DEAD PEOPLE IN FIRST CLASS!
Neal Pollard
Neal Pollard
Very occasionally I get the opportunity to sit in first class and it is a different ride from coach, from the legroom to the service. I even have a few interesting stories about riding up front, but nothing to match Paul Trinder's harrowing tale. Paul was sleeping up in first class last Friday on a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London. He shifted in his seat, took a peek at his seat mate, and then probably remembered that he hadn't had a seat mate before he drifted off to sleep. Trinder says, "I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill. When I asked what was going on, I was shocked to hear she was dead." She died in coach, and first class was apparently the only place available for dead body storage.
Analogously, Americans are definitely in the first class compartment of this world. Our nation is beautiful, our resources abundant, our infrastructures in great shape, our material wealth nearly unrivaled, and our quality of life--from our food choice to our health care--is without peer among the other nations of the world. Yet, here in "first class" there are dead people everywhere! They are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13)! They need to know that even when dead in their trespasses, they can be made alive in Christ (Eph. 2:5). Unlike the situation that made airline headlines, the spiritually dead can be made alive again through Christ. The Prodigal's father rejoiced that his son, once dead to him, was alive again (Luke 15:24).
No matter how well we are living physically and materially, it means nothing if we are dead in our sins (cf. Luke 12:19; 16:19). We lose it all, even if we could gain the whole world, if we lose our soul (Matt. 16:26). Yes, masses of folks are dying whose existence is lived far below "first class" accommodations. Everyone, from every lot in life, needs nothing more than the saving message of Christ. It should disturb us more than anything else to know that people all around us are dead!
Analogously, Americans are definitely in the first class compartment of this world. Our nation is beautiful, our resources abundant, our infrastructures in great shape, our material wealth nearly unrivaled, and our quality of life--from our food choice to our health care--is without peer among the other nations of the world. Yet, here in "first class" there are dead people everywhere! They are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13)! They need to know that even when dead in their trespasses, they can be made alive in Christ (Eph. 2:5). Unlike the situation that made airline headlines, the spiritually dead can be made alive again through Christ. The Prodigal's father rejoiced that his son, once dead to him, was alive again (Luke 15:24).
No matter how well we are living physically and materially, it means nothing if we are dead in our sins (cf. Luke 12:19; 16:19). We lose it all, even if we could gain the whole world, if we lose our soul (Matt. 16:26). Yes, masses of folks are dying whose existence is lived far below "first class" accommodations. Everyone, from every lot in life, needs nothing more than the saving message of Christ. It should disturb us more than anything else to know that people all around us are dead!
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