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THE HOTLINE TO HELL #3
“CAN I HAVE A ‘DO-OVER’?”
In some forms of “rapture” theology, if you miss the
last trolley out of planet earth, there will be ANOTHER last trolley out
later. But this parable by Jesus, “The Rich Man and Lazarus,” seems to
suggest that on the other side of death, there ARE no second chances.
In his wonderfully entertaining baseball book, The Umpire Strikes Back,
the late Ron Luciano tells a story that goes against everything they teach
you in the Al Somers Umpire Instructional Course. Right or wrong, you’ve
got to make a call. Get in position, get a good look, get help from your
fellow crew members if you have to . . . but make a call. And of course,
in his colorful career as an American League ump, Luciano had his share
of heart-stopping, eyelash calls, including a famous one in the ALCS between
the Yankees and Royals back in 1978, Game Three, where he had to call
out Lou Piniella on a bang-bang tag play at the plate by Kansas City catcher
Darrell Porter. Yankee Stadium just exploded in rage, all directed at
him, and he describes it as the worst five minutes in his career.
Well, back in the 1950s, down in the old Pioneer League, there was once
a game where the legendary George Sosniak was behind home plate. There
was a baserunner on third with just one out, and the hitter lifted a fly
ball to medium-deep left field. This being sacrifice-fly time, the guy
on third poised himself to dash for home the second the ball hit the fielder’s
mitt. The catch was made, he took off for home, the outfielder uncorked
a perfect one-hop throw to the catcher covering the plate, and he applied
the tag. And I mean, this was as razor-close as you could get. The ball
and the runner and the tag and the dust all seemed to arrive at the very
same microsecond.
And there was this long pause while umpire Sosniak just looked at the
play with an inscrutable look on his face. The baserunner waited. The
catcher waited. The scorekeeper waited. Both managers waited. The fans
in the stands waited. The radio audience waited. Everybody waited because
the ump wasn’t extending his thumb for out or putting both hands out,
palms down, for safe.
Finally the catcher said the one word that was on the lips of everybody:
“WELL?!!”
And the ump, in a thin, not very authoritarian voice, said rather weakly:
“I don’t know. It was just so close . . . I don’t know what to call.”
And believe it or not, after a couple of very strange minutes of discussion,
both teams actually agreed to a “do-over.” The runner went back to third,
the left fielder went back to the approximate spot where he caught the
ball the first time, the catcher got behind the plate, and the ump gave
a signal. When he said “go,” the runner started for home, the fielder
threw the ball in again, the catcher tagged the runner, and he was out
by a good five feet. True story.
You may recall in the old cowboy film, City Slickers, how Billy Crystal
and his friends wish aloud that life could have do-overs. That after a
colossal mess-up like a bad marriage, or getting arrested, or just plain
having your whole life turn out bad, you could raise your hand and ask
for it: “I want a do-over.” And get it.
Of course, friend, in the Christian faith, a do-over is exactly what the
struggling man or woman of God DOES get. When we’re forgiven, our bad
batting averages and our skyrocketing earned run averages are recalibrated.
We get to start over with a fresh slate.
However, there’s an important stipulation to this privilege, and that’s
exactly where we are in this parable, or story, by Jesus entitled “The
Rich Man and Lazarus.” You can have a do-over. You can get forgiveness.
But there does come a time at the end of the season where the 162 games
have been played, and now you move to the World Series. And in October,
when it really counts, there are no do-overs. There’s no second chance
if you haven’t qualified for postseason play by then.
Let’s resume our story here in Luke 16, and remember that there was a
wealthy, selfish man who lived in careless, snobbish luxury while ignoring
a poor beggar named Lazarus who parked himself just outside the rich guy’s
front gate next to the limousine and the Jacuzzi. And when they both died,
there was a reversal of fortunes: the beggar covered with sores . . .
soared right to Paradise and reclined in the bosom of Abraham. While the
rich man, with his hot stock deals, went to a place that was hotter yet.
