‘Hullo is that the insurance company?” “Yes this is the
insurance company.” “Oh good, my name is Smith and I live in a house on the
east road, I want a fire insurance policy on my house for $400, 000. Could you
please make out a cover note for me immediately?”
“Well yes, Mr Smith we
could do that, but first I need more information; how old is the house? Have
you had any insurance on it before? And why do you want a cover immediately?”
Somehow I don’t think the insurance company will agree to Mr
Smith’s request, do you?
When I was 8 years old we lived on a property out in Western
N.S.W. there was no telephone and the letterbox was 14 kilometres from the
house, that was during the 2nd World War and there was a shortage of
petrol, therefore the letters sometimes didn’t get answered for a week or two,
and I think that was the reason the insurance on our house became overdue. On
the night in question we awoke at 3.00am to find the house engulfed in flames
and we escaped with little more than the pyjamas we were wearing. Dad went to
town in his pyjamas and overcoat the next day and told the insurance agent that
the house had been completely destroyed. The agent phoned his head office in
Sydney and they pointed out that as the premium had not been paid they were
under no obligation to pay any claim, however, much to Dad’s relief they did pay
the insurance anyway.
Now why the difference
in these two scenarios?
Well, Mr Smith, in the first story would be looked on as an
opportunist or con-man; not prepared to bear the cost of insurance protection
but nevertheless wanting to claim the benefits. Whereas in the second story my
dad was known as an honest man who had paid the cost of insurance protection
for many years and the insurance company apparently had Christian ethics and therefore
believed he was “just late with his payment” (as he said) so they accepted that.
Jesus was placed in a somewhat similar position to both these insurance
companies when He was crucified between two thieves; the first thief to speak
said to Jesus: “If you be the Son of God,
save thyself and us”. Now from that statement we can see that there is no
commitment there; like Mr Smith this man just wanted the benefits. He didn’t
repent or show any remorse. If Jesus had done what that thief had requested he
would have been defying the magistrates by letting a condemned criminal go free
and would have been complicit in helping that man return to his life of crime. Consequently
Jesus did not grant his request. The second thief however approached Jesus with
an entirely different request and had an entirely different attitude when he
said: “Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy Kingdom.” In making this statement he showed that he recognised
Jesus as “Lord” and “King” and wanted to be one of his followers in future. He
even told the other thief that they deserved the suffering they were going
through so he was also repentant. And as “believing in Jesus and repenting” are
the requirements for Salvation, Jesus replied: “This day you will be with me in Paradise”. There is a cost in
everything we do: Jesus said we should “count the cost” of following him and
pointed out on a number of occasions, the dreadful cost of not following him.
The Mr Smith mentioned above would be regretting that he hadn’t accepted the
cost of his premium, and the first thief on the cross has had 2015 years of
regret as he languishes in Hell and there is no end in sight either because
there is no end to eternity.
The black box retrieved from the plane that was crashed into
the French Alps indicated that many passengers were screaming as it went down.
Why? Well it could just be natural fear and that is understandable. However it
is also possible that for some that fear was part of the fact that they had not
expected to be faced with death so soon and therefore had put off making a
decision, thus the uncertainty of their eternal future would be horrifying. We all need to make sure we’ve got that
right. Best wishes, Tom.
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