The Lutheran Hour
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"This is Eternal Life"
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Text: John 17:3
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Death is coming for each of us. When it will arrive, no person can say; but Christians who have the living Lord standing at their side are blessed with peace. Because they know the only true God and Jesus Christ who was sent to save them, they have eternal life. God grant such faith to us all. Amen.
Death is gonna’ getcha’. That was the point a minister was trying to make to his congregation – and he was making that point as loudly and as powerfully as he could. He pounded on the pulpit as he pointed out, in vivid detail, the pains which awaited any unrepentant sinners in his congregation. And, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man smiling. Smiling was not the effect the pastor had been hoping for.
He continued, “Every member of my congregation will die eternally, if they do not…” The preacher peeked and saw the man’s smile had grown into an ear-to-ear grin. Still the minister’s message was like a powerful freight train and it would not be derailed by one man’s foolish grin. He went on: “Every one of you in this congregation, without exception, without exemption, shall be condemned if you refuse to…” That’s when the preacher heard the smiling man snicker. He turned to the man and asked, “Sir, I am trying to warn my congregation of the terrible things which might await them when they die. Could you please tell the congregation just what it is you find to be so funny?” Without hesitation the man shot back: “I’m smiling, Preacher, because I’m not one of your congregation.”
Well, it doesn’t make any difference what congregation you belong to, death is gonna’ getcha’. Cemeteries scattered across the country bear witness that our time in this world is limited. In a Boston cemetery there is a headstone with some pretty terrible poetry. It reads: “Nearby these gray rocks enclosed in a box, lies Mary Cox who died of smallpox, and none too soon for her husband, William Cox.” I told you it was bad poetry. In a cemetery in Aroostook County, Maine, there’s a stone which quite flippantly reads: “Here I lie and no wonder I’m dead, I fell from a tree and hit my head.” There’s a family plot in Minnesota which has a stone carrying the proud, political statement saying, “None of us ever voted for Roosevelt or Truman.” We all know, in this world it pays to advertise, but I’m not so sure about the advantages of doing so when you’re dead. Still, that’s what a physician did. His stone boasted, “I practiced (medicine) for over 50 years and never lost that many patients.” And then there’s the grave marker which stands above the vault of a North Carolina attorney. With one sentence he put down his colleagues and promoted himself. His stone brags: “Here lies the only honest lawyer I ever knew.” No matter what the stones may say, they all bear witness to the truth: death is gonna’ getcha’.
Years ago at a physician’s conference, I overheard one healer try to comfort his partner who had just lost a patient. He said, “It’s not your fault. You know it, I know it. The truth is: the moment you’re born, you’re done for.” If they had known I was listening, they might not have been that frank and forthright. I’m glad they were. They were right. It doesn’t make any difference if you use beautiful words or blunt ones, the truth remains: death is gonna’ getcha’. Death may come when you’re young, it can come when you’re old. It can send you warnings and offer you time to get prepared or it can sneak up from behind like a pickpocket and rob you of life before you even know its been there. The M.D. was right. “The moment you’re born, you’re done for.” Death is gonna’ getcha’.
Discouraging? Disheartening? Depressing? Disappointing? The inevitability of death is all of those things. The certainty of the end is not something we like to acknowledge. If you doubt me, take a look at a magazine, watch the TV, listen to the radio. If you do, I promise you will not be able to avoid being confronted by a multitude of experts, a plethora of professionals who will promise they have a product which will help bring down your “I’m-going-to-try-and-stick-around-almost-forever” fever. The success of these self-improvement gurus indicates many people are desperately trying to cling to this present world. But, as the physicians said, no matter how strong you are, no matter how young you are, no matter how much you cling to life: “The moment you’re born, you’re done for.” The great uncertainty of our lives is not if we will die, it is when shall we die.