You get the picture.
Now, even down in the nether regions, this formerly wealthy sinner thinks
the same social order is in operation. So he calls up to Father Abraham
— in the parable heaven and hell are just across the street from each
other — “Please send Lazarus over here for two seconds so that he can
bring me a drink of water.” Even just a drop of water for his tongue,
he begs, but he kind of expects that a wretch like Lazarus can still be
bossed around. One of the lessons of this story is that the roles of this
life might be reversed during eternity, but the rich man hasn’t learned
that. But now in verses 25 and 26 Father Abraham — popular Jewish literature
sometimes pictured him as operating the Welcome Center to heaven, much
as Christians share anecdotes where St. Peter supposedly does the honors
— Father Abraham rejects the rich man’s request . . . and let’s notice
why:
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime
you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but
now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”
But now, pay attention to this, in regards to “do-overs”:
“And besides all this,” Father Abraham informs him through the heaven-to-hell
hotline, “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those
who want to go from here to you CANNOT, nor can anyone cross over from
there to us.’”
You know, it’s an important principle of Bible study
that parables are designed, really, to teach just one key concept. Some
of the other peripheral details might or might not have significance,
but we have to focus on that one important Bible truth. And friend, I
honestly do not think that Jesus Christ was trying to teach His followers
anything significant about how far apart in the universe heaven and hell
are, or if people can talk and visit back and forth. I don’t think that’s
the point. Instead, the crucial lesson is this: once a believer, or a
non-believer, has gone to their destination at the end of time, that destiny
is fixed. There are no do-overs. No second chances. No tomorrows where
you can move from hell up to heaven.
Now, the rich man wasn’t asking for heaven here, just a drop of cool water.
But let’s finish the story as Jesus is telling it here in Luke 16. After
Father Abraham says no, Lazarus can’t make this mission trip to the Southland,
the chasm in the road is just too wide, the rich man has a second request.
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also
come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and
the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said,
‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said
to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Now, friend, let’s digest what Christ is teaching here.
First of all, we have just this one life where we must choose heaven and
the mindset of heaven. Once a person dies — as the two main characters
in this story did — or once we see Christ, the righteous Judge, coming
in the clouds of heaven, there will be no more “do-overs.” The chasm between
salvation and damnation is fixed and impassable. Back in Isaiah chapter
26 we find this warning:
“Though You [God] extend grace to the wicked and are
kind to them, they never seem to learn how important it is to do what’s
right. Even in a land where justice and righteousness are emphasized,
the wicked continue doing evil and disregard Your sovereignty and rule.
O Lord, they don’t seem to know that one day YOU WILL CALL THEM TO ACCOUNT.
. . . Let them know that their sins will bring on them the eternal fires
of extinction.”
So friend, borrowing from the old soap opera title,
we have “One Life to Live.” One lifetime of growing . . . and falling
. . . and forgiveness . . . and second chances. But at the end of that
life, either at the cemetery or the judgment bar of God, by then we must
have made our decision.
And this Father Abraham tells us that there absolutely will not be a messenger
from beyond the grave, from the other side. There’s one place where we
have to get our warnings, and that’s from the Word of God. In The Message
paraphrase, this rich man begs:
“Send [Lazarus] to the house of my father where I have
five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t
end up in this place of torment.”
And let’s get Abraham’s answer from the wonderful Living
Bible paraphrase. This is so crucial to notice:
“But Abraham said, ‘The Scriptures have warned them again and again. Your
brothers can read them anytime they want to.’ The rich man replied, ‘No,
Father Abraham, THEY WON’T BOTHER TO READ THEM.’”
There you have it, friend. For my money, this is what
the story is about. One chance. No “do-overs.” We get one chance to choose
heaven. And we find out about it, about heaven’s plan, through one Book.
And it’s a Book we have to bother to read.
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