Let Me Relate Pastor Knute Larson's Parable About ...

Let me relate Pastor Knute Larson’s parable about life and mortality.

There was a man who jumped from the top of the Empire State Building. That’s 97 floors up. (Or down, which is the way he was looking.)

That reminds me of people who are always saying that Christians are funny and sin is fun. They don’t always say it exactly that way, but they do smile as though they think Christians are crazy.

Well, anyway, this guy jumped. And of course the law of gravity began to pull him toward the bottom. As he passed floor 92, he recalled that many people had warned him not to jump. But it really wasn’t so bad. So he smiled at the people in floor 92 and said that they were wrong in urging him to stay atop the building.

At floor 82 (or was it 81?) he was waving and enjoying the speed. ‘’It’s fun,’’ he was yelling, ‘’and all that preaching about being careful was by fuddy-duddies!’’

He waved and did a somersault as he went past the window of 75. Some people in 67 actually envied his speed and his delight at the fall. ‘’Life’s meant to be fun,’’ they could hearrrrrrrrrrrr!

It was between 58 and 50 that he yelled some dirty words- just to make fun of the group that meets in floor 50 to talk about staying on top of buildings or on the ground.

By the 40s and 30s he was picking up speed, and really flying fast! But getting low. And wondering, at times, how the whole thing would end. But he tried not to think about it. For a moment, he decided that when he got to 5 or 4 he might give it some thought.

There were some friends on the top, and he yelled back for them to try it. He flapped and did a few more whirls and tolls, and threw a shoe through the window of 16.

Ten, nine, eight . . . and I think you know the rest. At the end (and the end did come) he had nothing to say. And I read the Bible again and remembered that some people get away with a lot on the way down. And that some of us who are still on top think of jumping, envious of the laughter we hear from the falling ones.

I read Ps. 73:23-24, which said, “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” And I decided not to jump.