Two angels unlocked a door to an enclosed check-in counter ready to begin a new merciful morning. As they walked in together they noticed on their desk stacks of files and folders. These two angels were tasked with admitting people into Heaven. To the left of the two angels’ check in counter stood the Gates of Pearl with another angel guarding it like some sort of heavenly bouncer.
Angels are ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). Angels, though servants of God, desire to know the experience that redeemed humanity feel (Heb. 1:6; 1 Pt. 1:12). Furthermore, angels neither marry, or bear children. Nor do they know God as Father (Matt. 22:30; Heb. 1:5). There’s much that angels do not understand or experience that humanity has the privilege to know.
The two angels stood behind their desk looking at all the files and appointments for the day. The two of them had been working behind that counter ever since Jesus, the Son of Man, had gave His life on Calvary and was resurrected from the dead. They had met with countless individuals under the Old Covenant who made heaven their eternal home. But there was nothing like meeting those who had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God.
In the lobby a myriad of people waited for their name to be called for their appointment and admittance into heaven. Some stood, while others sat. Some were anxious, while others seemed confident.
The first angel looked at the other and said, “It’s going to be an interesting day. Lots of appointments to get through the pearly gates.” The second angel replied, “Interesting indeed. By the looks of these files, it seems The Man has put a lot of work into these people.”
Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-9)
The second angel picked up a manilla file folder, looked at the name on the inside and called out “Zaccheus?” A few moments passed and the angel again called out “Zaccheus!” A quivering voice came from beneath the angel’s counter window: “I’m Zaccheus.” The angel peered through the window and looked down to see a wee-little man looking up at him. Zaccheus again said with a whimper, “I’m Za-Za-Zaccheus.” The second angel leaned back over the counter to take another look at Zaccheus’ file. An older gentleman in the lobby seeing Zaccheus’ plight rushed over and handed him the step-stool from under the children’s water fountain. Zaccheus stepped up on the stool, and bashfully said “Thank you.”
“That’s better, isn’t it? Says here you’re from Jericho. Such a fascinating place.” exclaimed the second angel. The first angel slipped off his reading glasses and interrupted to say, “I remember Jericho! The day the Israelites marched around the city walls made for good entertainment.” Zaccheus not knowing if he should join in the conversation or not said, “That was before my time. Were you two there?”
The second angel looked at Zaccheus and just gave him a nod and went back to reading the file. “Looks like you were a chief tax-collector, with a penchant for demanding more than was required. That true?” Zaccheus nodded sheepishly. “Not liked too much, either” the second angel continued. The first angel whispered under his breath, “I’d bet not.”
Not looking up from the file the second angel asked, “Where did you meet The Man?” “Jericho. I met Jesus when He came through Jericho. As you can see, Mr. Angel, I’m not very tall, and umm, the people who didn’t like me too well, wouldn’t let me see Him” Zaccheus quickly replied. “Uh-huh” the second angel said with a nod. “And then what happened, Zaccheus?” Zaccheus looked down and shuffled his feet as if embarrassed by his height and lack of popularity in Jericho, and by the looks of it, even the angels didn’t appear to like him too much.
“Well,” Zaccheus began, “I climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Then He seen me! Me! The Man seen me. I had been overlooked my entire life. And when Rome offered me the job to tax fellow Jews I jumped at the chance. I wanted to get back at them, you know? I wanted people to recognize me. But instead they started to despise me. So to make matters worse, I taxed them beyond the necessary tax in order to enrich myself. I thought if I had more money, and more possessions, then everyone would notice. They just hated me more. So when Jesus seen me in the tree, it was like I had finally received the attention I desperately desired. But The Man didn’t just see me, Mr. Angel, He asked to come to my house and have a meal!” Zaccheus started to get excited. He continued, “Those who hated me for what I had done, hated me even more when they realized Jesus was coming to my house. My house! It was there I decided to repent and I give half of my possessions to the poor, and to those who I previously defrauded I would give them four times as much!”
The first angel walked over and glared over the second angel’s shoulders to scrutinize Zaccheus’ file. The first angel in a quizzing manner asked, “And why should you be allowed beyond these pearly gates?”
Zaccheus took a moment and said with gladness, “The Man said to me, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ Mr. Angels, The Man told me I could come.”
