You’re “clear”!
Cleared for entry!
Those are the words you hope to hear when passing through the security section of our airports today. Fly recently?
If you have flown recently, you went through a security check before being allowed to enter the secured part of the airport where the flight gates are located.
Depending upon your “clearance” level, you either waited in a very long line which sometimes can take a very, VERY long time.
Or if you didn’t want to stand in the long line, you could qualify to go through a preferred line called TSA Pre-Check. With TSA Pre-Check, you have swifter service, an easier time at the baggage belts --and you don’t need to take off your shoes! But you still have to wait, present your ticket, be checked by security, pass through several steps, and take off your belt, before you can be allowed through.
But now, there’s something even better!
It’s called “Clear”!
Anyone here use “Clear”?
When you sign up for “Clear,” you register and imprint either your eyes or your fingerprints with a digitized system. Each time you go through security, all you do is walk up to the “Clear” entryway, scan your eyes or finger, and voila! A “Clear” concierge comes immediately to escort you in and ushers you straight through, past the guards and on to the other side.
You’re “clear”! It’s that simple. It’s that fast. “Clear!” has never taken more than a minute.
“Clear” is the super-duper version of a “secret password.” The closest thing that exists in the airline industry to an “open sesame.”
We have a lot of secret passwords in our society. In fact, we have loads of them! If you live in a secured apartment building, you might have a secret numbered code that you punch into a keyboard in order to open the door. If you own a safe, you probably have a secret code to unlock it. Or if you belong to an exclusive (or rather inclusive) club, you might have a secret sign, a special key, a code word, or a secret handshake ready in order to be let in.
Likewise, we use secret passwords all the time when we use our computers and phone apps. Use email? You have a password. Use online banking? You have a password. Use facebook? Password. Twitter? Password. Online school account? Password. Cable or online billing? Password. In fact, today, any one person may have to remember at least 15 different passwords (or maybe more) just in order to navigate daily life!
Secret handshake, secret code, secret knock, secret password. If you are looking to enter into a protected place, a place where only certain people are cleared for entry, you need to remember your password.
But here’s the real beauty –if you are on your own computer, you can just push “remember my password,” and then next time you try to log in, you’re put right through! The system remembers you!
It’s your own little version of “Clear!”
Because really, the ultimate in being “Clear!” is to be remembered.
No hoops, no hoopla! Once you are remembered, you’re in. And to be remembered, all you need is to set up a secret “relationship” between you and your device –a secret relationship that is unique between your computer and you, a way for the device to recognize you and remember you.
And then next time you want to log in –BOOM. Clear!
So, what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
It means, you’re “clear”!
You’ve already been signed up! You already have an intimate and special relationship with Jesus, the Big Guy upstairs! And you’ve been given the super-duper resurrection guarantee. A lifetime-guarantee you could say! It means that your eyes and ears have recognized the Truth of Jesus, and God has etched God’s secret sign straight onto your heart. You’ve been imprinted with the Sign of the Savior. Your identity as a follower of Jesus is recorded in the “palm of God’s hand.” You have established a unique and special relationship, in which Jesus recognizes God’s image engraved upon your heart! And so, when Jesus looks at you, He remembers you. He recognizes you. He knows your name. He knows your face. When He looks into your eyes, He sees you are one of His own.
And guess what? You are clear! Jesus meets you at the Gate. And He escorts you right in!
No fancy footwork, no hesitation, no tests to prove anything, no set of rules. All God needs to do is recognize your heart. A heart in love with God. A heart devoted to Jesus. You present yourself at that heavenly gate. And you are cleared for entry!
Jesus remembers you.
You see, when you give your heart to Jesus, you are automatically registered in God’s Big Book of Eternal Saints. God has your number (in more ways than one!) Your soul has been recorded. Your slate is clean, the way is opened. You have been “cleared” for entry into the Kingdom! You’ve got a seat at the heavenly banquet. You’ve got a room prepared especially for you. You’ve got global entry into the grand ole City of God.
When you get to those gates of heaven –you won’t have to look around for the code or the key. The pathway will be revealed, the boulder rolled away, the way to the garden will be cleared….for you to enter.
The secret garden is waiting. Because the way/the key/the gate/the entryway –they are visible to those who trust in Jesus. The entrance may appear hidden to anyone else. But to you, that door will be revealed.
Not only that….in the process, your soul has been “cleared” of your sins and faults. Your heart has been “cleared” of impediments. Your way has been “cleared” to the throne of heaven and to the right hand of God.
All because when you stand at that gate and Jesus looks into your eyes, Jesus sees you as no one has before. As one of His own disciples. I’m telling you now, if you give your heart to Jesus, Jesus will remember you! Cause Jesus never forgets anyone.
This is the beauty of the resurrection. This is what it means to live a resurrection life. It means, you are “clear” –of anything that could inhibit you from living the life that God intended for you and for all of us.
And guess what? Anyone can sign up!
Even the thief next to Jesus on the cross, nearing the time of his death, looked at Jesus, understood who He was, and pleaded, “Master, please, remember me when you get to Paradise.”
And Jesus replied, “Well, now let me see. Tell me a bit about yourself. What is it you did a few weeks ago? What were those faults again? How many sins did you commit?”
NO!
Jesus says only one thing in reply to that man: “Today, you will be with me in paradise (which means in the Garden). With ME, he says, which is kind of like saying….
“Man, you’re clear! Allow me to escort you in!”
