Two Stories for Bedtime Reading

I would like to tell you a couple of stories.  You won’t be wasting your time, they have a point.  Let’s start with the tale of Sammy Simpleton.

Sammy was a serious soul who wanted to save money.  He was 14, and it was summer.  His dad is a real estate salesman.  His dad came home one day with great news—he got Sammy a job.  It turns out that some people can’t wait for their house to sell, and they move out early.  The lawns get overgrown unless they get mowed.  So his dad’s boss, Mr. Applegate, is ready to hire Sammy to do the mowing.  His dad already has one lined up. It would pay $30. It was now noon, and he tells Sammy there are prospects coming to see it, and, it turns out, it really needs mowing.  They will arrive, likely 6:00, but they could get here early, at 4:00.  It takes about 2 hours to mow, so Sammy needs to get started right away.  The house was close, so he can wheel the mower over there quickly. 

Sammy was excited and was heading out the door to grab the mower when he sees his friends coming up the front step.  They want to play Monopoly.  (Serious Sammy has some serious friends.)  They need a third player bad and convince him to play a quick game, and he will still have time to mow.  He is easily convinced, and they begin.  Sammy is a good player, and knows how to haggle his way to a yellow monopoly—you know, Atlantic, Ventnor, and Marvin Gardens.  But he later sees that it is 1:30, and tries to beg off and get to mowing.  His friends talk him out of that bad idea, since there’s no easy way to cash a guy out of the middle of a Monopoly game.  Besides, he’s got his eye on the prize—Boardwalk and Park Place.  So, thinking he’ll still have time to get done before 6:00, he is convinced to continue play.  He gets deep in the game, they bankrupt one guy, and he does manage to obtain those key blue properties, when his dad burst in the door.  He doesn’t look happy, with his arms folded and a hard look on his face.  Sammy sees the clock, and it’s 4:30. 

“Sorry, dad,” he pleads, “I’ll get on it right now.  I’m really sorry.  I’Il rush, I can finish by 6:00.”

“Don’t rush on my account.  They came at 4:00.  The overgrown lawn failed to impress them, so they were not interested. I lost a sale. “

“I’m real sorry, dad.  I let you down.  I promise it will never happen again.”

“Well, you’re right about that.  It won’t.  When I had to tell Mr. Applegate, he decided to hire his nephew.  That was your one chance, and you blew it.  You know, that was real money.  And you threw it all away on a silly game.”

“Silly game!  Dad, I’ve got two monopolies, even houses on one of them.  I was ready to win.  I’ve got $8,000!”

Well, you’re probably thinking, based on his last comment, “I guess his name fits him--Sammy Simpleton.”  And you might be wondering, what does this story have to do with me?  Well, the problem is, most of us are Sammy Simpletons.  We’ve been given a job to do by Jesus Christ.  But we get all caught up in this life’s “monopoly game,” and we forget what Jesus expects us to be doing.  Look at Matthew 25:14-30:

  “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. ¹⁵ And to one he gave five talents (ed., he gave them money), to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.¹⁶ Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷ And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. ¹⁸ But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

²⁰ “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ ²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’²² He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ ²³ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

²⁴ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. ²⁸ Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

²⁹ ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus is serious about this, is He not?  Has He not made, in these verses, one of the determinants of salvation and eternal destiny?  To earn heaven, we must work on His behalf. If we’re not, our outcome is the outer darkness and suffering.  Hell, in other words. But what do most professing Christians actually do?  Well, we want to do things for Christ, when we’re young—and we might join a church when we’re teens, do things then.  But when we go to college, date, get married, we get in the “rat race.” Often, then, we set our materialistic goals high.  We could live simply when we were young, but when we get married, we have to impress with nice cars, save up for a nice house.  The American dream takes over our mind.  Then it’s easy to push any ideas about working for Christ in the background. We go to church, and for most, that’s about it.   

You know, there is another way.  No, I’m not suggesting that you abandon family.  But giving them proper necessities vs. buying big houses, buying “toys,” eating and sleeping thinking about your vocation, that’s different.  You need to keep in mind; the real future is after you die--this present age is just Monopoly money.  It’s only good for this brief life. It accumulates nothing for you the instant you die. For our eternal needs, they have no benefit.  It was done for nothing.  The house that we spent hours and hours on, and lots of money paying mortgage interest, turns into a little green Monopoly house.  The nice car becomes the little race car trinket that you move around the board with. Everything we thought was real money, upon death, turns into Monopoly money.  Fake money.  It’s all gone when we die. 

The only thing that counts is what Jesus said about how to enter heaven.  Jesus is talking above about accumulating works for Him, not for worldly pleasures.  The typical person misses this goal 100%. Why? Many will presumptuously assume God will let most people into heaven despite this crystal-clear statement to the contrary. Yes, worldliness will put many surprised people into hell. A part of Jesus' "Sower" parable (Luke 8) goes like this...

7 And some (seed) fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it....14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 

Now you might say, "So what?"  Well, see what Jesus says in John 15 about bringing "no fruit to maturity" (John 15)...

5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned

The words "fire" and "burned" mean hell.  That's for those who don't abide in Him, and thus bear no fruit.