The two angels looked at each other and told the angel guarding the pearly gates, “Let Zaccheus of Jericho in.” Zaccheus quickly jumped off the step stool, passed through the gates, and in an instance the wee-little man ran on the streets of gold towards a figure of a Man in the distance.
“Well, stamp Zaccheus’ file” the first angel proclaimed. The second angel took out a large stamp stained with red ink that said “FORGIVEN” and marked Zaccheus’ file.
Legion (Luke 8:26-39)
As the pearly gates closed, the first angel slipped his reading glasses back on, placed his hand on the shoulder of the second angel and said, “Not a bad start to the day. Who’s next?”
A large file-folder sat on the counter. It was much larger than Zaccheus’. The first angel picked up the overweight folder, opened it and shook his head. Page after page was filled with darkness and destruction. Curiously, the second angel started to read the folder with astonishment.
“Legion of the Gadarenes!” the first angel called out from the counter window. A handsome man began shuffling through lobby. “Excuse me, excuse me, I beg your pardon, I believe they called my name.” The handsome and well-groomed man walked up and stood at the counter window. The two angels looked at each other as if confused. The second angel looked down at the file folder, looked up at the handsome man again, repeating this several times. “There must be a mistake, sir. We called for Legion of the Gadarenes.”
With a smile that could light up any room, the handsome man replied, “That’s me. I’m Legion of Gadarenes. Actually, my real name is Paltiel, but you can just call me Legion.” The angels were astonished. How could this be the same man from the file? There must be some sort of mix-up.
“You’re the man who lived in the tombs?” the second angel asked. The handsome man quickly answered, “Yes, that’s me” Looking over his reading glasses the first angel asked, “You were… possessed with an innumerable amount of demons?” “That’s me” the handsome man replied. “Says here that you liked to hangout in the tombs…naked? That seems…strange” the first angel said with a bit of awkwardness. Now blushing, the handsome man exclaimed, “Oh no, that’s in my file too?”
The second angel stared at Legion’s stature said, “That’s not all, Mr. Legion. You scared the townspeople by cutting yourself howling, and screaming. They even tried to put you in chains and fetters, but you would just break them? Mr. Legion, I just have to say, you look nothing like what your file describes. The underwriter describes you as a scary naked man, capable of breaking chains, who likes to hangout in tombs, and on top of that a multitude of devils had taken possession of your body. I’m interested to know more of your story, Mr. Legion.”
“Well, as you can read in my lengthy file, I had done a lot of bad things. I had lived a life much scarier than that. I made poor decisions, hung out with the wrong crowd, and exposed my mind and soul to devilish things. I didn’t grow up in the tombs, Mr. Angel. I grew up in a loving home in a good part of town. I just, I just, well, you know how it goes. You give sin an inch, and then it will take you a mile. The very people who I used to hang out ended up being the ones who tried to tie me up and tame me. Some of the people who influenced me to do awful things were buried in those very tombs. I guess I just figured I would live there because I was destined to be buried there too. I lost all control of my life. The devil destroyed my family, and my reputation. I became an embarrassment to my parents. I was simply hopeless and broken man.”
The handsome man who had once been smiling from ear to ear was now beginning to get choked up, cleared his voice and continued. “Like I said, my name isn’t Legion. I had a legion of devils living in me. I began to call myself Legion, because that’s what everyone knew me as – The man with a thousand devils. My identity was wrapped up in my failures and sin. Again, my given name is Paltiel, which fittingly means ‘deliverance of Jehovah.’ But I don’t mind being called Legion, it just gives me a reason to tell everyone about The Man and what He did for me.”
The second angel inquired, “What did The Man do for you?” Legion’s face lit up again. The first angel still couldn’t believe this was the same man from the file.
“He freed me” replied Legion. “He liberated me from all those demons. I didn’t need more chains, I needed set free. Jesus, just set me free from all those demons. Set me free from my addictions. He set me free from all my bad decisions. All The Man had to do was speak and I was free. What a Word He spoke too. Such power and love in His Words. All I could do was worship Him.” Legion continued, “Everyone was amazed at the transformation. The Man cleaned me up, and well, as you can see, He clothed me. I was no longer screaming and the once bleeding self-inflicted wounds were now healed. I was a new man. I don’t look like, or act like I used to. The Man freed me!”
