Lent: On Mortality

On Ash Wednesday, ashes are marked on foreheads in the sign of the cross. This practice is actually a symbolic reminder of our own mortality. It tells us in the most vivid way that from dust we came and to dust we shall return (Gen 3:19; Ecc 3:20). It is interesting that the whole celebration of Lent begins in this way. It reminds us that the path of Lent is the path of death. This is patterned after the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus was aware that His entire life and ministry will ultimately lead to His death. He journeyed from Galilee to Jerusalem with the knowledge that when He arrives in Jerusalem, He would die at the hands of the religious leaders. He spoke about this quite openly to His disciples. This means that for us, participating in Lent means participating in Jesus’ journey towards death. It is our participation in His journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Events in the world remind us of the reality of life and death: natural disasters and the deaths of family members and friends. Each of these instances reminds us that death is the ultimate destination of humanity. There are only two things that are inevitable in this world: change and death. These are also the two things that we have no complete control of. Our life on earth is also like the journey of Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary. Whether we like it or not, we are going to climb our own Golgothas.

We rename death so that it does not sound so bad. We call the dead someone who is “at peace” or “at rest” or “one who goes to a better place.” We call death as “passing away.” We may even try to suppress the thought about death. We make ourselves busy so that we do not have to face the reality of death. The philosopher Martin Heidegger remarked that we busy ourselves in the crowd in the hope of forgetting our fears. Death is feared because it is irreversible: “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die” (2 Sam 14:14).

The immediacy, imminence, and reality of death is vividly narrated in Psalm 90:3-12, which was apparently written by Moses. So what was Moses’ credential to write about human death? Let us look back at biblical history. According to the Bible, there were 600,000 (excluding women and children) who left Egypt (Exo 12:37; Num 11:21). At Mount Sinai, when there was a census, the record was that there were 603,550 men over 20 years old present (Num 1:45-46). In the second census, when the Israelites were on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho (Num 26:3), there were 601,730 males recorded (Num 26:51). [1]

600,000 men, excluding women and children	left Egypt	Exodus 12:37; Numbers 11:21
603,550 men over 20 years	Mt. Sinai	Numbers 1:45-46
601,730 males	Jordan River	Numbers 26:51

We may remember that many (if not all) of those who left Egypt were not able to enter the promised land. Yahweh proclaimed: “Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it” (Num 14:21-23). Also, we read in the Scriptures how God brought death to the Israelites in huge numbers while they were in the wilderness:

3000 killed by Levites	Golden Calf at Sinai	Exodus 32:28
23,000 killed by God	Golden Calf at Sinai	Exodus 32:35; 1 Cor 10:8
14,700 killed by God	Kadesh Barnea	Numbers 16:49
24,000 killed by God	At Shittim near Jordan	Numbers 25:9
many people killed by God	Zered river	Numbers 21:6

Moses saw and encountered death all throughout his life in the desert with the Israelites. He witnessed how people’s lives are so fragile. All throughout Psalm 90 we see Moses’ description of human mortality. Verses 3, 6, and 10 portray the shortness of human life. Verses 7-9 and 11 reveal Moses’ awareness of the wrath of God which He witnessed as the cause of the death of many Israelites.

You turn people back to dust,
    saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:
In the morning it springs up new,
    but by evening it is dry and withered.

We are consumed by your anger
    and terrified by your indignation.
You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your presence.
All our days pass away under your wrath;
    we finish our years with a moan.
Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
If only we knew the power of your anger!
    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

But after considering the life-span of humanity and the anger of God, Moses leaves us a verse with an important lesson: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90:12).

Teach Us to Number Our Days (90:12a)

We like measuring things. Laboratories are filled with instruments that measure things by milliliters and milligrams, but it is easy to neglect measuring our life span on earth. Thomas Chalmers once remarked, “Once in my unconverted days I forgot two things: the magnitude of eternity and the shortness of life. These are the great mathematical factors which I now see to be important.”

What does it mean to number our days? It is to recognize that life is short. The Bible has some more passages that highlight this: “we all shrivel up like a leaf” (Isa 64:6); “you have made my days a mere handbreadth” (Ps 39:5); and “you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

Life is short and time runs fast. We do not need rocket science and complicated calculations to notice that our days on earth are fleeting. Although we do not notice it, because we are busy living our lives, the people around us are changing. Our children are now attending schools, and what’s left of their childhood are only photographs. Children who we once knew are now in relationships, ready to get married. Some of them have become successful in their careers. Some of our grandparents, parents, relatives and friends have passed away. Time is fast. It runs its course without our permission and observation.

A Heart of Wisdom (90:12b)

Moses admonished that God would teach us to number our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom. What wisdom is found in the awareness of our fleeting existence?

1. Teach us to number our days so that we do not offend God (90: 7-9, 11). Moses witnessed the hasty death of his fellow Israelites because they have disobeyed God. This is foolishness. It is not wise to spend our short days in blatant disobedience. Moses is saying that since our life on earth is short, we should spend it in pleasing God and obeying His commands. We cannot be arrogant before God, continuously incurring His wrath because of our grumblings, murmurings, and disobedience. Since we owe God every minute of our existence, we should spend it in worship.

