Snow Day

Snow Day.  One person’s grand adventure is another person’s mega clean-up operation. I mean, who sews all those buttons back on Clark Kent’s shirts? Who washes all those dishes after each round of The Great British Bake Off? Every teacher must still accomplish the same amount of work regardless of the number of snow days. Truck drivers, switchboard operators, traffic incident police officers, electric company linemen, doctors, nurses, postal workers, etc., have arguably more work to do when the snowy adventures begin for others. But who among us doesn’t enjoy a grand adventure, especially when someone else cleans up afterward?

In the theological sphere of the gospel of God’s grace the distinction between general work and the redemptive work of Christ comes into greater focus. Someone must do the necessary work eventually. That “someone” ultimately is Christ. He doesn’t sew buttons or deliver the mail on snow days, per se, but he does the necessary work of redemption that not only saves humanity from sin and death but also restores humanity to harmony with God and unity with one another. Before accomplishing ten thousand other benefits to us such as bestowing forgiveness and imparting eternal life, Christ’s redemptive work pleased God.

General work, because it preceded the Fall of humankind, is a blessing from God. Clearly, work was not a result of sin, though it was complicated and frustrated by sin. Adam and Eve were given a two-fold responsibility in their idyllic setting: “to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15)—a job description that interestingly applies directly to shepherds, kings, and pastors. Truly, all people have the privilege and responsibility to cultivate and care (i.e., work) for their entrusted section of God’s creation as his representatives. Every vocation is a sacred duty since the basis of all work is to please God who made us and gave us work. However, sin renders us incapable of pleasing God although we remain accountable to please God. 

Thus, original sin was our rebellion against God’s created order, which incurred guilt and resulted in death. But original sin also forfeited our countless joys of fellowship with God and others. When Christ accomplished the work that the Father had given him to do, which was to please God (i.e., “the Son of Man must suffer many things” [Mark 8:31]), he obeyed completely where we disobeyed entirely. His work of pleasing God was accomplished so perfectly that he effectively shares it with those of us who believe in him as our substitute.