Not All Ransoms are Equal
In Rome, July, 1973, John Paul Getty III, the 16-year-old grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped by a group linked to the Italian mafia. The kidnappers initially demanded that the young man's grandfather pay $17 million, but the senior Getty was notoriously frugal (errr, cheap). So despite his tremendous wealth, he refused to pay the ransom. He highly suspected that the kidnapping might have been staged to extort money from him. He justified his decision to withhold payment by saying, “If I pay one penny now, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.”
Over the next five months, with negotiations at a stand still, the teenager continued to be held captive. In November, to prove they weren't fooling around, the kidnappers sent a package to a Rome newspaper containing a lock of the boy's hair and his severed ear. The message was clear: Pay up, or death is imminent.
Public image finally won out over greed and/or frugality, and Getty finally agreed to pay -- not the full $17 million, but rather a mere $3 million. Getty himself would contribute $2.2 million, the maximum amount that was tax deductible. The remaining $800,000 he lent to his son, the boy's father, at a rate of 4 percent interest. The boy was released on December 15, 1973.
Not all ransoms are equal. In eternity past, the wealthiest of the wealthy -- the God of all creation -- looked into the future and saw that His children would be held hostage to the greatest enemy of all -- sin and death. Not wishing that "any should perish," He determined right then and there that He would pay His ALL to ransom them from certain death.
In this scenario, it wasn't the Rescuer or Redeemer who balked at the cost, but rather the hostages who continue to balk at the prospect of needing redemption. How foolish! The ransom has been PAID IN FULL, yet the hostages all too often choose to remain captive.
"Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19, ESV).
"You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23, ESV).
"And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9, ESV).
"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2, ESV).
Right Game, Wrong Clothes
Most of us have great memories from our youth where we dreamed of emulating our favorite sports heroes. Who doesn't wanna aspire to play baseball like a Barry Bonds, basketball like LeBron James, hockey like Wayne Gretzgi, or football like Tom Brady?
Pass any park on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and you're likely to see a bunch of kids tossing a football around, running plays, and tackling each other to the ground like the Superbowl championship was at stake.
Maybe for Christmas or your birthday one year, your parents bought you a football uniform, complete with helmet, pads, and a jersey and pants from your favorite team. You'd have looked like a regular little football player.
Eventually, though, you'd have likely discovered that a football uniform does not make one a football player!!! You can't just dress up and make it so.
Some of us sitting in church pews today are not so unlike those young kids dressing up like their sports heroes. We want to be Christian. We wanna be a good Christian, maybe even a great one.
We come to church each Sunday dressed in our Sunday best. We carry our Bibles or our iPads with the latest Bible app. We maybe even mount the stage to lead songs of worship and praise.
We do all of the expected things of a church goer. But just as the old saying goes: Just because a mouse is in the cookie jar, it doesn’t make the mouse a cookie!!!
The only way we can be properply suited up for this thing we call the Christian life is to have a personal RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ the Risen Savior through faith in Him and His completed work on our behalf!
Don't show up to the right game in the wrong clothes. We need to be clothed in HIS righteousness alone!
"I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10, NIV).
"... for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:27, NIV).
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV).
Jesus Is Just A Crutch
Crutches are an extremely helpful medical device if you are taken lame by either injury or surgical intervention. The premise is simple. Pop them under your arms and let them bear your wait so that you can stand and ambulate.
Of course, they’ve become quite the metaphor for “weak” people needing to lean on something or someone to be able to get along in life.
The last words you want to hear is someone telling you that you are leaning on a crutch in life. They might as well say, “Man, what’s wrong with you? You’re so weak and impotent. Grow up and stand on your own two feet.”
If you are a Christian, you’re probably no stranger to someone accusing you of leaning on your faith as a crutch.
To that point, author/speaker Mark Cahill has this to say:
Next time you hear someone say that Christianity is just a crutch for weak people say, "Yes, it is. I've had a bad fall into sin and I'm crippled. Without Jesus, I can do nothing!!"
"... for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5, NIV).
Own your crutch! Wear it like a badge of honor. Place your whole weight squarely on Jesus. Yoke yourself to Him, and He will bear your obligation, your sin, your burden. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, NIV).