The Mutable Past

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making all things new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5

We think of the past as fixed and unchanging, and certainly it is in terms of what transpired. We are not able to alter the events by somehow going back and redoing them. What we did, we did. What was done to us, was done. What happened, happened.

But if the promise of the triumphant Jesus, who sits on his glorious throne, is more than mere hyperbole and to be trusted as actually true, as he distinctly says, then what does his claim suggest about the past? How can Jesus be making all things new?

Too often, our imagination is impoverished and so our story of God is that he does not make all things new, but will ultimately discard what can not be redeemed. For some who have the least hopeful imagination, that means that the vast majority of what God has created will not be renewed, but rather obliterated, the earth and most everything in it.

And yet, here at the very end of our Christian writings, is a declaration of the unimaginable: all things new. Dare we trust this?

For starters, when is comes to the past we need to realize that in certain ways it is constantly changing. This is not in what occurred but instead in how we understand, interpret, find meaning, or fail to find meaning, in those events. In this regard, the supposedly “set” past is never “set”, but ever has the potential to be changed, at least in how we think of it.

Think about how the prodigal son, as he considered returning home, viewed his past actions. He believed that what he had done had precluded him from sonship. The most he might hope for is servitude.

But when his father embraces him and restores him as a son, the events of the past do not change but their meaning does. His poor choices no longer necessitate that he has forfeited his sonship, though they were his foolish journey through unnecessary suffering.

Forgiveness is one way in which the past can change, not because the actions cease to be, but because their significance is altered. Jesus is making all things new!

God’s true judgment will change the past as we have thought of it. Some which we considered good will be declared evil, and vice versa. In Jesus’ enigmatic “the first will be last, and last will be first” sayings he is implying that the way we think about what is, and has been, will be turned upside down.

We assume the past is unalterable, but the past actually is not just the events themselves but includes how we interpret them and attribute meaning to them in our minds. We will find in God’s light and truth that the past will change, and that is a reason to be ever hopeful and never to despair.