May 13, 2020 – Click here to listen
A tropical disturbance is located in the proximity of the Bahamas this week and the seas are churning and producing huge waves. Fishing will cease until the storm passes. I can’t cry over being land-locked as it would do no good, so I decided to make use of the down time to get my boat engines serviced, so I’ll be ready to go when calmer seas prevail.
So I call the marine mechanic and he is crying the blues over reduced business due to the virus. He had all kinds of specials going on and said he would put his top guy on my boat first thing Monday morning. So he sent me a couple of photos of a missing grate on my intake valves for my live wells and I decided to go down and view them first-hand. Plus I wanted to discuss changing a couple of fuel valves that were corroded and go over that with the mechanic.
I did not call ahead and when I arrived the manager did not seem too thrilled to see me. I found out why shortly afterwards when I asked to see my boat. No one was working on it in fact it had not been touched. So I asked him what’s up with his promise to jump right on it first thing Monday morning. He looked at me rather sheepishly and told me his schedule had been changed by a couple of executives at the dealership for whom he worked. I saw the head mechanic, (the guy that was supposed to be working on my boat), working on a large rubber raft looking affair with twin 400 Mercury engines. There was enough horsepower on that thing to accommodate a boat five times the size of the one it was on.
I enquired about it and learned that it was a tinder for a yacht, (boat used to jetty people back and forth to a larger boat.) So I said, well now I understand. “You put my business on a back-burner in order to accommodate some fat cat who didn’t want to wait in line.” I was not in a rush anyway due to the storm heading our way, but it was the principle of the thing. I didn’t pitch a fit, but I suppose my demeanor was such that he knew I was plenty unhappy. And by the time I got home he had already sent me an apology letter.
As I was thinking of this today, I thought of the billions of people who are put in situations just like this daily. This type of preferential treatment has been around since the dawn of time. I’ve never liked it but some not only like it, but they feel entitled to it. One of my good friends who passed away a few years back sold his software company for $500 million dollars and I had just sold mine for $75 million. We attended the same mega church and he embarrassed me more than anyone ever embarrassed me at church one day. The church was conducting a pastor’s conference and pastors had come from all over the country for a week of preaching and worship.
Some of the premiere pastors from around the country including Adrian Rodgers had come and as one might understand the auditorium was packed. My buddy and I always attended Bible study prior to the service and afterwards we would go to the main service and always sit in the same seats; however this Sunday they had asked all regular attendees to sit in the balcony. We walked from our class into the auditorium and it was already nearly full with more folks streaming in. I turned and started heading up to the balcony, but my buddy grabbed me by the arm and pulled me along beside him heading for our regular seats.
The usher recognized us and asked us to please sit in the balcony for this special service. Suddenly my buddy loudly said, “Look here my friend Bob and I contribute enough money to this church to sit wherever we want. In fact they should give us our own pew.” I was stunned, embarrassed, ashamed, and sick to my stomach and felt about a ¼ inch tall. I pulled my arm free and told my friend I was heading to the balcony. I then apologized to the usher, telling him I would be more than happy to sit in the balcony as I walked toward the stairs. My friend stayed down there and sat in his normal seat by himself.
I’ve noticed that it’s not just the rich who act like this. Every Sunday when we leave the parking lot, I see car after car that rudely cuts people off and I don’t believe they would let anyone in line if their life depended on it. Then I see it again when I get on the expressway. I see it at the grocery store with folks rushing to beat someone to an open register. Unbelievably it is the worst at Christmas time when we are supposedly celebrating Jesus’s birthday.
Egad!
Jesus said, “The last shall be first and the first last.” Jesus said this in the context of His encounter with the rich young ruler. After the young man turned away from Jesus, unable to give up his great wealth, Jesus’s disciples asked the Lord what reward they would have in heaven, since they had given up everything to follow Him. Jesus promised them “a hundred times as much,” plus eternal life. Then He said, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first”.
Jesus was not teaching that the way to get to heaven is to live a life of poverty in this world. Scripture is clear that salvation is by grace through faith, not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9) — and is independent of one’s financial status. Also, Jesus was not teaching an automatic reversal of roles in heaven. There is no heavenly law wherein the poor and oppressed must rule over the rich and powerful. The rich aren’t always last in heaven, and the poor aren’t always first. Nor will believers who enjoy wealth and prestige on earth be required to somehow be abased in heaven. Earthly rank will not automatically translate into an inverse heavenly rank. God, who sees the heart, will reward accordingly. The disciples are an example of those who may be first, and they happened to be poor (but their poverty was not what makes them first in heaven). The rich young ruler is an example of those who may be last, and he happened to be rich (but his wealth was not what makes him last).
What Jesus is teaching is this: there will be many surprises in heaven. Heaven’s value system is far different from earth’s value system. Those who are esteemed and respected in this world (like the rich young ruler) may be frowned upon by God. The opposite is also true: those who are despised and rejected in this world (like the disciples) may, in fact, be rewarded by God. Don’t get caught up in the world’s way of ranking things; it’s too prone to error. Those who are first in the opinion of others (or first in their own opinion!) may be surprised to learn, on Judgment Day, they are last in God’s opinion.
My friend did give tons of money to the church and allowed them to use his private jet often. I believe he had developed a bad habit similar to a Thomas Sowell quote I read, When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. Like us, he was human and had some fleshly faults. Only God knows where he will sit in heaven. I might imagine he is sitting in the balcony, but I don’t think he is bothered by it because he loved the Lord and there is no question about that.
The safest thing we can do is to just treat others like we would want to be treated. No one likes to be forced to the end of the line due to preferential treatment gone awry, or be cutoff in traffic, or watch celebrities get away with crimes or get their kids into the best colleges because their parents are famous.
One day God will right the wrongs in the world. As for me I subscribe to what my brother told me not long before he died. He said he would be happy if he could just be a janitor in heaven versus going to hell. He just wanted to make it inside those pearly gates. I feel the same . . . give me the lowest job now and forever as long as I can be with Jesus.
James 2:8
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.