Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Letztes, persönliches Gericht; Kain, Abel

Kurzinhalt: I would argue for an intrinsic connection between the final judgment and the end of human history. The end of human history could come about from a variety of reasons.

Textausschnitt: FINAL JUDGMENT

210a The New Testament refers frequently to a not-too-distant judgment, a judgment that will involve the return of the Son of Man, who will come in glory to "separate the sheep from the goats." As the Nicene Creed affirms: "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." Often this is viewed as initiating a general resurrection of the dead: "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

The problem that confronts us is what exactly the purpose of this general final judgment might be. If there is judgment at death for each individual, what purpose does such a final judgment hold? Does it simply duplicate each individual judgment or is there something else that is the object of judgment in this final setting?

210b The first thing that needs to be demythologized is the type of Hollywood apocalyptic scenario, where Jesus in his second coming appears in the clouds dispensing bolts of lightning on God's enemies. Much of this arises from an imagination that is almost premodern in nature. For example, where exactly will Jesus appear? Over Washington? Moscow? London? Jerusalem? Wherever he appears, half the world will be in daylight, the other half in nighttime.1 Most will certainly not be able to see him, if this is how we imagine his second coming. (Fs)

Moreover, we need to ask, as Rahner does in relation to the connection between death and personal judgment,2 Does the second coming of Jesus initiate final judgment and the "end of the world," or does the "end of the world," understood as the end of human history in its current form, initiate final judgment? Perhaps we are looking at some type of final assessment of human history as a whole coming at the end of human history, something that is not just the sum of its individual parts (personal judgments)? Just as sin has a transpersonal and historical element, so too final judgment may well embrace these transpersonal and historical elements as a final estimation of the human race as a whole. (Fs)

210c Just as Rahner argues for an intrinsic connection between death and personal judgment, I would argue for an intrinsic connection between the final judgment and the end of human history. The end of human history could come about from a variety of reasons. It is not unlikely that we will be the arbiters of our own fate, as the means of mass destruction become easier to create and the sources of conflict take on an increasingly global reach. Alternatively, our present inability to tackle our growing ecological problems could be the deciding issue.3 Such an end to human history would itself be a form of judgment, a judgment on the deep-seated nature of the problem of evil, both in the individual and in human history as a whole. It would also be a time of testing, of trial, with a corresponding temptation to despair and hopelessness. Indeed, we might well pray, "do not bring us to the time of trial" (Luke 11:4). (Fs)

211a Second, we must consider the divine response to such a human calamity. Would this apparent triumph of evil in human history be the last word, a final whimper with no one left to hear it? Or would it be the occasion for the coming of God's definitive Word to pronounce a judgment that redeems all that was good and true in our difficult, troublesome history, even while casting aside the destructive elements that brought human history to its end? If God is indeed the creator God and Lord of history, then it is fitting that the end of history be intrinsically linked to judgment and the second coming of Christ. (Fs)

211b Third, if all that is true and good in human history is to be redeemed at the end of history, can this mean anything less than the resurrection of the dead? The pattern of suffering, death, and final vindication through resurrection is, after all, the pattern of Jesus himself. Should we expect anything less for the totality of human history itself? None of this implies that the end of human history would be a good thing, or an end to be sought after. Indeed it would be nothing less than an appalling evil and an indictment on human history. The resurrection is not about justifying the evil but about redeeming and vindicating the good that evil seeks to destroy. It is the divine response of drawing good out of evil, a creatio ex nihilo. And it clearly indicates that the hope of human history does not lie in human hands, as in the liberal myth of progress or a communist dream of a workers' paradise or in Frank Tipler's notion of resurrection through cybernetic reconstruction.4 Our hope lies in God alone. (Fs)

211c While the precise content of this final judgment remains open, the criteria are clearly spelled out in Matthew's Gospel:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me." (Matt 25:34-36)

212a What this passage reveals is Jesus' complete sense of solidarity with the poor, the dispossessed, the weak, and the vulnerable in human history. Human history, from the perspective of the powerful, the rich, and the strong, will be turned on its head. They will no longer be able to "call the shots" or "take control of the situation." Rather, they will be brought low:

And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." (Luke 1:46-55)

212b How will human history be judged on such criteria? How does human history look to indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed of their land and their culture, through colonization and economic exploitation? How does it look to the millions of poor in Africa, stricken by AIDS, who do not have access to expensive drugs and other treatments? How does it look to slum dwellers in the sprawling cities of third world countries who must eke a living out of the garbage of the rich elites of those countries? Will they be as generous to us in their assessment of human history as we have been to them in the living of that history? The parable of Dives and Lazarus hangs over the whole of human history (Luke 16:19-31). (Fs)

212c In his perceptive work Raising Abel, James Alison tells a moving parable of the eschatological reconciliation of Abel with his brother Cain.5 Cain is drawing to the close of his life, after a lifetime of struggle with the violence his murder of Abel unleashed. He lives in fear and under a cloud of guilt for the primordial murder of his brother, a murder born not of hatred but of envy, a "devastating excess of love that grasps at being."6 As he struggles yet again to go to sleep, he notices an intruder entering into his bare hut. He fears that this intruder will unleash the final act of violence against him; the intruder is young and strong in comparison with his frailty and age. But the intruder reveals himself to be his brother Abel, returned from the dead. This encounter between Cain and Abel, between brother murderer and murdered brother, is not a pleasant one for Cain, as it revives all his memories of the distant event and the way in which it shaped the rest of his life's journey. (Fs)

Nevertheless, the young brother doesn't let him off this strange trial, for in this court, the younger brother is victim, attorney, and judge, and the trial is the process of unblaming the one who did not dare to hear an accusation that never comes. Strangely, as his memory takes body, the old man begins to feel less and less the weight of the threatened end, which he had almost heard roaring about his ears. And he is right to lose that feeling, for the end has already come, but not as threat: it has come as his brother who forgives . .. [I]n this ... does the Christian faith consist: in the return of Abel as forgiveness for Cain, and the return of Abel not only as a decree of forgiveness for Cain, but as an insistent presence which gives Cain time to recover his story.7

213a Indeed, we can witness this same drama unfolding in the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. We have become so familiar with the story of the resurrection of Jesus as "good news" that we forget the implications this resurrection might have held for his disciples. These are the ones who deserted Jesus at the time of his greatest need. Peter had denied him three times. All this occurred after their protestations that they would stick with him to the end (Matt 26:30-35). If you were one of his disciples, how would you react to suggestions that Jesus had risen from the dead? We are all familiar with the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, but we do not always attend to the fact that they have already heard news that Jesus is risen (Luke 24:22-24). They do not hang around to celebrate, but head off in the opposite direction, along the road to Emmaus. The risen Jesus may well provoke fear for the disciples. How will he react to their desertion and betrayal? Will be bring vengeance and punishment? Rather, what we hear is a constant refrain, "Do not be afraid; peace be with you" (Matt 28:10; Luke 24:37; John 20:20,21,26). Jesus brings not punishment but the offer of forgiveness. Thomas, the one who doubts the truth of the resurrection, must confront the reality of the suffering that Jesus endured-"place your hands in my wounds" (see John 20:27)-in order for this forgiveness to penetrate his heart. Like the parable of Cain and Abel above, he encounters that reality not as blame and guilt but as an outpouring of love and forgiveness through the "insistent presence" of the risen Lord. (Fs)

214a Can we find in this a model for the final judgment of human history, a judgment where the victims are judge? The complexity of the model is evident when we realize that we are all in our own way both victim and perpetrator, both sinner and sinned against. Only in Jesus do we find the pure and spotless victim (Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:18-19), the one who through a voluntary act of solidarity has identified himself with that which is victim in us all. Through this act of identification he becomes Abel to our Cain, not in accusation (the role of Satan) but in mediating forgiveness and reconciliation to the whole of human history. This is the final judgment of human history, where the voices of the victims are finally heard, where restorative justice is finally effected, and where a new and glorious human community can live to the glory of God, in the radiance of their risen Lord:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away."... I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day-and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. (Rev 21:1-4; 22-26)
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. (Rev 22:17)