The first angel asked his last question, “Why should you be allowed behind these gates?” Legion smiled once more, as the final tear that he would ever shed dripped from his face, “The Man told me I could come.”
The second angel looked at the angel guarding the gates, and gave him a nod. Legion, ran so fast he nearly knocked over the guarding angel. In the distance, the handsome man seen a familiar face. He ran towards The Man who he had worshiped on the shores of the Gadarenes. But now the handsome man would worship Him for an innumerable amount of years.
Shaking his head with a slight grin the first angel said to the second, “Stamp that file, ‘FORGIVEN,’ my friend.”
“Who’s next on the schedule?”
The Samaritan Woman (John 4:7-26)
The second angel picked up the next file, looked inside and read the record of a woman who had been married five times. “Well, this should be provocative” said the second angel handing the file over to the first. “Well, I wonder how The Man dealt with this case.”
The first angel leaned out the window and called out “Woman from Samaria.” Heads started turning in the lobby. Several women started to point at themselves inquiring if it was they who the angel beckoned. One woman spoke up, “There’s several Samaritan women here, could you be more specific?” “The angel sighed and hesitantly said, “Umm, Samaritan woman who had been married five times previously.”
A tender-voiced woman sheepishly said “That’s me.” She quickly put down her water purifying magazine, stood up, and headed toward the angel’s counter.
The first angel pushed his glasses up on his nose and greeted the woman. The woman was striking in appearance. The first angel looked over the Samaritan woman’s file and asked: “You know how sacred marriage is to the Creator, ma’am?”
The Samaritan woman trying to sneak a peek at her own file in the angel’s hands said, “Yes, I do. I know how sacred marriage is to the Creator. He intended marriage to be between one man and one woman for one lifetime. Unfortunately, I didn’t always know that, and didn’t take marriage serious enough. I got involved with some pretty bad men. Being a Samaritan, I wasn’t fully Jewish or Gentile. I come from a long line of bad relationships, where marriage wasn’t valued or appreciated. I just fell into the cycle of my family. You see, you probably don’t understand this, but I just longed for something deep. I just wanted true love.”
The first angel didn’t understand. But he desired to know more about it. There was something created in humans that angels didn’t have, and that was love with each other and love with their Creator.
“Mr. Angel, you okay?” the Samaritan woman asked the first angel who looked for a moment as if he was daydreaming. “Yes, continue, my dear.” The woman continued, “Every relationship I got into failed me. I never found in a husband what I longed for. I had a thirst for something deeper. So I would jump from one relationship to another, always ending up in the same broken cycle. I quickly got a reputation around Samaria.”
“Tell me, how did you meet The Man?” asked the second angel. “Funny story, I used to hate going to fetch water from the local well when all the other townspeople did. I felt so ashamed of my life. I had gone through five broken marriages, and ended up living with another man who wasn’t my husband. I didn’t want to hear the remarks and accusations. So one day I went to the well when no one else would be around. But there, sitting on the well was The Man. He asked me for a drink of water, but what I found at the well was what I was looking for my entire life.” The second angel interrupted “And what was that?!” “Living water” replied the Samaritan woman looking as if she had found hidden treasure. She continued, “Jesus told me all the things that I had ever done. That’s when I knew He was the Messiah. He gave me everything I longed for.”
The first angel spoke up and said, “You didn’t just break the sacredness of marriage once, you broke it five times, and on your way to the sixth. Why should you be allowed behind these pearly gates?”
“Yes, I broke that sacred vow many times. But The Man I had been looking my entire life for, forgave me, and told me I could come.”
The first angel smiled and nodded at the angel guarding the gates, let the Samaritan woman in. Just beyond the gates was The Man who she had met at the well, forgiven her, and gave her living water. She ran and worshiped.
“You’re telling me The Man can forgive someone who broke the law of marriage? No wonder she’s worshiping like she is.” said the second angel as he stamped her file “FORGIVEN.”
The Thief on the Cross (Matt. 27:44; Luke 23:39-43)
The first angel picked up the next file and looked with astonishment. “Are you kidding me? This has got to be incorrect. Look at this!” The second angel grabbed the file from the hand of the first angel. They looked at each other in wonderment and said in harmony: “The thief on the cross?!”
