Week 2 July 2026 – REFLECTION ON IMMORALITY LUSTING FOR IMMORTALITY

“Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”   Matthew 22:13

Thanks to my affinity for legal thrillers, I used to buy the newest bestseller by John Grisham the moment I saw it on Amazon.  When I spotted “The Widow” by chance while looking for dry-eye relief, I automatically scanned the reviews.  One who gave it five stars, claimed it was Grisham’s best ever.  The lone grump complained that he had to read over 150 pages about a corrupt judge until somebody was finally found dead.  Happily, not so on ABC’s “20/20” primetime TV newsmagazine, hosted by David Muir and Deborah Roberts.  Its “character-driven true crime mysteries” usually start with a 911 call reporting a murder.  Sometimes it amounts to a two-hour yawn because of boring repetitions and endless commercials.  What keeps me hooked is the happy cat snoozing in my lap, and marveling how all the sordid stuff happens precisely because of the people’s lack of character.  Invariably, the murderer is consigned to “rot in hell,” and the victim is the newest “angel in heaven.”

 Actually, the theology is rotten because most often it’s immorality that drives the creepy plots.  If repeat adultery is involved, each sibling in a family tends to be from a “previous relationship.”  The glowing eulogy for the unwed parent of a toddler, pregnant from sleeping with the married but philandering school principal, celebrates the most beloved and highly accomplished “Teacher of the Year.”  Sometimes it takes decades to dig up the body to secure a “guilty” verdict from the jury, having heard the testimony of a forensic scientist who studies stages of decomposition on his Body Farm.  What if there is nothing left?  When soft tissue vanishes, bones and teeth undergo “diagenesis,” turning into dust.  Fancy reading in Genesis 3:19 what God said to Adam, “For dust you are and to dust you shall return.”  Satan has no minions with dust cloths in hell.  They cover their ears with them because of the relentless “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This expression meant to be taken seriously by His Church, is first spoken by Christ in Matthew 22:1-14, “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet.”  It is for the king’s son, but he notices the guest who slipped in without being properly dressed.  He is speechless when addressed as “friend,” but asked what made him think he was welcome.  “Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"    If we read up on the “great white throne” judgment in Rev. 20:11ff, we learn there are no second chances for unrepentant sinners of every era in human history.  Upon a human’s first death, the soul temporarily separates from the body.  The biblical “second death” means the conscious awareness of forever separation from our holy, loving God’s presence.  That is the true hell of endless, uselessly remorseful weeping and teeth-gnashing.  The verdict is in.  These two cannot ever be “friends” – immorality that lusts for immortality.