Good Riddance!

            Some years ago my husband and I watched a sitcom that we usually didn’t watch. Probably one of those we just left on at the tail end of something else. The oddity of the situation hooked us for thirty minutes, plus commercials, of course.

            An office co-worker had died. No one really liked him, but going to the funeral was something you did for a co-worker, even someone you weren’t very fond of. Hardly anyone showed up. I don’t even remember that anyone officiated, unless it was the undertaker. When it came time to give people an opportunity to say something about the deceased, those attending wiggled in their seats. Then someone got up and tried to say something nice but true. Apparently it was difficult. It wasn’t long before the recollections deteriorated, and the funeral became a tribute to the horridness of the deceased. It was a curious, haunting show, and although I’ve forgotten much about the specifics, I’ve remembered that the dead man had lived a life that could only be described negatively by those who knew him.

            The sitcom came to mind the other day as I was reading through the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Bible. If you think the Bible is boring, you aren’t reading the Bible. It’s fascinating! I've laughed out loud at six-fifteen in the morning and then groaned at the choices of kings, yes, kings, who lived thousands of years ago. Though the particulars of their lives may be different than ours, the opportunity for good and evil living was there for them just as it is for us.

            The other morning, however, I didn’t laugh or groan. I was aghast. King Jehoram was a nasty piece of work. He was a wicked murderer and an idolater, and he led his kingdom away from the true God. He became king when he was only thirty-two and reigned eight years. That’s only as long as one of our presidents is allowed in office, which is not long for a king to have reigned. Then the man died an agonizing death.

            What shocked me the most was this: He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. (II Chronicles 21:20, NIV) No one regretted his death! No one! Even when someone with a questionable life passes away, there’s usually someone who mourns the loss of life, even if it’s only cronies who have partied with the deceased. This guy hadn’t a mourner, and he didn’t even have a grave with the kings, although he’d been one eight years. It’s as if everyone said, “Good riddance! He’s worth neither a tear nor a tomb.” He lived an aggressively evil life.

            Well, we’re not like that, right? But living a life that pleases God is more than simply not being horrible like the deceased in the sitcom or vile like the king. It’s proactively seeking to live a godly life and to act upon the righteousness God has given to us in Christ. The opposite of evil is not doing nothing. It is service that leaves behind the aroma of Christ in contrast to the life of Jehoram that left a stench. What are we doing? What kind of smell are we leaving behind? May it be the sweet scent of our Savior.