Immediately in the waiting room a rough looking man with a sin-hardened leathery face stepped forward. He looked around at everyone’s wide eyes staring at him. He seemed just as confused as the angels and the others in the lobby.
The first angel looked at the thief as he approached the counter window and said with a puzzled look, “You’re one of the thieves from Calvary?” “You could say that” the thief replied. The second angel speed reading through the thief’s file, flipping over every page trying to find anything remotely redeeming said, “A lifetime of stealing, cheating, lying, manipulating, and sin. I don’t know what you’re doing here.” The first angel put his hand up as if to stop the second angel from saying anything more. “Weren’t you and your fellow criminal just cursing Jesus?” the first angel asked. The thief still looking over his shoulder at the dazed and confused people awaiting their appointments in the lobby said, “Yes, that’s me. I apologize…wait, is there is something wrong here? Did I miss something?”
“We’re just trying to figure out a few things, Mr. Thief. Just trying to make sure you’re at the right place” said the first angel. “You know, The Man said not long ago ‘he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber’” (Jn. 10:1) the second angel asked with a tone of sarcasm. “No, I didn’t hear Him say that. What’s He mean by the sheep fold? I didn’t get to hear all of His teachings. Our interaction was very brief. Painfully brief, if you know what I mean” the thief answered with a bit of concern in his voice now.
The second angel still dumbfounded asked, “What do you know about the Man?” “Not much, just that I believed Him to be the Son of God” the thief responded while looking down at clouds starting to hover over his feet. “Do you know anything about justification by faith? Sanctification? Baptism, surely you know something about baptism” grilled the second angel. “No, sir. I don’t know anything about those things, unfortunately. I’m just a thief condemned to die for my sins. Listen, I’m not proud of what I had done. As you can read there in my file, I did a lot of bad things. Stole, lied, and hurt some people while I was at it. I never went to the local synagogue. I didn’t make friends with religious folks, actually they looked down their nose at me when they would see me in public. Come to think of it, I didn’t know any other way to live. I’d get arrested, be punished then set free. Recently I got caught up with some insurrectionists, one of the guy’s name was Barabbas or something. Someone took his place and he was set free after we got arrested. Come to find out, it was The Man on the middle cross. Why would He take someone’s place? Why wasn’t He angry? Why wasn’t He cursing Rome and all those religious people who mocked Him? I’d never seen anyone like Him before. Then when I mocked Him, my heart broke. That pain in my heart was far worse than the nails in my hands and feet. Sirs, I don’t know anything else about Him than that right there. It was enough for me to believe. I simply asked Him to remember me whenever He got to His kingdom. I wish I knew more about Him. I wish I would have had a meal with Him like that short fellow you let in awhile ago. I wish I could have had a drink of water with Him like that beautiful Samaritan woman did. All I know is that I was crucified with Him. I was guilty, and He was innocent. I deserved death, not Him.”
The thief stopped talking as his head dropped, and the final tear he would ever cry dropped from his leathery face. The room was silent. It was as if everyone knew exactly what the thief was talking about. They knew what it was like to be guilty of sin.
The first angel asked, “Why should we let you in these gates?”
The thief lifted up his head and said, “The Man on the middle cross said I could come.”
Immediately the Pearly Gates opened and there stood The Man who had forgiven the thief. The thief ran from the counter window to the gates and embraced The Man from the middle cross who told him “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
The second angel picked up the ink stained stamp and marked the thief’s file “FORGIVEN.” The two angels began to rejoice as they watched yet another forgiven sinner given access to heaven. The lobby once stunned silent, let out a roar of a praise to The Man who can forgive any and all types of sin.
Beloved, Jesus can forgive even you. It matters not if you’re a blue collared thief, a sin-hardened criminal, one who has exposed their life to evil, or someone who has broken God’s commands and covenants. He can forgive you. You cannot claim your own righteousness or good works. Rather, it is simple faith in The Man Christ Jesus who can forgive your sins, and give you access to eternal life.
*This story was inspired by a preaching clip of Alistair Begg in which he refers to the thief on the cross saying “the man on the middle cross told me I could come.”