Now I know most of you are probably thinking: “Unbelievable, he has wasted a good share of his time telling me something really, really obvious. Duuuhhh. I know death is coming. He isn’t giving me any newsflash. Nobody has to send out a gaggle of reporters to get coverage for this breaking story. It’s not the kind of revelation which is going to be featured on the 6:00 news. Everybody knows death is coming.” To which my reply is, “Yes, I am fully aware that you, me, everybody, knows death is coming. But most folks think of death’s arrival in an academic, conjectural, theoretical sort of way. Yes, death is coming, but it’s not going to show up for a long, long time.” Let me explain what I mean:
About ten years ago a minister in Rochester, Minnesota, told me of a funeral he had attended. The service was for a young girl, 16 years old. She had gotten her driver’s license not so long before. As a result, she was still jumping at every chance to get behind the wheel and run any errand her parents gave her. That’s how, one Saturday afternoon in the Fall of the year, she ended up driving to the grocery store while mom stayed home to finish raking up the leaves. Mom was just finishing up when she heard the car turn onto the block. The teen was driving a little bit too fast, she was a little too inexperienced, and the leaves on the street were a little too wet. The car skidded. Mother heard the bump as the car went over the curb and slammed into a great oak tree. Mom was already running by the time her daughter fell out onto the grass.
Mother knelt down and cradled her daughter’s face in her hands. She didn’t seem to be so badly hurt. There wasn’t much blood. Just a swelling bruise on the girl’s head where it had hit the side of the driver’s window. Even so, the teen’s eyes seem to have difficulty focusing and she kept repeating, “Mama, I’m going to die. Mama, I’m going to die.” Mother comforted, “No you’re not honey! Of course you’re not going to die! Everything is going to be all right, just stay calm.”
A neighbor called an ambulance and they waited. The daughter never stopped, never changed what she was saying, “Mama, I’m gonna’ die.” The mother wouldn’t hear it. “No you’re not. You are not going to die. The ambulance is coming. It will be here in a minute. You hang on. You’re going to be all right.” Then the teen-age girl changed what she was saying. It was the only time she did. In a moment of clarity, she looked at her mother and said, “Mama, you’ve taught me everything; but I don’t know how to die.” Her chest shuddered and she was gone.
That young girl wasn’t prepared for death’s unexpected arrival. Young people usually aren’t. But what can be said when someone remains unprepared when they’re older and supposedly wiser? W. C. Fields was a world-famous juggler who became an actor. Eventually booze got the better of him and, in 1946, he entered Las Encinas Sanatorium. There, one of his old friends visited him and found the comedian reading a Bible. Shocked and surprised, Fields’ visitor blurted out, “I didn’t know you were a religious man, Bill.” “I’m not!” Fields shot back. “Then what are you doing with that Bible?” Fields’ reply was classic. He said, “I’m looking for loopholes!”
Most people, when they hear that story, think Fields was using the Bible to get a soon-to-be-last-laugh. Me, I’m not so sure. It was always difficult to separate Fields’ screen persona from his real personality. Maybe, in his last days, with only a few more days left on the calendar, Fields might have been searching for some way to get past the pearly gates – a way which would let him in on his own terms. If that’s what he was trying to do, I feel sorry for him. Indeed, I feel sorry for many people who think they can cheat death, who believe they can put off the inevitable. I’m sorry because death is gonna’ getcha’.
Death took the mighty pharaohs of Egypt even as it took the laborers who dragged the stones of their masters’ massive pyramids and who carved out the great, multi-chambered underground sepulchers. Death has come for Alexander, Herod, and Peter – rulers that the world has called “Great,” as well as their millions of subjects whose names were forgotten when they were still alive. Death has come for mighty rulers even as it came for the people who had placed them in power or removed them from it. Death has come for slave and master, for physician and patient, for the philanthropist and the person in poverty. It makes little difference if you lived thousands of years ago, or you are alive and well today, death will bring you together in humanity’s final and ultimate reunion. Death is gonna’ getcha’. If that is so, and it is, I ask only this one, simple question, “Do you know and believe on Jesus as your Savior from sin?”
If the answer to that question is, “no,” every other preparation you will make, every other plan you put into motion, is worthless. You may insure your house, your life, your vehicles, your family, but there is no insurance which will keep you safe and secure from death’s cold touch. You can travel the world looking for wisdom, you can sit at the feet of great philosophers, you can master all that can be mastered, but if Jesus is not your Savior, you will not have been given that one thing, that faith which is necessary for salvation. You may eat properly, floss after every meal, avoid alcohol and cigarettes, keep a close eye on your blood pressure, regularly monitor your cholesterol, visit your physician regularly, and stop by your dentist’s office twice a year, but if Jesus is not your Savior, you are not ready for the day death is gonna’ getcha’.
