GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:20
Legacy
There is an old story about a wealthy man who died. Following the elaborate memorial service, the crowd gathered around the burial site. As the minister was pronouncing the benediction, a woman in the crowd whispered to her neighbor, “How much did he leave?” “Everything,” the neighbor whispered back.
I’m not sure where along life’s journey one begins to think about one’s legacy. It is likely that some travelers never do. On a casual stroll through a cemetery, one reads on one gravestone after another “born” with the date, and “died” with the date, but there is nothing between those two dates.
Not everyone can be a world changer, for then there would be no workers to carry out the world-changer’s program. For every movie star, there are scores of people who support his or her notoriety—writers, editors, camera operators, wardrobe specialists, producers, etc. Nonetheless, these supporters are leaving their own legacies.
Jesus’ Sadducee critics presented him with a sad picture of a poor, legaciless individual. “There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife, and dying, he did not leave seed.” (Mark 12:20) The word “seed” in this account is the word “σπέρμα,” “sperma,” which appears 43 times in the New Testament and is translated as: children, conceive, descendant, descendants, posterity, and seed, depending on the context.
The Sadducees’ story, therefore, is the story of unfilled potential—a man who was born, took a wife, and died. There’s nothing about notable accomplishments, nothing about his helpfulness to neighbors or community, nothing about making his community a better place, nothing about being helpful—nothing at all. What legacy will I leave? You?
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