Luke 7:36-50
Funny epitaphs: GA (an obvious
hypochondriac) - "I told you I was sick"
England - "The children of Israel
wanted bread, and the Lord sent them manna; Old clerk William wanted a wife,
and the devil sent him Anna."
Silver City NV - "Here lays
Butch. We planted him raw. He was quick on the trigger, but slow on the
draw."
Maryland - "Here lies an atheist;
all dressed up and no place to go."
But this one is probably the most
profound: "Consider, friend, as you pass by; as you are now, so once was
I. As I am now, you too shall be. Prepare, therefore, to follow me." Scotland
"Epitaph" is from the Greek
which means "funeral oration"; "epi" meaning
"over" or "at, and "taphos" meaning "tomb". It is the brief text we include on the head
stones of our loved ones who have passed on.
It is a means by which we honor the deceased by trying to express in a
few words what we want the world to know about this person, something that can
sum up this person's life in a few short words, space obviously being limited. Yet aside from an obvious historical record,
it is impossible to capture the fullness of any person's entire life on a small
block of stone.
In much the same way we "set in
stone" a record of the deceased, we too often consider the entire Law of
the Lord being confined to two small chunks of stone large enough to contain
Ten Commandments but small enough for an elderly man to carry - and after forty
days of fasting (Exodus 34:28-29)! So there are those basics which are contained
in the "Ten", but we have several books that expound on those
Ten. So we cannot say the Lord's entire
Law can be summarized so simply on two blocks of stone anymore than we can say
a person's entire life can be fully known or appreciated only by what can be
carved in a few lines on a head stone.
It should also be remembered that when
it comes to "commandments", Jesus affirms the Greatest Commandment which
is not included in the Ten: "You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second [greatest commandment] is like
it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). So Jesus says the entire Law - that is, the
"spirit", the intent of the Law - cannot be restricted only to the
Ten written in stone. There is much more
to the Law - just as there should be much more to our lives and the life of the
Church - than what can be printed in a few, short lines.
The word "church" in the New Testament
is translated from the Greek word "ekklesia" which comes from the two
words, "ek" meaning "out" and "kaleo" meaning
"to call". So the church
addressed is called out by Jesus and the apostles as the "assembly";
not merely a bunch of individuals. It
gets us closer to understanding the greater context that necessarily
(for the sake of the Church) transcends "personal salvation",
a particular fond term among Protestants upon which nothing really hangs
especially for those who have "taken" what they think has been given
- but are willing to "give" nothing in return; like the ten lepers
who were healed by Jesus but only one of whom returned to Jesus, a Samaritan not
of the "assembly" of Israel to whom Jesus refers as a
"foreigner" (Luke 17:11-19). Yet this "foreigner" was so
grateful to Messiah for his healing that he refused to allow himself to be
separated from the source of his healing.
All of this is to say that the Bible is
the book of the Church, and the Church as the Body of Christ, the "ekklesia",
called out and set apart from the rest of the world, the "assembly"
that is healed and called forth, like the returning leper, to glorify
God, proclaim the Gospel, and make
disciples as Jesus commands
the Church (Matthew 28:18-20). In a word, "mission" - the duty
from which no Christian - and
certainly no church - is excused because it truly is as has been expressed: "Any church not seriously involved in
helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to
exist" (Oswald J. Smith).
Because there is no other reason for which the
Church is called forth.
"Ours is not to reason why; ours is
but to do or die". This excerpt
from "The Charge of the Light Brigade" pretty much sums up what it
means to be the Church in complete submission and obedience to our Lord and
what it means for we who excuse ourselves from the life and mission of the
Church by absolving ourselves of our own sins and abdicating Messiah's claim on
our whole being: if we are not "doing", we are
"dying". And if we die the
slow, painful death of inactivity and complacency as our spiritual muscles
slowly atrophy to the point of uselessness, what will be the epitaph that can
possibly define our life as disciples, as "ekklesia"?
