“Why was the lawyer studying the Bible right before he died?”
“He was looking for loopholes.”
Everyone likes to poke fun at lawyers. Whenever someone finds out that I was a lawyer for 13 ½ years before becoming a pastor, they feel compelled to share their favourite lawyer joke with me.
Loopholes are important to lawyers. A “loophole” is defined as “a way of escaping or evading compliance with a law or terms contract.” Examples of loopholes abound. In 2005, a US retail giant planned to construct a store in the tiny hamlet of Dunkirk in Calvert County, Maryland. A county zoning ordinance restricted the size of a retail store to no more than 75,000 square feet. The retail giant wanted to build a much larger store. Corporate lawyers for the retailer came up with a plan that would have dodged the square foot restriction. They proposed building two buildings, side by side, on the same lot: a 74,998-square-foot stand alone general retail store and a 22,689-square-foot stand alone garden center. Each store would have had its own separate and distinct entrance, utilities, bathrooms, cash registers and product lines. However, together these stores would have had a combined area 30 percent larger than the 75,000-square-foot limit for a single retail store. The proposal appeared to meet the zoning ordinance yet the retail behemoth would be able to construct a complex that would, in effect, exceed the county’s zoning ordinance. The retail giant was poised to slip through a loophole in the ordinance. What a beautiful legal manoeuvre. It was a ‘perfect ten’! The retail giant would have complied with the county’s zoning ordinance and, at the same time, defeated its whole purpose: to keep big box stores out.
There are some who question whether the grace offered by God is really, in effect, a giant loophole. Listen to these questions which appeared from a user of a website called Ask.com: “It seems like a loophole in Christianity that you can just show up at the end of your life and say, ‘I believe in you God, I am sorry for all my sins’ and go to heaven. If this is the case, why does anybody at all go to Church prior to that time? Why not just "show up" for God at the end of your life?” The person posing these questions believes that heaven will be populated by two classes of people: those who attended church regularly through their lives and people who slip into heaven through their ‘loophole’. Those who relied on the loophole could live their lives on this earth as they pleased prior to their death. At death, all they had to do was to make a declaration of belief in God, and contrition for sins committed. Just like the retail giant, they could slip right through a crack in the pearly gates into heaven. The questioner wondered why anyone would sit in a hard pew Sunday after Sunday; listen to a preacher drone on and on about what a sinner you are, and like it! The questioner wondered why one would not just use this ‘loophole’. Like the retail giant, the Ask.com questioner believed that he or she was poised to make a beautiful legal manoeuvre. It was a perfect ten. The questioner had found a way comply with God’s requirements for entry into heaven without living a ‘religious life’.
How would you respond to these questions?
The Christian Church stops and ponders these and similar questions during a season of the church we call ‘Lent’. Lent begins on March 9th with Ash Wednesday and ends Sunday April 17, on Palm/Passion Sunday. During Lent, all Christians are essentially encouraged to question if the good news about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has been shared in a way that would cause us to believe that Jesus provides a giant loophole that permits us to simply show up at the end for God and all will be forgiven.
The Gospel according to St. Luke describes a scene at the very end of Jesus’ life as a human being among us; as He died on the cross between two men who hung on their own crosses. The Roman authorities had nailed a sign on Jesus’ cross above his head that read, ‘King of the Jews’. To almost everyone, this sign was seen as the ultimate putdown. Jesus was no king! He had no power, no authority, no subjects, no army and certainly no sovereignty. He was under the complete control of Rome. The Gospel continues:
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43).
One of the two criminals dying with our Lord saw Jesus in a new way. God had opened this man’s eyes so that he could see that the sign over Jesus’ head was not a joke, or the ultimate putdown, but the truth. He was permitted to see Jesus as the King of the Jews and the Son of God. With God’s help, he could see that Jesus was not suffering for any committed wrong. He saw Jesus’ suffering and death as something far greater. He was permitted to see that Jesus had a kingdom and a life in Him that was not of this earth but beyond this world. The man suffering on the cross was permitted to see and understand that death was the only way into Jesus’ otherworldly kingdom. The man dying with Jesus was permitted to see that Jesus was completely sovereign. Jesus had made a conscious decision to lay down His life. He was permitted to believe that Jesus had the sovereign authority to choose those who would be members of His kingdom. God also gave the man the ability to see that he had lived a sordid life and deserved his punishment; that he did not deserve to enter into Jesus’ kingdom by reason of that sinful life. If Jesus was not suffering for what He had done; God gave him the faint hope that Jesus could be suffering for that thief on the cross. God gave the dying man the hope and faint trust that the sovereign King Jesus might have mercy on him and let him into that kingdom. He did not presume he had any rights when it came to entry into Jesus’ kingdom; he humbly asked for mercy. Jesus responded with mercy and promised him entry into that kingdom beyond the gates of death. With His words of mercy, Jesus changed a criminal’s faint hope into an unshakeable belief and trust in life after death with Jesus.
I am convinced that the reformed criminal’s advice to the person asking the questions on Ask.com would be this: “I surveyed my life as I hung on my cross. I had to admit that I had lived my life my way. I satisfied my desires at the expense of others. I never thought of God or God’s desires for my life. I couldn’t change a thing. I could not make amends. I deserved what I got! Jesus made amends for me by His suffering and death. There are no loopholes! If I could have lived my life over again, I would have lived it differently. I would have thought about God and what He wanted for my life. I would have gone to God’s house to worship Him to learn about His will for me. I would have followed King Jesus on this side of the gateway to His kingdom. I would have become a part of God’s family, the church, where I would have grown in faith, been held accountable for my behaviour and held others accountable for their behaviour. Don’t wait to show up for God at the end! You may end up like the other criminal who hung beside me. When he had to show up for God, he insulted Jesus instead of having faith in Him. Start living with and for King Jesus now! He can be found at a church near you. What you do now has eternal consequences!”
In Christ, Pastor Ed
PS: The retail giant didn’t use their loophole; they withdrew their application. They knew it would have been wrong!
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