[Scripture: Matthew 21:1-22]
“God said it, and ‘bang.’ It happened.”
I want to tell you about an interesting bumper sticker that said, “I believe in the Big Bang Theory – God said it, and ‘bang!’ It happened.” If your sons, daughters, and grandchildren ask you about how God created the universe, you can say, “God said it, and ‘bang!’ It happened.”
However, I am not a scientist. I’m a pastor. So, I will try not to explain the Big Bang Theory scientifically but rather with a pastor’s understanding according to the Bible in Genesis 1:1-3.
The Bible is not a scientific document that explains God’s mighty work through scientific evidence. It is a book of prophecy. Peter said that the prophecies of the Bible never came from the will of man. Therefore, when we interpret the Word of God, we must be illuminated by the Spirit of God and use the wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives us (2 Peter 1:20-20).
God Has Two Different Times and Spaces
Genesis 1:1 begins with the words, “God created the heavens and the earth.” This was a fundamentally different and brand-new time and space.
As you know, God existed in His Kingdom before His creation. God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. That means that God made a completely different time and space with a new ruling system from where He is.
In other words, God is in the Kingdom of God, and He made the Kingdom of Earth where we are staying now.
God’s Time and Our Time.
The Ancient Greeks had two kinds of times. The first one was called chronos time. That was calendar time that had to do with the sun. We have 365 days. We are all familiar with that time frame. The other was kairos time. That was a moment of time. Kairos time deals with the invisible and visible world beyond the solar system.
Chronos time is the literal time that is measured using the relationship between the earth and the sun, but kairos time is God’s time, beyond the solar system.
Chronos time is quantitative. It is measured with clocks in minutes, hours, days, months, and years. Kairos time is qualitative and beyond numbers. It has different time measurements where a year is like a thousand years and thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8).
Chronos is sequential, which means if you want to go from point A to C, you must pass point B. If you want to have a Christmas party with your children, you must wait for more than a month and a half. There is no way to skip chronological order.
However, in kairos time, there is no sequential timeline or classification of past, present, and future. This time frame is undivided but existed as a moment.
In Hebrews 7:3, when Abraham was returning after winning the war, he met Melchizedek who was “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.”
Why didn’t he have sequential genealogy and the beginning and end of life? Because he was living in kairos.
God’s Space and Our Space
The second difference is space. The kingdom of God is invisible, but our world is visible. And these two spaces have different lighting systems. Our world needs the sun to give light, but, in the city of God, it does not require the sun or the moon because the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Revelation 21:23).
There is an insurmountable dimensional wall between the sky and the world. No one can go from this world to another world beyond. But only one can open the door. That is Jesus. God did that through Jesus Christ.
In theological language, God is an incarnational being in Jesus Christ, and God also is transcendent. God can live in the world that we live in, and at the same time, He can live beyond our time and space. When the Kingdom of God comes, the rules and order of the world will fade away, and the order of the Kingdom of Heaven will be established.
When Jesus Christ began his kingdom work, the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God ascended and descended. At that moment, the first words were, “The Kingdom of God is in my hands.” When Jesus Christ comes into our lives, he opens the gate between these two worlds, and Jesus brings heavenly reality into our lives.
Two Miracles
In today’s passages, Jesus tells us of two kinds of miracles.
- The first is throwing a mountain and
- The other is changing water to wine.
How could these two miracles happen? The answer is closely related to the time and space of God.
In Matthew 21:21, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, you can say to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done.” Could you throw a mountain into the sea? Why does it seem impossible to lift a mountain and throw it into the Sea? Because the mountain is too heavy. Why is the mountain so heavy? Because of the gravity of the earth.
I have another question. Could you throw a goose feather into the sea? Think about what would happen if you dropped a goose feather and a hammer on the moon. When you dropped them both from the same height at the same time, they would hit the ground simultaneously.
In an area with no gravity, the weight of a goose feather and a large object such as a mountain does not look much different. Think about that. There is no gravitational pull outside the Earth. In that condition, if you have the ability to throw a feather, you can throw a mountain.
How could it happen?
I have an example. On April 11 in 1984, Astronaut James Van Hoften was the first human to launch a 24,000 pounds satellite into space by hand (www.quora.com).
How does the vine produce grapes? The vine absorbs water and nutrients little by little throughout the year and finally bears fruit. The juice of the grapefruit is the result of the vine’s year-long efforts.
No one doubts that grape juice is produced by the process of sucking up water through the vine’s roots and turning it into grape juice all year round, but people are reluctant to believe that Jesus turned water into wine.
However, who is more powerful: the God who created the vine or the vine? If the vine produces grape juice through water, the Son of God could do it.
How did Jesus change water to wine? The secret is in the time. For the vine, the process of changing water into the main ingredient for wine took a year in chronos time.
In Kairos, a year is like just a second. Jesus collected all kinds of ingredients or elements of grape juice and did its fermenting process in a moment within Kairos time because Jesus can be in two different time frames simultaneously.
Conclusion
In today’s passages, Jesus tells us of two kinds of miracles. The first one is throwing mountains, and the other is turning water into wine. If someone asked me how these two miracles could happen, I would answer that when Jesus comes to us, he brings the time and space of the Kingdom of God.
Our church is the place of the Kingdom of God, and God’s time and space are present in our Church because we call God’s Name when we worship God.
2021.10.31. Pastor Cloud Poy
@ Photo on Unsplash
