by Larry Lucas (continued from 9/2)
When you begin to look for the truth about Jesus, there’s an unsettling sound that starts to develop in the background. It’s as though we have spent our lives walking along a railroad track, day after day, mile after mile; it’s all we’ve ever known. And now the track has led us beyond the noise of the city. Our hearing has become more sensitive. We could always hear the wind; now we hear the breeze. We sense light movements. And now, in the farthest reaches of our hearing, we become aware of a train. It’s Jesus talking about what comes next, after this life ceases:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’…Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:31-46).
Death sobers us up once we move past the jokes and posturing. Because all the opinions we’ve ever heard were merely that—opinions. Who do we know that can say for certain what follows death? And so each of us is left with a choice: will we believe Jesus, or not? But perhaps most unsettling is our aloneness at that moment of death. No one will accompany us.
On occasion, Jesus spoke explicitly about what follows death, but whether explicit or not, his teaching was tied to those eventualities. It always held them in sight. Jesus came because of what we will all face: eternal life or an unimaginably hard alternative.
The description offered by John, which he was shown by revelation, is unmistakable:
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).
You Decide
Most of us are busy: busy with what we have to do, busy with what we want to do, busy with responsibilities, busy with what others expect of us. Busyness is a distraction. It crowds out what is important with what is urgent. But busyness can be shelved; for example, when a man or woman is diagnosed with cancer, the fight to stay alive sets aside other claims on their time. Time is made for treatment. If Jesus is telling the truth, coming to terms with him is more important than cancer. You’re not too busy. You don’t know when you’ll run out of time.
You decide.
Jesus gave a more likely reason why men and women avoid him. They don’t want to be exposed, and light exposes:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:16-21).
Busyness has nothing to do with this.
There’s an incident described in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is seen eating at the house of a man named Levi with a group of people that the religious leaders looked down on, and they commented on it to his followers. Responding, Jesus placed a very simple truth on the table:
“Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’” (Luke 5:29-32).
Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous. If you’re righteous, that is, if you are not a sinner, Jesus didn’t come to call you. You have to be a sinner to answer his call. I think it’s the righteous people that so hate the light. It exposes them. So they won’t listen to him. They will judge him without letting him testify.
You decide.
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