Some weeks ago I mentioned the idea of retelling a parable in a contemporary setting.  I preached Luke 18:9-14 and used a contemporized version for my introduction. In this post I will give the transcription of the parable.  In part 2 I will share my explanation of why I did it this way.

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It’s amazing how a brother and sister can end up in such different places.

For example, Steve and Lyndsey.  Steve and Lyndsey grew up in a good Christian home.  Father was a minister in a small rural church and they had everything that they could ask for.  They went through their teenage years, went off to university, and then things seemed to go a little bit differently.  Lyndsey did well, she went to university, studied hard, was very effective in her studies and got a good degree.  She was very involved in the Christian Union, and they invited her back to take an extra year working in the CU among students.  So she spent that extra year there on campus and during that year she met the man who would become her husband.  They got married.  And they settled into a good life, a very good life.  They were very involved in their church: leading home groups, leading youth work, leading Sunday School classes.  In fact, if there was something on a Monday night they would have been there too, because they were there every night of the week doing something, they were the kind of people you love to have in a church.  Lyndsey and her husband were the epitome of a busy, hard working, Christian couple.

Steve was a bit different, he went to university and he was clever as well, very effective, but not very focused on his studies.  He was more motivated by money.  He found a way to make money very easily.  In the university where he attended there was a bit of a drug culture, not obvious on the outside, but it was there and if you knew where to go you could get the drugs.  And Steve sort of dabbled a little bit, but didn’t want to get addicted so he pulled back.  But recognizing the power of the drugs he decided to start selling.  He knew that if he could get other people on the drugs then they would be dependent on him and he would be raking the money in – especially if he wasn’t addicted and having to spend the money himself.  That’s how he went through university, scraped through his final exams and headed out into the world to continue making massive money.  Steve drove the nicest car.  Steve didn’t own a home, he rented a hotel room to live in.  He lived in absolute luxury paying cash day after day.  Because he had everything he could wish for. He got involved in different forms of illicit living and in the end one of his male friends gave him a disease.  And Steve, with all the money he could ever wish for, was being ravaged by this deadly disease. 

Christmas came, and Christmas day Steve spent in his hotel room.  All day his mind played games with him, reminiscing, taking him back to memories of his childhood.  But somehow he couldn’t put that together with where he was now and the state he was in.  And that night, before he fell into bed he sat on the edge of his bed, with tears pouring down his face and cried out to God, “God my life is a mess, have mercy on me.”

Lyndsey and her husband had a busy day.  Of course, church all morning, very involved with that.  Then they came home and had a great Turkey dinner – her parents were there, his parents were there.  And all day her mind was playing tricks on her.  She kept reminiscing back to childhood and remembering all those times with Steve her brother.  That night, before she fell into bed content and happy with the way the day had gone, Lyndsey prayed.  And she said, “Thank you God that I’m not like Steve.  Thank you God that my life has turned out the way it’s supposed to.  Thank you that I don’t do those sins that he does, I don’t even know some of the things he does.  I thank you that I can be involved in all these good things.  I can be so involved in church, I do above and beyond what any pastor would suggest his people do.”  Then she went to sleep.

Lyndsey and Steve, brother and sister, ended up in completely different places.  Actually, completely different places.  Because Steve went to heaven.  Lyndsey didn’t.

Now in the interest of honesty let me tell you that that story is not strictly true, I made it up.  It’s fabricated and any likeness to anyone you know is completely coincidental.  And yet that story is so true all around us.  On both sides.  In the interest of honesty let me also tell you that that isn’t my story, it’s actually Jesus’ story.  And if you have a Bible, let’s look at it, Luke chapter 18 . . .