INNER CIRCLE: The Beginning and The End

The reality is this: Eternity is happening right now. The past is gone. The future is unwritten. The only moment any of us will experience is this moment. Everything is now.

So, when his disciples ask about “the end” Jesus responds by asking them if they have even begun to comprehend “the beginning” where all things find their origin.

In Genesis we read that “In the beginning….there was light,” and it is this light that the disciples still have yet to see or understand with their own spiritual eyes. They are still looking for light with their physical eyes. They want to know the end of their story before they have even begun to open the book and read the first page.

When Jesus says, “For where the beginning is, there the end will be,” he’s trying to help them see with new eyes; with spiritual eyes rather than physical eyes.

John’s Gospel reframes that Genesis story by declaring that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

If you know what was in the beginning, this is all you need to know about the ending.

To understand the beginning is to understand the end. All is here. All is now. All is in Christ, and Christ is all, and is in all.

So, when Jesus ends with the blessing of those “…who will take their place in the beginning,” and declares that these are those who “…will know the end and will not taste death,” this is consistent with everything he has told them before. In this way, our realization of our Oneness with Christ is what allows us to “take our place” with Christ “in the beginning,” because Christ – the Word of God – was with God in the beginning, and was God in the beginning, and we are inseparable from Christ.

Of course, the reality of our Oneness with Christ is still true whether we realize it in this life or not. But, until we realize it, it is not something we can fully comprehend or accept.

The Light of Christ shines, whether the darkness comprehends it or not. [See John 1:5]

Until our eyes are opened, we remain in the darkness and our eyes are blind to that Light.

Simply put, our attention is often distracted by our linear, cause-and-effect, dualistic ways of thinking. Jesus wants us to stop and reconsider the faulty assumptions that inform so many of our questions. He wants us to meditate on our inseparable identity with Christ who fills everything – and everyone – in every conceivable way.

Even if we never fully come to grasp the perplexing nature of our Oneness with Christ, the very act of concentrating on this conundrum can help us to block out those foolish notions that prevent us from pursuing this beautiful mystery that is Christ in us; the hope of Glory.

What we need, as Jesus says over and over in the New Testament Gospels, is a radical change of thinking – a Metanonia – that rewires our brains and transforms our minds to receive the simple truth of his message to us all.

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” [John 14:11]

“On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.” [John 14:20]

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MEET ME IN TEXAS? 

I’ll be speaking at First Christian Church, Tyler, Texas on October 8th, 2022 about “How to Approach the Bible”, “Embracing Mystery” and “Deconstruction 101” at RE-IMAGINING FAITH, sponsored by Open Table Faith. Tickets are only $15 HERE> 

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Keith Giles is the author of the hot new bestseller, SOLA MYSTERIUM: Celebrating the Beautiful Uncertainty of Everything, available now on Amazon. Keith is also the host of Second Cup with Keith [a new solo podcast available now on the Ethos Radio App, for Apple and Android and on Spotify.