1509AFC022715 – Next Stop Paradise
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Luke 23:43 – He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
May blessings always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!
“Where is the world is Paradise?” Well Beloved, you know the answer. Paradise is not in this world, it is the Next World. It is The Next World.
“So, why is the Garden of Eden called Paradise?” Because Paradise means “garden.” Let’s take a closer look at that before going farther with our study of this, the Second Word of Christ. The Greek word for Paradise is παράδεισος (paradeisōs) {par-ad’-i-sos}. In turn, that Greek word comes from an ancient Persian word transliterated as pairi–daēza. That denoted a special place of leisure, pleasure, and calm such as a walled-in garden or park. It was planted with trees and flowers, and a place of peaceful bliss and harmony. It was a place specifically designed to make the best use of light, vegetation (trees, shrubs, and flowers), irrigation (as in flowing streams), and traditionally stresses artistic and sensorial features over functionality. It is a beautiful place to pass the time beautifully.
Eden was Paradise for Adam and Eve, and apparently a place of visitation for God who walked there with them (See Genesis 3:8). The link in the previous sentence identifies the location of the Garden God created “east of Eden.” (You should investigate information about John Steinbeck’s novel by that title as well as the movie directed by Ilia Kazan and starring James Dean, Julie Harrison and Raymond Massey). The word Paradise is not used per se in the Old Testament. In the Greek translation of the OT, it is used sparingly and generally used when referring to a resplendent garden or other magnificent views; however, by Jesus’ time it was a well-known and much-used connotative word for Heaven. Another tem was “The Garden of God.” It occurs only three times in the New Testament – in Luke 43:23 (above), 2 Corinthians 12:4 (Paul is describing “someone” caught up in spirit to Paradise), and Revelation 2:7.
Today we use the word Paradise to describe a place of exquisite beauty. Crucita and I have lived in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Alabama, and Diné Tah (Navajo Country), and we found all of those places to have the characteristics of Paradise. Now, of course, we live in Hawaiʽi which just about everyone calls paradise! Still, all these places (and all the places where you have found Paradise) are barely shadows or amorphic images of the True Paradise.
So we began with a Persian word which roughly translates as an incredibly beautiful enclosed garden like the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That morphs into the Greek word παράδεισος. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (The Septuagint), the Hebrew word for garden – גָּן (gan) {gahn} was translated as paradeisōs – paradise. The end-times theology (eschatology) of Jewish, and later, Christian messianic thinking was that heaven would be a splendiferous garden of eternal bliss, light, joy, and freedom from any form of misery. There are abundant non-canonical references to Paradise, its nature, and its location, but there is no such detail in the accepted canon of Jewish or Christian scripture. The New Testament occurrences of the word are written in the spirit of Jewish apocalyptic literature – a genre of literature in the Bible that focuses on the end time. In our opening scripture, Paradise is the place where Jesus and the repentant thief are going. Again, looking at the Greek for the last phrase in this verse (today you will be with me in Paradise.) – which says σήμερον μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ Παραδείσῳ – the word σήμερον semeron {say’-mer-on} means this very day. Another word of interest here is ἔσῃ comes from the Greek word εἰμί (eimi) {i-mee’} for to be or to exist. All of the words in the phrase are crystal clear about what they denote so that we could read it as “this very day exactly you will actually be with exactly me in exactly Paradise.” Pretty clear what he meant, yes? Considering the pain he and his two compatriots were in, it was not a time for dithering about word choices. So, is Paradise Heaven, then?
Yes; well, probably yes. So what is Paradise? Honestly, we don’t really know, but there are lots of good guesses out there based on similar concepts used in the Bible – like Sheol.
Sheol is Hebrew for hell, which is also translated as Hades in Greek. In scripture, this is the “abode of the dead” (see CCC §633). This is also translated in the Old Testament as death, the pit, or the grave. It is void of activity, and awaiting place for the resurrection. There is no pomp, no power, no privilege. Travelers, particularly sinners (like us) going to Sheol are like sheep shepherded by Death. In Psalm 49:14-15 we read
14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd;
straight to the grave they descend,
and their form shall waste away;
Sheol shall be their home.
15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. Selah
Sheol is not a physical place on Earth. It is a place which only God can see, and only he can deliver a soul from their abode there (I Samuel 2:6). It is from Sheol – Death – that God will call us. Christ was given the keys to Sheol and Hades (Revelation 1:17-18) when the time comes for the Final Judgment. In Revelation 2:7, Paradise is the ultimate location of the Tree of Life – Heaven.
None of can avoid death, of course. Whenever I think of that, I remember a lyric by Hank Williams:
“No matter how you struggle or strive,
You’ll never get out of this world alive.”
There are lots and lots of brilliant dissertations and theological loop-de-loops about all this. It’s not my place to take you there, though. I just want you to know that God always means what he says (even if we don’t fully understand it all yet), so when Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”, that is exactly what happened. “Why do I need to know that?” you might ask. You should know this Truth that God says what he means and means what he says because if you don’t know that truth you don’t know God. Even Jesus’ enemies acknowledged his truthfulness. Matthew 22:16 – 16 So they {the Pharisees} sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. The Apostle John tells us that Jesus is the essential element in knowing Truth in 1 John 5:20 – 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Jesus’ word to the repentant thief was a word of forgiveness, as was the First Word, “Father forgive them …” He first forgave his executioners. Next he forgave one who acknowledged the justice of his own punishment, repented of his sins, and asked to be remembered in Jesus’ Kingdom. Today we still read about this man who, at Death’s door, appealed to the Creator of Heaven and Earth for Mercy. Shall we not do likewise, and appeal The One who overcame Death?
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
