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69. The Life After This One
Jesus told a story to show that what happens after we die matters more than what happens in this life:
“Once there were two men. One was rich. He had expensive clothes, ate yummy food, and had everything he wanted.
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“One day Lazarus died, and God took him to live with him in the life after this one.
“Then the rich man died. He hadn’t listened to God’s messengers telling him to love and obey God and to ask him for forgiveness – and so he was not able to be where Lazarus was. Instead, he went to a place where there was nothing good. He was filled up with deep sadness.
“The rich man asked if Lazarus could help. But there was a great gap between them, and no one could cross it, ever.
“So the rich man asked if someone could tell his brothers about the life after this one,” Jesus said. “But of course they already had people to tell them about it. They had God’s messengers they could listen to — especially the messenger who would rise from the dead.”
70. The Religious Leader and the Tax Collector
Some people thought that they were really good people and so God would definitely want them to live with him in his kingdom forever. So Jesus told them this story:
“Two men went to the temple to pray. One of them was a religious leader who took God’s rules very seriously. Everyone thought he was a very good person.
“The religious leader prayed, ‘God, thank you that I am a better person than people like this tax collector. I am good at obeying you.’
“The other man was a tax collector who had broken lots of God’s rules. Everyone thought he was a very bad person.
“The tax collector prayed in a sad voice, ‘God, I know I am not a good person. I have not obeyed you. Please forgive me.’
“The tax collector went home as God’s forgiven friend, but the religious leader did not,” said Jesus.
“Some people think they are good enough to be friends with God. But they will find out one day that they are not God’s friends at all. Some people know they are not good enough, and they ask God to forgive them. Those people are friends with God.”