2. Teach us to number our days so that we store treasures in heaven: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt 6:19-20). People spend their days trying to gain more money. To use John Bunyan’s words, it is “raking a little bit of dust into a pile: a little bit of money, a little bit of property, and little bit of this and that.”

We are reminded of the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-20): “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” There are many who are fools, although they are not rich.  Jesus said, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36).

3. Teach us to number our days so that we redeem the time. Paul admonishes us to “make the most of every opportunity in these evil days (Eph 5:16). William Whiting Borden, graduate of Yale and Princeton Theological Seminary, once said: “Each day consists of 24 golden hours; each hour consists of sixty diamond-studded minutes.”

Of course, in all these things, we must learn from the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus knew that His days on earth were numbered. The distance from the Sea of Galilee to Jerusalem is a mere 123 kilometers. It will take about 2 hours to drive this distance. (The average speed a human walks is 3-5 kilometers per hour. Walking 3 kilometers per hour in 8 hours gives you 24 hours per day. This means that to walk from Galilee to Jerusalem should only take 5.125 days.) Jesus knew that His walk to Jerusalem, where He would die was a very short walk. It is true that it took Him three years to get to Jerusalem because of His teaching and healing ministries. But He was aware that every step He took was leading Him closer to Jerusalem.

Jesus knew that His days were numbered. So how did He use His remaining days on earth? He used each day seeking the lost, serving the needy, proclaiming the kingdom, healing the sick, fellowshipping with the outcasts, teaching the gospel, and forgiving sinners. Lent is a commemoration of the short life of Christ before His death. Like Christ, we are all in this journey. The question is: “How are we living our days on earth? Are we pursuing a life full of wisdom or foolishness? Are we using our days like Christ in obedience to the Father and in service to other people, or are we using them to gratify our self with pleasure and indulgence?

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[1] http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-population-of-jews-hebrews.htm

Stewardship of Time

Ephesians 5:16 


This is the first of my sermons on stewardship. 

The 2011 movie In Time narrates a futuristic world where time is the new currency. At the age of 25, the physical body stops aging, but the catch is that when you reach your 25^th birthday, you only have one more year to live. You are implanted with a machine on your arm that tells you how much time you still have. You can earn time by working. You can donate time to your love ones. But you also buy everything, and pay everything, including riding the bus, with time. When your time runs out, you die.

The movie gives one realization: time is a precious commodity. We live in a world that values time and extra time. Time is precious. Many of the technological advances today are meant to give us extra time. Communication gadgets allow us to send and receive messages in less time. Transportation improvements enable us to go to our destination in less time. Culinary merchandises allow us to cook instantly or with less time. Fast foods are there so that we can eat and go, using less time.

With these technological advances and conveniences the world affords today, we should have more leisure time than any period in history, but the opposite is really the case. We are becoming more and more impatient and are more and more convinced that we need more time. We feel as if there is so much to do with very little time. We are always running out of time. Sometimes we even think that God is quite unfair that He only gave us 24 hours a day.

The Bible does not offer a lot of passages that deal with time, but where it does, it always gives a feeling of urgency. The general realization is that our existence on earth is so short:

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days;

    let me know how fleeting my life is.⁵ You have made my days a mere handbreadth;    the span of my years is as nothing before you.Everyone is but a breath,    even those who seem secure” (Ps 39:4-5)

Maybe because people realize that time is so short that they want to live their lives while enjoying it to the fullest. Of course there is nothing wrong with enjoying the little time we have on earth. In fact the writer of Ecclesiastes encourages us to do this: “I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad” (Ecc 8:15). Taken to the extreme, this can mean doing precisely what the Greeks thought, summarized by Paul: “Eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor 15:32).

While enjoying life is novel, considering the shortness of life on earth, we are admonished to live it in the best way possible.: “Teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely” (Ps 90:12). Because our days are numbered, we must, in the words of Horace, always “seize the day.” The Christian motif is to live carefully. As Paul wrote: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, ²⁰ giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:15-20).

It is this passage that we are going to look at today, and in particular, we are going to discuss what it means to “make the most of the time” (5:16).

Redemption of Time 

Paul tells us that we must be careful to live our lives and make most of the time (5:16a). What does this mean? The different English translations reveal that Paul’s words are hard to interpret:

NRSV translate the Greek to “making most of the time”

NIV translates it as “making the most of every opportunity”

KJV translates it as “redeeming the time”

This is because the two Greek words can be confusing: exagorazomenoi ton kairon. The word exagorazomenoi literally means buying back or redeeming something from its captivity (an example will be ransoming a child from kidnappers or redeeming an item from a pawnshop). This implies that time is in bondage to something, or is corrupted, which is why it needs to be redeemed. It seems that Paul is telling his readers that their task is to take back godly time from its current misuse. Paul is very clear: “the days are evil” (5:16b). Elsewhere, he says that there are powers of this dark world and principalities that are at work (6:12-13). The same evil powers are “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (2:2). Our role is to snatch the time that evil is stealing from us, and redeem them for better use.