Jesus, and only Jesus, can prepare you for that moment. Now it is quite possible that you may not believe me. I can understand that. You’d be foolish to do so. Instead listen to the writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They will tell you how Jesus, with Divine power, healed those people who had illnesses and diseases which would have killed them. You can read through the Gospel accounts and, hunt as you may, you shall never find a funeral message preached by the Savior. In truth, Christ broke up every funeral he came across. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard Christ’s call, they responded and returned to life. Quite rightly, Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life.” Equally right is what He prayed the night He was betrayed, “And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Every physician, even the best of them, must confess: Once we’re born, we’re done for; but Jesus Christ changes things.
How? Jesus changes things by what He has done for me, for you, for all of humanity. We, because of our rebellion and disobedience, deserve to die both temporally and eternally. Yet, God, in His mercy, was not content to turn His creation over to the powers of darkness. Showing grace both undeserved and unexpected, the Father sent His Son into this world to offer Himself up as our perfect substitute. While we had all become voluntary victims to Satan’s enticements and excitements, Jesus stood fast and refused; while we have predictably followed our hearts’ tug toward evil, lust, hatred, and greed, Jesus stayed on perfect course, and remained completely committed to the Father’s cause of reclaiming souls which had been stolen from Him.
The Christ changes things. How? Through His law-fulfilling life, His unfair suffering, His deplorable death upon Calvary’s cruel cross. Jesus did what we would not, what we could not do. In His life He did all that the Father had asked of Him, and then, with His victorious third-day resurrection from the dead, Jesus showed to a redeemed world that He had defeated death the destroyer. Jesus changes things. With the sending of the Holy Spirit who creates faith and keeps us in the Father’s family, believing hearts are moved from being condemned by the law to being commended by God. Jesus changes things. We are delivered and not damned; we look forward to heaven and no longer fear hell. The crucified Christ and ever-living Lord changes everything.George Jaeger went fishing. He was joined on the expedition by his father and three sons. It was late in the afternoon when the boat’s engine sputtered, stalled, and refused to restart. No longer able to keep the boat headed into the waves, they were broadsided by six-foot swells. Faster than they could bail, hundreds of gallons of water splashed over the side of the ship. It became obvious the vessel was going down. Man and boy, they checked and rechecked the buckles on their life-jackets; tied themselves tightly together with a rope and then they silently stepped off the ship into the black water of the Atlantic.
The ship went down at 6:30 P.M. There wasn’t time for the men to mourn the vessel’s demise; they were swimming for their lives. Experience, along with a choking mouthful of water, told them not to talk. They had one job, and one job only – to swim to shore. If this were a made-up story, I would say the family performed some great heroics which ended up with all hands being saved. But this is not a made-up story and George Jaeger’s boys didn’t all make it. One of the sons grew weary of keeping his head up; swallowed too much saltwater, gagged, and drowned. One after another they strangled on the salty water and died. George heard his boys die, and then they were followed by his father.
But George didn’t give up. Through the night he swam; through the darkness he kept going. Finally, after eight terrible, tragic hours George staggered ashore. But George didn’t rest. He still had a job to do. He had to pull the bodies of his sons and father from the sea. I want you to imagine that moment, to picture his pain. George said, “I realized they were all dead – my three boys and my father – but I guess I didn’t want to accept it, so I kept swimming all night long.”
Jesus changes things. If the story stopped here, you would rightly wonder how. But the story continues. Listen to what George told reporters later on. He said, “My youngest boy, Clifford, was the first to go. I had always taught our children not to fear death because it was being with Jesus Christ. Before Cliff died, I heard him say: Dad I’d rather be with Jesus than go on fighting.” That’s where Jesus made a difference. Death came to a boy who had started the day on a fishing trip with Dad and Grandpa. Death came to a boy who was being battered and brutalized by Atlantic swells. Death came to a boy – and the boy wasn’t afraid. “I’d rather be with Jesus than go on fighting.”
