QUEEN OF MEAN
by
Pastor Rick Sams
How would you like the above title to be on your
tombstone? That seems to be the moniker that Leona Helmsley, the
billionaire hotel operator, cannot shake even though she may be rolling over a
lot in her grave. Scoundrels are often given a break when it comes to
public comments made about them after they die. Not so with Ms.
Helmsley. She died August 20.
Debates rage about when her epitaph
and nickname was sealed. Was it during her 1989 trial for tax evasion when
she was overheard commenting to her housekeeper: "We don�t pay taxes. Only
the little people pay taxes. Was it because she fought paying vendors and
contractors who did work for her? Or was it when she evicted her daughter
in law with four little kids, her grandchildren, out of their own home after her
son died?
What a contrast to Alfred Nobel. After his obituary was
mistakenly published calling him "the merchant of death he totally changed
his life around. He took the millions he�d made inventing dynamite and
funded the annual humanitarian prize, which became his primary legacy.
I
think of the Canaanite woman who Jesus spoke only four words we have in her
memory: "Great is your faith (Matthew 15:28). She believed Jesus
could heal her daughter in spite of scant evidence and
encouragement.
About another non-Jew with similar faith Jesus extolled:
"I have not found such great faith even in Israel (Luke 7:9, one of only
two places in the Bible where it indicates Jesus was "amazed. See also
Mark 6:6).
Jesus never described His own disciples in even close to these
glowing terms.
What epitaph would Jesus put on your
tombstone?