earth!.. And how grateful we should be to those who devote their lives to tending and cultivating this earth.
But here’s the thing: farming and gardening requires a great amount of trust. You can help things along, as best you can… you can attend to the soil, giving water and nutrients. You can pull all the weeds. But ultimately, you must be prepared for things out of your control: Windstorms, pests, drought, wild fires… these are things you can’t control. You must trust in God and His beautiful design of creation. Gardening is perhaps the best example of an activity that you can’t have complete control over. You plant a seed and you can do as much as you can to give it success, but ultimately you can only hope it will grow. There are no guarantees.
A careful read of the Creation account at the beginning of Genesis relays how God created things to self-generate. Seeds grow into trees and those trees drop their seeds to sprout again… so when the tree dies, a part of it can keep on going. We humans experience this in our children.
But Jesus came along and told us that it’s more than that. We’re not here just to procreate. Everyone (those who have children and those who don’t) will sprout again in the Garden called Paradise. Each and every soul is so loved by God that He has extended an invitation to live joyously in His Presence when our days, in this time and place, come to a close.
Everyone of you has been handed a Passport to Paradise where we can be reunited with our loved ones who have gone there before us. It is a beautiful promise that has given so many of us, who have lost loved ones, hope.
There was a poem, by John Milton, from the 17th century called “Paradise Lost”… the Garden of Eden was lost to humanity. He then wrote a follow-up poem called, “Paradise Regained”. We should be saying “Paradise Now”!
We are the Kingdom Gardeners. We’re meant to show people what God’s throne room looks like… here and now, because this world, in many ways, is Paradise. There is incredible beauty in this natural world!… sunsets and waterfalls, flowers and sea dragons. This earth is the forerunner of what’s to come. It’s “Almost Paradise”. And once YHWH renews the earth to be fully under His domain, it will be the Eden we’ve been waiting for!
Jesus, on the cross, said that when we take our last breath and close our eyes in this “Almost Paradise”, we will re-awaken in the renewed Paradise… the Garden of God’s throne room.
“Today you will be with me in the Garden”.
Jesus is the Head Gardiner and we will garden alongside Him in Paradise. But until that day comes, we have a responsibility (here and now) to this planet that is “Almost Paradise, knocking on heaven’s door”… The Creation account tells us (Genesis 1:28-30) that God commissioned humans to be the support of every living thing around us. We are to be the gardeners who nourish good soil and cultivate life in all its complexity and beauty.
Be it plants, animals, or people… our job is to find a way that encourages life to grow through love, and attention, and compassion, and encouragement, and communication. We need to cast our judgements aside and be Paradise People.
Be the light. Be the water. Be the good soil. Be the reflection of God’s image that you were made to be.
And all God’s people said… “Amen!”
Next week: Looking at Pardes
