By Doug Redford
On Tuesday morning, July 20, 2021, newspapers across the country carried the news that Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, had launched into space. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, took a brief, 11-minute rocket flight into space, along with three other passengers, on a rocket built by a company he started. Bezos’s flight occurred a few days after another notably rich person, billionaire Richard Branson, made his own brief launch into space. “Best day ever!” exclaimed Bezos when he and his crew landed. “My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded.” Bezos chose the date of July 20 intentionally; it came 52 years after American astronauts set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.
The most important and newsworthy journey ever made, however, was not from earth into the heavens but from heaven to the earth, when the Word who was God (Jesus) “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14, New International Version). The Creator of heaven and earth, possessor of wealth greater than Bezos and Branson combined (along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, the Rockefellers, and any others we could add) “launched” from heaven to earth, an immeasurable distance, to save lost humanity.
Jesus’ journey was not heralded with any grand demonstration of his wealth; in fact, he arrived through the womb of a virgin girl named Mary from an obscure village in Galilee. Paul describes so well what was happening and why it happened: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). God had certain “expectations” for his Son that were “high,” but they involved something very low and despised in the eyes of the world: death by crucifixion, the climax of Jesus’ shameful treatment by his enemies. But that death also involved God’s very high expectations for humanity: that our sin debt would be paid in full and our relationship with our Creator, shattered by sin, would be restored.
At Communion, we remember the journey that Jesus traveled on our behalf and the mission he successfully completed. We anticipate our own “launch” into heaven when he returns: a flight that will last, not for a mere 11 minutes, for it will transport us to our eternal home. That will indeed be the “best day ever!” for followers of Jesus—and it will no doubt dramatically exceed our expectations.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
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