Beginning at the End

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.