Eternity: What Is It Good For?

There are few song lyrics that bug me as much as the below:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

The issue begins with the idea that "the things of earth will grow strangely dim." If all it means is that we lose interest in "things of the flesh," to use Pauline language, then all is well. If, however, "things of earth" is understood to include things like, say the Russian invasion of Ukraine, systemic racism, or troubles in one's relationships, then we must object.

The glory of Jesus and his grace are revealed in history by his bearing our burdens and suffering with us. At the end of history, he returns to set all things--all of history--right. So if we see Jesus's glory and grace as they have been revealed, then in them we see revealed how far short of the eternal Sabbath rest we are. See Christ and what he died to gain us should cause us to see clearly the injustice and suffering of this world, and we should find in the promise of his return the hope to wait with eager longing--active, participatory longing--for his return to bring true, full, and eternal shalom.

Some Christians have used eternity as an anesthetic, to dull our senses to the urgency of justice and the pain of death. Christ himself, however, rejected that anesthetic, taking human flesh and giving impassioned expression to his feelings in the face of death and injustice. He wept at Lazarus's tomb even though he knew that he would soon raise his dear friend because death is worth being outraged over even when it is temporary. Christ proves our grief legitimate by raising the dead on the last day.

The fact that all will be made right does not give us license to sit around and wait for God to do all the work. It rather gives us hope that all our labor in pursuit of justice will be made efficacious at the last day if not before. This hope should motivate us to work and to mourn. The evils of this world should be mourned because they will be set right. Yet we need not be overwhelmed, for Christ bears us up in his grace with the certainty that all will be made right. We live in the in-between where the pain is real and legitimate, but the end is known and good.

So eternity cannot be placed before us to belittle the present injustices, for it is in light of eternity that we see that God cares even more deeply about these injustices. Yet we also see that he cares for the little injustices: we cannot avoid our local injustices by mourning the global ones, and we should not lose sight of those hurts we are in a position to minister to, even if merely by being present in the world of pain of another, as Christ is in our pain. In eternity we see, not that we care too much about global affairs, but that we care all too often too little and too faithlessly about both them and about the injustices before us in our homes and in our towns.

Mourn injustice, but be not overwhelmed, for Christ has conquered and will bring peace.