It is easy for us to understand what it means for time to be corrupted or misused. A survey conducted in the USA reveals something important about how people spend their God-given 24 hours. The biggest activities of the day are eating, working, household chores, travelling, tv and movies, socializing, and sleeping. The three biggest chunks are work, tv and movies, and sleeping. 

If we look at our lives today, how are we spending our time? Are there areas that have fallen to sin, and which must be redeemed?

Grabbing the Opportunity

In Greek, the word used for “time” is kairos. This word refers to an appointed time or moment. Kairos does not refer to linear time but is the God-given moment for Him to accomplish His will. This means that literally, the translation would be: We must live in such a way that we are redeeming or buying back God’s appointed moment to accomplish His will. Our task is to make the most of the opportunity God has given us. This is why NRSV translates the Greek to “making most of the time” and NIV translates it as “making the most of every opportunity.” God has appointed somethings to happen at specific times. It can very specific, like at 11:00AM on a Sunday you should be at church; but it can also be general, like you should finish your college schooling for 6 years.

The problem is that these God-given opportunities are not really appreciated or even grabbed. This is probably why Paul said that these opportunities must be redeemed. God wants His people to do something right now, but we are not doing them. Worse, we are not only not doing what God appointed us to do, but we are doing the exact opposite. It is like a parent telling a child that he should work on his homework. The child not only does not do his homework, but plays videogames instead.

So how do we make use of the opportunities God has given us? We can get an idea by looking at Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians:

1. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness” (5:6, 11). Participating in the unfruitful works of darkness is a waste of time. While it is true that the world is filled with darkness, the evil times does not excuse the people of God from using every opportunity to accomplish their given tasks. Although we are affected by the mood of the world, it must not necessarily control our life.  

2. “Do not be foolish” (5:17a). The Greek word aphron is used either to refer to a petrified, inert person or someone who acts frantically without prior thinking. Francis Chan narrates a story about a pastor who was driving and who happened to pass by a parked car. A big guy is harassing the old man in the driving seat of the parked car. So the pastor stopped his car and tried to mediate. He felt convicted that this was the right thing to do. The pastor was trying to pacify the big guy, but when the big guy began to forcefully pull the old driver from the car, he gathered all his strength and gave the big guy an uppercut.

Have you ever been in a situation when you are convicted to do something but you did not do it, then later you blame yourself for not doing it? What would you do if you were in the situation of the pastor? Foolishness (aphron) is the inability to act when something is needed. We must make most of the opportunities given to us.

But secondly, aphron can also mean acting frantically without prior thinking. This too is foolishness. This is also a waste of time. You try to do everything, or you commit yourself to something without thinking the consequences. It is making decisions rashly. It is acting based on explosive emotions or impulse. It is the inability to step back and think before doing something. Acting rashly is also the reason why Paul prohibits Christians from getting drunk (5:18a), because people who are drunk have low inhibitions. They can act rashly without thinking properly. They know what they are doing, except that they don’t care about it much.

Sometimes, when we just do whatever we want to do without thinking over things, we end up being very busy, using all the time we have in your life, but we may be accomplishing nothing which God really wants us to do.

Paul said: “So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (5:17). The only way for us to act properly every day is when we understand and know what the will of the Lord is. We must we be wise (5:15b) in finding what is pleasing to the Lord (5:10; Rom 16:19; James 3:13). We must know God’s purpose for our lives every time we wake up. We must continually be sensitive and discerning about what divine opportunities are in front of us. This can only happen when we are filled with the Spirit (5:18c), for the Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 16:13), who convicts the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).

Conclusions

Out of nowhere and no justifiable reason at all, a certain man was chosen to be the recipient of a generous donation. For the rest of his life, he would be receiving US$86,400.00 per day, and the only condition was that he would need to spend all of it every day too. If we think that the man is fortunate, then we should also feel blessed, because all human beings are receiving the gift of 86,400 seconds each day until we die. The only condition is for us to use all of it for the glory of God, whether we are eating, drinking, or even sleeping (1 Cor 10:31).

God has given us such a great gift: opportunities to glorify Him by “singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” and “making melody” (5:19) and to “give thanks to God the Father” (5:20). Our lives are characterized by opportunities to serve God, the Almighty. In fact, Paul says that time is entrusted to Christians so that we may do good works (Gal 6:10; Eph 2:10; cf Rom 12:11). He also says that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). We are also informed by biblical writers that we are given time so that we might reach out to other people (Mark 13:10; Rev 6:11; 2 Pet 3:9; Eph 6:18-19).

These are exciting times indeed. These are the days of salvation. These are the days when sins are forgiven. These are the days when the Spirit of God is active in the world. These are the days of people being born again. These are the days of the harvest.