Our next story is about a sympathetic college professor, Dr. Wise. He’s been teaching a lot of years, and is worn out of giving “D’s” and even flunking a bunch of students.  He’s also been given a bad rap on the secret “professer ratings” that students have online.  They note that he is a hard man, no sympathy. He knows that wasn’t really true—it broke his heart to fail them, but the grade was a true picture of how little effort many of them put into the class.  He often agonized on this, wondering about maybe he could change his grading style, and still have them study harder. So, this semester he’s going to do it differently.  For final exams in May, he decides to just go ahead, and give the students all of the questions—and the answers—ahead of time. They’ll still have to learn them. So all they needed to do to "ace" the final, which was a big chunk of their grade, was to learn those particular items.  This was really radical for him; so when he presents this to the students, and passes out the q and a, they seem skeptical.  He tells them, “I’m serious. This is no joke. This is all you need to ace the final.  These are the questions and answers I will ask.  I want everyone in the class to get an ‘A’ this time.  If any of you don’t make an ‘A,’ it’s going to be totally your own fault.”  So on test day, the last day of class, when they take the exam and he collects, he excitedly begins to grade them.  But—much to his shock—the grades are only slightly better than the dismal results of the past!  Only three students aced the exam, and the class held 30.  How can this be?  He had no ideas. 

So in the fall, when classes start up, he spotted Susan walking along, one of the three aces in the previous class final. “Susan,” he said, “can you clear up a mystery for me?  I know I gave out all the questions and all the answers that would be on the final.  Even though I wouldn’t let them bring those pages into class for the final, I thought they would still memorize my words and all do well.  Yet only you and two others aced.  I’m dumbfounded.  What happened?” “Well,” she said, “after we got the answer pages from you, we went to the student union, and, do you remember Luther Little?  He said, “Do you really think Dr. Wise would really give us the questions and answers in advance?  If everyone aced, the university might wonder about him.’  Another student said, ‘Good point.  I think what’s really happening here is, he hasn’t given us the real answers for the final.  I think he wants us to go deeper, to look further than that.  I mean, no professor really gives out all the straight answers like that.’  “So,” Susan said, “Dr. Wise, I heard they would all get together that night and go over the book and figure out the real answers.”  “Did you go?”  he asked her.  She said, “You know, after I left, I thought, ‘Is that what I really think of Dr. Wise, that he would leave us the wrong answers to trick us?’  No, I figured, you’re not really that kind of a teacher.  So I believed you, studied what you gave us, and got an ‘A.’ Nothing could have been easier.”  

Well, you’re probably thinking, that story is as ridiculous as the first story.  And I agree with you—it is an absurd story. Unfortunately, it also happens to be true. Not about any Dr. Wise; I’m talking about eternal life, acing that final.  Jesus, in His Word, has already told us what the questions are going to be on Judgment Day, and what the answers are going to be.  And yet, most “Christians” don’t believe it.  Let’s look at Matthew 25:31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ ⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Again, Jesus, who is God, who cannot lie or deceive, has made an abundantly clear distinction between going to heaven and going to hell.  Since these verses follow the parable of talents, above, (where we learned that we should be working for Jesus, not the world), these verses introduce one way—perhaps the chief way—that we should be working for Him, earning kingdom of heaven money that He has invested with us, instead of Monopoly money. He is saying that we should be actively helping those brothers and sisters who need help.  That when we help them, we’re really helping Him.  Notice His extremely judgmental language for those going to hell:  “Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…”  Do we not cringe, do we not hold our breath for what the Judge of our souls would say next?  Most people, most “Christians,” don’t—they have not studied what these verses are saying. (That's because they're complacent, in many cases). To be so unconcerned, it’s like they’re "dissing" the Judge, giving Him the finger, as it were.   Most just assume, on their own thinking, God will treat them well, and no deeds on their part are needed. But…to get back to Jesus’ flaming comment, it answers the question, Do people have to do something desperately wicked to consign them to hell?  No; going to hell is also the destination of those who do not help the people who need us.  Jesus is saying, these people may be hungry, thirsty, dressed in rags, lonely and without a home, sick, even imprisoned, but they are our brothers and need our help.  The most desperate people in the world are the “least of these My brethren”—and we are required to help.  So we must give our time and money to the poor, the refugees, the places on earth that have little medical help, to earn favor with our King. Simple question:  Do you fulfill this requirement to enter heaven?  If not, can you afford to brush off these verses?  If you do, as most people do, you are the absurd students of Dr. Wise. You got the questions and answers, as we see above, but you ignored them.

The verses also clearly say that people will be shocked that they are hell-bound; per their mind, they didn’t do anything “bad.”  The problem is:  They invented their own answer for how to enter heaven, instead of God’s answer.  They didn't believe God.  Instead, they deceived themselves that they are good for heaven.

So shouldn’t you take the time to meditate on these verses, to consider Jesus’ answers?  To avoid deceiving yourself?  Perhaps after some honest thought you get a new view of Jesus, of God the Father, as severe on sin (Romans 11:22).  After all, didn’t He also say, “few” would go on the narrow way to heaven?  (Matthew 7:13,14).  That has to mean, most people will go to hell.  But, that couldn’t mean just criminals—so, it means a lot of “good” people will go to hell.  They simply didn’t act on the question from Scripture about helping the helpless.  They made up their own answer.

So, we have the main question on Judgment Day:  Did you feed the hungry?  Did you help the sick, the poor?  And we all know what the answer should be. We were told in advance; the questions and the answers are in the Book.  Are we one of the Luther Littles of the world, who twist the Word, make it say something more comfortable for us? The Word doesn’t say anything about you getting a “Get Out of Jail” card for your “good intentions.”  Good intentions don’t cut it with God because He will say, “All you had to do was, take time to read it.  You should all have aced the Final Day.  If you failed, it’s your own fault.”

Don’t be a flunking student, on such an important subject.  Read the Word.  God gives us a test at the end of our lives.  This test is more  important than anything in our entire lives.

Acknowledgement:  David Bercot, Lecture at 2015 AIC Conference