FAILING THE TEST: How We May "Fail" Ourselves at the Judgment

Every semester I give my students a "review" packet with all the questions that will be on the Final. In essence, it’s a summary of all of my teachings on Western Civilizations for the semester. It is the material that I think is important, as well as the material I think they should know. From those questions on the review, I then choose a certain number to be used as the Final. So I'll give them two hundred questions (objective questions--multiple choice and true/false) and then choose one hundred or fifty of those questions for the final.

I do the same thing for the Midterm and each semester I am always surprised to see how many students fail the test. I gave them the whole test, they just don’t know which of the questions I will choose to ask them, but they have all the questions, and if they study, listen to me, and read the book, they have all the answers. Yet, so many fail each time.

Why do they fail? Some fail because even though I keep telling them that there will be an exam, and that the exam will be taken from the material in the review packets, some students apparently just don’t believe me. They either don’t believe, or live in denial of, the exam itself, or they don’t believe me when I tell them that they already have all the questions. The majority of those who fail just don’t bother to study or find the answers. Many from this group sincerely intend to study, but they just keep putting it off, and then suddenly find themselves out of time. Then there are the few who just want me to take the exam for them by simply giving them all the answers with no effort or work on their part. So they fail the test even though they have been given everything they need to pass the test.

So what if Jesus is doing the same thing with us as I do with my Western Civilizations classes? What if the teachings of Jesus are simply Jesus telling us what is on the final? What if the New Testament is the review packet, and it is up to us to study it, to learn the questions we may face, and to find out the answers to those questions? If we take it seriously, as many in my class do, and study, then we will pass the exam--some will "Ace" it and others will sneak by with a passing grade. Nobody gets all the questions right, but they get enough to get an A or some other passing grade.

But what if we don't take it seriously? What if we don't study the material we have been given? Then the same thing happens to us that happens in my class--more than half fail the test, not because the test is hard, or because I’m unreasonable, or because I’m cruel, but because they, for whatever reason, did not study for it. They didn’t believe the test was coming, or they put off studying for it and suddenly found they were out of time, or they don’t believe the one saying there will be a test and this is how to study, or they just expect Jesus to take the test for them.

When I give my students the questions to the exam and tell them where and what to study, and I provide the answers in my lectures and in the book, if they fail, it is not me failing them, but they fail themselves. If Jesus tells gives us the questions to the exam, and provides the answers in teachings and in the Bible, and we fail, it is not Jesus or God failing us, it is we who are failing ourselves.

This, I think, is what the Church means when it says God doesn’t send anyone to hell, but that people send themselves. We may be condemning ourselves when we refuse to take seriously the one who teaches us when He says “There will be a test.” To pass the test, we need to study the review: The Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, the discourses of Jesus, and the other teachings by Jesus, as well as those about Jesus by those who knew Jesus.

Nobody is perfect, so perhaps none of us will answer all the questions correctly, but we should get most of the questions right. We should get a passing grade. There are things in the Gospels I have a hard time learning, even though I go over the material again and again. That's just how it is sometimes. But at the end of the day, whether I get an A or a C on the exams, I pass the class and that's what matters.

So the final judgment is like Graduation Day. Those who passed the test are like those who passed all their exams and are graduating from school. Some people are scholars and they will graduate with high honors and with high grades, others will barely get by, but they will still graduate. Those who are A students should remember that the C students are the same as they are--graduates and alums, with the same rights and privileges as any other graduate and alum.

Now remember, this is just an analogy, and no analogy is perfect. Feel free to share your thoughts, but don’t just tell me I’m wrong, tell me where and why I am wrong. I can’t learn if you don’t tell me the facts of my error.