Early Bird

Seeing how humanity passes through law, grace and glory

12/13/2018

Matthew 11:11-15 Jesus said to the crowds: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear."

Recently I was giving a talk in RCIA class on church history, and I offered the class two views our history. The first view was the 30,000 foot view so you could see the whole history from a panoramic perspective, everything at once. The second view was back down on earth with all the dates and details. Scott Hahn once described these two perspectives as “the bird’s eye view and the worm’s eye view.” I always prefer the bird’s eye perspective.

Today, I would like to take you up to 30,000 feet and catch the bird’s eye view of the whole history of humanity. What we see from that altitude is there are basically three stages of human history taken as a whole. The first stage is that of the law, which was embodied in the Old Testament and enjoyed by the Jews. The second stage is that of grace, which is embodied in the New Testament and alive and well in the Church. But the third stage is that of glory, which will be manifested in heaven, in the saints in glory. The whole of human history passes through these three stages of law, grace, and glory.

It might be helpful to compare these stages to the development of a flowering plant. A friend recently gave me an amaryllis plant for Christmas. The first stage is the bulb or seed which lies dormant, the second stage is the growth and maturation of the stem and leaves, and the third and final stage is the glorious bloom, which often occurs conveniently around Christmas. The life cycle of human history is a lot like the life cycle of an amaryllis flower. The age of law corresponds to the period of the seed, the age of grace is like the period of growth of the stem and leaves, and the age of glory is like the full bursting bloom of the flower. That’s the bird’s eye view of human history and all bird’s love to look at pretty flowers.

If we keep these three stages of history in mind, we can make more sense of what Jesus says somewhat cryptically in the gospel today. Our Lord asserts: “Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets, the age of the law, and he was the first to announce the Messiah and introduce the New Testament or the age of grace. But just like the stem and leaves of the amaryllis plant are greater than the bulb-seed, so those who belong to the Kingdom of heaven by the grace of baptism are greater than John the Baptist. John was born of a woman and experienced a natural birth, but those born by water and the Holy Spirit experience a supernatural birth and have the hope of eternal life. In the person of John the Baptist, therefore, we can catch both the bird’s eye view of the transition from one age to another of all humanity, as well as the worm’s eye view of the details of one human life.

But these three stages of human history have a very personal and practical application as well for us, as we swoop down from the bird’s eye view and see the worm’s eye view of each of our individual lives. That is, there is a temptation to get stuck in one stage and not move on to the next. I say this was all due respect but I might suggest that our Jewish brothers and sisters are stuck in the stage of the law of the Old Testament. And no doubt the law is good and holy, but it would be tragic to get stuck there and not move on, just like it would be a shame for the amaryllis never to be better than a bulb-seed. But sometimes we can get stuck in the second stage of grace, the age of the church on earth, and feel like “this is good enough.” Sometimes we try to create a heaven on earth and forget about the heaven of eternity. It seems that death can be so overwhelming for some people that they recoil from it and refuse to see the glory on the other side, and they do not let their loved ones go. They hang on too tightly to the stage of grace. That would be like settling for the amaryllis stem and leaves and never enjoying the full and glorious bloom of the fabulous flower itself. And a third difficulty is getting stuck in the age of glory in heaven, or put differently, skipping the age of grace on earth. I once heard it said: “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” In other words, just like we should not get stuck in one stage but move along, so we should not skip a stage either, and somehow think we can get to the splendor of glory without the struggles of grace.

We must move, both individually as persons, and corporately as all humanity, from law, to grace, to glory. Keep both perspectives in mind. And by the way, now you know why the early bird always gets the worm.

Praised be Jesus Christ!