Time is a good creature fashioned by God and given the vocation of serving humanity (Gen 1:5, 14-19). Like the rest of creation, it has been subjected to the futility of the curse (Rom 8:20). Since the fall, our relationship to time has been complex. Time was never intended to control or create fear. It was never a commodity to be spent, used or saved. It was never infused with healing properties or the ability to determine value.
Time is a creature of this groaning world in need of redemption (Rom 8:19-20, Eph 5:16). The New Testament affirms the cosmic reach of the work of Christ that leaves nothing untouched by his death and resurrection (Col 1:20). His entrance into time redeemed time itself. What does it mean that Jesus redeemed time? Richard Lischer helps us out.
“As the hours ticked by when Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, time should have done its traditional job on him; it should have erased him the way the sea claims sandcastles, castles and civilizations. It should have worn him smooth. Because it did not ultimately defeat him, it does not ultimately defeat us. What does Paul say? ‘Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.’ And: ‘Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not sleep but we shall all be changed.’ History is going someplace. It is moving toward an outcome in which all our yesterdays and lost moments and missed opportunities may be reclaimed in the risen Christ. For he is not only subject to time as its fool, but he rules time as its Lord. Only in the power of resurrection can this wonderful message to the Ephesians also counsel us to do the impossible, to live the metaphor: redeem the time, Christians, because Christ already has.”[1]
Every second, minute, and hour—all redeemed by Christ; our yesterdays and tomorrows, all included in his saving scope. This is unspeakable good news. If you are like me, in one second you can drudge up countless shameful moments in your life. They flash through my mind like a short film, moments of forgetting Jesus, engaging with selfishness, self-pity and anger toward my family, times of being slothful and foolish, and seasons of hard-heartedness and lack of love toward others.
Without the gospel, time is no friend to me, it is my infallible judge. In Christ, time itself along with every inhabited second find redemption. There are no moments excluded from the “all things” that Jesus works for good, not a single one (Rom 8:28).
Lischer’s call to “live in the metaphor” invites us to rest in the finished work of the Son, to let the three days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday control our grasp of time. Here are three implications of holy week on a theology of time. First, we have freedom from time as taskmaster and judge because the risen Christ is the Lord of time. Past, present and future—our times are not in our hands, they are in his (Ps 31:15).
Second, we have forgiveness for every sinful moment because Jesus redeems time. Time is no longer the script of our condemnation, it’s the highlight reel of our redemption. Third, we have hope that our relationship to time will glorify God because Jesus realigns time and people with kingdom purposes. The resurrection assures the Christian that kingdom labor and kingdom time will never be in vain (1 Cor 15:50-58).
Nothing is the same after the empty tomb, including time. How we relate to this redeemed creature has significant impact on our lives. John Swinton suggests that friendship is the proper metaphor for this relationship. In his book Becoming Friends of Time, he makes this observation, “God’s time is slow, patient, and kind and welcomes friendship; it is a way of being in the fullness of time that is not determined by productivity, success, or linear movements toward personal goals. It is a way of love, a way of the heart.”[2]
On the other side of Easter, we are not controlled by time nor do we fear it. We are enabled to let go of the desire to use it and control it. We no longer place our hope in it or assign it power it does not have. We properly balance our thinking on speed, productivity, and goal setting. Aligning our internal clocks to gospel time is essential to living faithfully.
[1]Richard Lischer, “Redeem the Time,” The Christian Century, 98:43 (1981), 1375. Lischer is correct, the command to redeem the time is not about frantically trying to use our moments well, it’s about resting in the work of the cross. This is contrary to a call to “gospel busyness.” See Joel R. Beeke, “Busy but Fruitful: How to Manage Time,” Puritan Reformed Journal, 8:1 (2016), 238-254.
[2]John Swinton, Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefullness, and Gentle Discipleship (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 17.