J.R.R. Tolkien, in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, wrote about the Doors of Durin, the secret doors that led into the Mines of Moria in the realm of the elves. The doors were hidden, sealed shut, and would only open to those who spoke the password! Inscribed upon the doors were the words, “Speak, friend, and enter!”
After a long while, one of them understood. The inscription WAS the password. “Friend” was the password. It wasn’t “Speak, friend, and enter!” It was “Speak ‘friend,’ and enter!”
They said the word, and entered in.
Do you want to know a secret?
Jesus is waiting for you to speak His name. Today, He’s waiting for YOU. He’s standing at the door, waiting for each and every one of us to call out His name, so that He can bring us into relationship with Him.
Once in relationship with Jesus, He will always remember you. He will never forget you. Because the moment you enter in, the moment you invite Him to enter into your heart and reside with you, He inscribes His image there upon your heart.
And you will be marked with the Sign of Heaven.
Just speak His name. Jesus!
And you too can be “cleared” to enter into the Gates of Heaven.
You already know the secret. He is resurrected. And so are you!
And you already know the secret Word. The Word is Jesus!
Today, as you come into communion with the Lord of all Life, say a special prayer.
“Jesus remember me….when you come into your Kingdom.”
I guarantee you. When you come up to that gate…when it’s your time and your place….no matter who you are or where you end up… if your heart belongs to Jesus, He WILL remember you. You are His. And He is yours.
Let’s sing together now …..as we come forward and commit our hearts to Him: “Jesus remember me….when you come into your Kingdom…. .”
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Jesus’ Resurrection, the Angels at Head and Foot, and Jesus as Gardener (John 20)
The Stone Rolled Away and Jesus’ Resurrection (Matthew 28; Luke 24:1-8)
The Opening of the Way to the Light Through Christ Risen (Hebrews 10)
The Mercy Seat / The Closing of Eden and Guarding of the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24)
Minor Text
The Angel with Sword and the Story of Balak and Balaam the Donkey (Numbers 22)
Psalm 99: The Lord Sits Enthroned Between the Cherubim
Psalm 104: The Lord Wrapped in Light
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Lord’s Throne Above the Cherubim (1 and 10)
Joshua Encounters an Angel of the Lord with Sword (5)
David’s Encounter with an Angel with Sword of Judgment (1 Chronicles 21)
Image Exegesis: The Gateway and The Secret Garden
“After this I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven.” Revelation 4:1
“The Way, the Tree, and the Sword” might be one way to characterize this exegesis, as there are so many metaphors in the Resurrection story! Jesus is the “way,” the “tree of life,” and the “sword of judgment and mercy” that we see throughout scripture. Jesus IS the fulfillment of the scriptures, and He incorporates all of the divine metaphors from Genesis to Revelation! And in the resurrection story, we see them come together in such a unique way!
When I read the story, “The Secret Garden,” which was also made into a movie, I loved the similar metaphors. In the classic English story by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the popular metaphor of the garden is hidden away. When the “key” to the gate is located, and a child and injured cousin enter in, the garden becomes a place of healing, and it ends up healing other relationships as well. The garden is a metaphor for relationships, for the workings of the heart. When we cultivate and care for our relationships, for our relationship with Jesus, and our relationships with the people in our lives, our garden blooms and grows, just as love blooms and grows. The impairments that plague us, the brokenness, the despair becomes healed.
But first, one must want to enter in. Just as “Jacob’s ladder” appeared before Jacob, signaling the presence of God, who he had not realized was right there, Jesus appears before us inviting us to commune with Him. For He has come among us. When God sent His Son into the world, God in human form, God tabernacling with us, a “secret door” was opened, and we could see the hope of the Garden before us! We were permitted a glimpse to a world beyond so fantastic and wonderful, that it could barely be believed.
Jesus invites us in with His resurrection promise! When we commune with Him in this world, He promises us entry to God’s original Garden free of charge in the next!
Once the veil is torn, once the rock is rolled away, the “door” is opened from this world to the next, from our humanness to God’s divine Kingdom. Jacob’s Ladder is revealed for all to see.
And the most wonderful thing….is that Jesus IS the door. Jesus IS the gate. Jesus IS the ladder. Jesus IS the way. Jesus IS the Tree of Life.
John Wesley spoke of something he called “means of grace.” What he really meant was that during communion, during our reading of the scriptures, during our prayer time with God, the door between Jesus and us is opened for a while, and we can experience for that time, that beautiful relationship with God, in which we commune with Him fully, though imperfectly. It is our glimpse of a little bit of heaven. As our communion liturgy confirms….it is our “foretaste” of the world to come. A little lovin’ spoonful of the Feast of God’s heavenly table, where the feast is laid out, and we all have a place saved by Jesus just for us.
When we commune with Jesus, we are healed of all of our faults, our pains, our sins. We are fully restored by the loving grace of Jesus, who promises us that we will be with Him in that beautiful garden place, where love grows and mercy reigns.
Every one of your hearts is a garden relationship with God. How you cultivate that relationship, the attention you pay to it, the time you give to it will be reflected in the way your heart is revealed when the gate is opened.
Jesus has come to heal your parched roots, to water your shriveling spirit, to prune back your cravings, to nourish your soul. Let Him in. He is the Gate. He is the Way. He is the Key to eternal life.
The stone is rolled away. The Gate has been opened. You are invited. Come, and enter in.