There is more to this, of course, than
the simple notion that everyone "should" be in Church - and only on
Sunday morning. Jesus' story of the
debtors in Luke's gospel contrasts
self-righteousness (the Pharisee) against the righteousness granted by Divine
Mercy (the anointing woman) when sins are truly forgiven. It should be noted that even though Jesus was
invited into the Pharisee's home for a meal, Jesus was really offered nothing
by the Pharisee who probably didn't feel it necessary to offer Jesus much more
than a perfunctory meal. In fact, the
context - in which this Pharisee was probably among those who had previously "rejected
the will of God" in verse 30 as Jesus was teaching of
John's legitimate baptism - suggests it is more likely this Pharisee had
less-than-honorable, or purely self-serving - intentions when he invited Jesus
to his home in the first place.
The woman, on the other hand, had heard
of Jesus' presence at this Pharisee's home and invited herself to come NOT WITH
EMPTY HANDS (as commanded against in Exodus
23) but with oil and tears of sorrow for sins she freely acknowledged in
her life. A less-than-worthy woman - at
least in the Pharisee's eyes - but a woman who by the sorrow of her heart and
her need for forgiveness from sin obviously overwhelming her, she offers her
entire being to our Lord in complete humility.
Which of these has truly invited Jesus
"in"? Which of these is the
greater "debtor"? It is very
likely the Pharisee does not see himself as a "debtor" at all. In fact it is difficult, if impossible, to feel
like a "debtor" if one rarely - if ever - admits sin and a profound need for a
Savior. When we become so self-righteous
and so self-involved that we do not feel a need to do much more than offer our
Lord a social acknowledgement, our own epitaph is already being written
because our slow, painful, degenerative death is already in progress - and
we're just too blinded by our own self-concern to see it - OR - we just don't
care. And when we are too wrapped up in
ourselves, the Church we are called to serve - the Church we freely joined
rather than being "drafted" into against our will - suffers as well
because the Church cannot be in mission if the "ekklesia", the
assembly, is too busy with its "real life" to be bothered with
"church stuff".
So what will our epitaph read when our
moment of imminent demise is upon us?
And I am not referring to us as individuals; like the Bible, I am
addressing the "ekklesia".
Will our epitaph read, "We were too busy" - OR - "What is
there except to 'get saved'?" - OR - "We had real lives, you
know" - OR - "Someone
should have seen to it" - OR - "What were we paying the preacher
for?" Or will it be that an epitaph
will be unnecessary because no one will really care - or even notice that we no
longer exist?
I think the Church's greatest problem is
that we have become so self-involved with our own problems and our own plans
that the Church has become just a
place to be - that is, whenever we can find the time to "be"
there because our perceived need for the Lord has disappeared altogether
because we have perhaps failed to really understand or appreciate the
destructive nature of sin itself - or - we have lost faith - or - we just don't
care. As long as it's open when I decide
to show up ...
The worst of all is when we are so
concerned with our own epitaph that we do not concern ourselves with the
epitaph of the Church we are called to serve, the Church we freely "signed
up" for, the Church we will not allow to baptize or educate our children,
but the Church we will call upon and whose undivided attention we will demand
when there is an accident or when we are sick or when our lives come to an end.
The Lord revealed to Jeremiah the coming
New Covenant because the Old Covenant - "that I made with Israel and Judah ...
which they broke [after having been delivered from slavery to
Egypt]" is still a Covenant that involves the Law - the ENTIRE Law
- the Law "fulfilled" by Jesus and written not on "stone" but in hearts of flesh and minds of the faithful, the "ekklesia"
to be called forth - the "assembly" of those whose "iniquity has
been forgiven and whose sins will no longer be remembered". The Church personified by the woman whose
sins were many, burdened by a debt she could never pay, who kissed the feet of
the Savior of the World and Lord of the Church.
This is not a "free pass" nor
is it offered as such. It is the
Covenant sealed with Blood, but it is also the Covenant that requires active
participation by the whole life of the "assembly" devoted to something
greater than self, the assembly that loves the Lord our God "with
all our heart, all our mind, and with all our soul".
It is the "MISSION STATEMENT"
of the "ekklesia".
It is the "epitaph" of the
faithful. In the Name of the
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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