Hearing that story, I know there are skeptics out there who are saying, “A beautiful story, pastor, but doesn’t every religion generate people who believe just as completely, just as intensely?” Your point must be conceded. But I will also counter: People believe many things, and they believe most sincerely. But Christianity alone has a Savior who gave Himself as a sacrifice to save us. Only Christianity has a Redeemer who gave His life as the ransom price to buy our freedom. Only Christianity has evidence of a risen and living Lord. Only Christianity has the proof which makes Jesus’ words real: And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
We started this message talking about cemeteries and gravestones. Let me finish with a grave observation. To reach the local playground, a father with his five-year-old daughter often took a shortcut through an old cemetery. One day as they walked they saw a man push a rod into the ground near a gravestone and hang a wreath upon it. The girl asked, “Why did that man put that decoration there?” “He wanted to remember the person who is buried there,” father answered. “Will someone do that for me when I die?” “I’m sure they will,” dad said. They walked, the daughter thought. Then, after a very long pause, the little girl said, “I don’t think that’s fair. All I’m going to be able to see is the stick.” To which I can answer, “Yes, death is gonna’ getcha’, but when Jesus is your Savior you will be able to see so, so much more.” To help you see so much more is why I extend this invitation: if you’d like to see Jesus better, let us help you. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for May 4, 2008
Stem Cell Research
Dr. Bob Weise interviewANNOUNCER: And now we’ll hear an update on recent developments in stem cell research and the ethical implications for them. I’m Mark Eischer and my guest today is bioethicist Dr. Bob Weise. He’s Professor of Practical Theology and the Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis Chair for Pastoral Ministry and Life Sciences at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Dr. Weise, earlier this year a team of scientists reported that they had found another way to produce stem cells without having to destroy embryos in the process. How does their method compare with that for producing embryonic stem cells?
WEISE: The method, even though this may sound a bit complicated to all of us, it’s called “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.” And they have done this in mice and this has been done over in Japan and up in Wisconsin. So what they have done is to take skin cells, inject into them certain genetic codes to reverse the skin cells back into stem cells. And to get those out of a human embryo, you have to destroy the embryonic human being to get that, and that of course creates a lot of moral issues, creating embryos to kill embryos to save other people. This avoids that whole issue because these are just basically skin cells. Currently in the United States, approximately $90 million has been set aside for embryonic stem cell research. Regardless of who becomes president in November of this year, all the candidates to this date are in favor of supporting embryonic stem cell research.
ANNOUNCER: So they’re all on that side of it.
WEISE: They’re all on that side, yes. And they all favor this because they’re looking at the embryo as not a human being. Certainly it’s human but it’s not aware of its surroundings, and if it’s not aware of its surroundings, “conscious awareness” as they say, it doesn’t have the same moral value as an infant or a newborn.
ANNOUNCER: You know, but there are days when that could apply to me, as well.
WEISE: When I’ve testified in Washington DC on human embryo research, these issues always come up because we’re dealing with people at various ages: not just the elderly, not just senior citizens that are in various stages of dementia or Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s that are not aware of their surroundings.
ANNOUNCER: To what extent is the scientific community open to exploring methods such as the one you mentioned earlier?
WEISE: They’re doing both, but they really are targeting the embryonic stem cell line, because they really believe that if they can isolate all of the various types of cells from human embryos – and there are over 200 of them – then they can be more specific in the targets that they go after for treating these diseases. Because in adult stem cells, you have to really re-program the whole cell. In embryonic stem cells, you don’t have to reprogram, they’re programmed already, so that makes life a little easier on the research side. But, again, the issue that we deal with from the Christian viewpoint is: shall we create an embryonic human being, destroy the embryonic human being then, to save another’s life? And of course, that goes against everything that we have learned as Christians in terms of the Scriptures.
ANNOUNCER: Uh-huh.
WEISE: One thing we have to be careful with is the hype that’s behind all of this, that we’re going to find “cures.” They use cures, some people use cures and not treatments; but before you can seek a cure in medicine one has to first find out, is there going to be a treatment? And frequently treatments, they don’t lead to cures. Treatment in medicine is to assist in recovery but not necessarily bring about recovery, in medical terminology. So I think that we have to all kind of be informed in what really is going on out there so we can structure our thinking and have, as you have said, a clearer view of what really is going on with this adult over against embryonic stem cell research.
ANNOUNCER: Very good. We’ve been talking with Dr. Bob Weise of Concordia Seminary. Dr. Weise, thanks for being with us.
WEISE: My pleasure. God’s peace to all of you.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“At the Lamb’s High Feast” arr. Charles Ore. From From My Perspective, vol. 1 by Charles Ore (© 1992 Organ Works Corporation) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Allegro” by J.S. Bach. From The Water Is Wide by the Concordia Trio (© 1999 Kevin Dolan)