The Hour Has Come

This coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson begins with Jesus looking up to heaven while saying, “Father, the hour has come.” The rest of the passage contains so much theological meat worth chewing on the rest of the week, but the opening bit has arrested me this Monday. As Jesus brings to culmination his “Farewell Discourse” in which he urges his disciples to continue in his mission, he looks up to heaven and speaks so personally to the Father that this speech gives us a glimpse into the Divine Life of the Trinity.

Getting our timing correct stands out as a monumentally difficult task for human beings. A moment earlier or later could change the course of history or at least one’s life. The movie Sliding Doors depicts this perfectly. I do not want to spoil the plot, but suffice it to say that the lead character played by Gwyneth Paltrow portrays two different story lines that diverge from either making or missing a train home. By making it through the sliding doors or being stopped by them her life changes. This could easily happen to any one of us too. What about the life of the Trinity though? Is God confined by this sense of timing?

Often religious leaders like myself will unleash a theological statement along these lines: “God exists outside of time.” When we sit still long enough to contemplate what this means we may need some Advil, especially when we consider how this thought pertains to the Son. As the person of Jesus entered into a particular time and place in the course of time and space and history, we may then wonder how one can say, “God exists outside of time”? The divinity and humanity of Christ Jesus exist inseparably, which complicates the matter all the more. How can a human being exist outside of time? God muddles this even more as we arrive at the Ascension (only in Luke's telling of the Gospel) when Jesus ascended to reign at the right hand of the Father, which we celebrate this Thursday. How could Jesus’ physically ascend into heaven?

Wondering about these particulars and how they happened can trip up even the most ardent follower. So what do we do? Do we stop with the intense questions? Do we just believe without reconciling our Holy Scripture with what science says? Scrutinizing the details, as we pursue the Truth by all means necessary certainly makes the curious learner within me happy; however, in this intimate moment that Jesus shared with the Father it may be too much to try to construct an entire theology of the Trinity based on one sentence within one account of the Good News of Christ Jesus. Said alternatively, we would do well to survey the entirety of Holy Scripture, the writings of Church Mothers and Fathers, contemporary theologians, our own experience, and reason before we haphazardly throw out bathwater or babies as they pertain to the life of the Trinity.

At the same time we must be willing to lean into the hard conversations, namely that there are contradictions within our Faith. If we can make sense of these inconsistencies by looking at the overarching scope and trajectory of the Good News, then our Faith will be made stronger; however, as Jesus looked up into heaven acknowledging the closeness of his relationship with the Father, we must also recognize that inside of that intimate relationship exists a type of logic that may not make much sense outside of it. The Father, Son, and Spirit have known each other forever—and I am not writing this in a hyperbolic sense, as they have been eternally in relationship with one another. The timing of God’s ways are perfect beyond our knowing. The actions of God’s works of salvation do not compute within our feeble understanding. The meaning of the life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ Jesus cannot be explained in a way that makes sense to all. While we must struggle to get our theology tight and precise, what matters eternally is knowing God.

While I may be stuck on its first words, the crux of this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson does not rest in Jesus looking up to heaven and speaking of the hour coming, but rather in the profound and perplexing prayer that was overheard by the disciples. To God the Father Jesus uttered, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” We will not fully understand God on this side of the grave. And, as frustrating as that is, it is okay. For our lifelong pursuit of knowledge truly only requires us to know one thing. We must spend our lives knowing the only true God who was fully expressed in Jesus Christ whom God sent, only then can we know anything about this God that is worth sharing with others.