Jesus said to the crowds: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”
Who famously said, “Truth is stranger than fiction”? It was the same author who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn – Mark Twain. He said that because it is hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction, and often we prefer the fiction and illusion rather than the fact or truth. For example alcoholics don’t believe they have a drinking problem; they prefer the illusion, the fiction that they are fine. People who suffer from anorexia believe they are over-weight, even though they are really skinny; they prefer the fiction over the fact. Braiden Sharum thinks he’s the coolest kid in school, but that’s just an illusion, just fiction. Just kidding, Braiden, you really are the coolest. I think I have a full head of hair. But again, truth is stranger than fiction, and because the truth is so much stranger, we prefer the fiction. We live in our illusions. It’s hard to tell which is which.
In the gospel today Jesus helps us overcome our greatest illusion, the one fiction that’s the hardest to shake, namely, the harsh reality of death. It is a fact that we will all die some day. I like to say that “no one is getting out of here alive!” And yet, we don’t really believe it, especially when we’re teenagers. How many of you truly think you will die someday? Like alcoholics, like anorexics, like Braiden and like me, we prefer the illusion that we will live forever. Heck, we even have stores called “Forever 21” to perpetuate precisely that illusion. So, Jesus tells us today that we will in fact die. But there’s another fact that’s equally important, namely, if we believe in him, he will raise us up on the last day. That’s a fact, too, a fact of our faith. You see, Jesus will indeed help us to live forever after we die, but we must put our faith, our hope and our love in him. The hardest fact and fiction to sort out is death and life.
Mark Twain said, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” and because truth is so much stranger, people prefer the fiction, to live in our illusions. I hope someday you will read the great masterpiece called “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. In it, Satan wallowing in hell consoles himself by saying, “The mind is such a thing that it can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven.” In other words, even though I’m in hell, it ain’t so bad! My mind can make me believe that it’s as good as heaven! That’s exactly the devil’s greatest weapon – to confuse fact and fiction – and a lot of us give in to him. Only Jesus can help us figure out which is which.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
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