“Priceless”
Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42
“The
Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one
pearl of great value, he went and sold all he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13:45-46
In the telling of this parable, I dare say that if the
merchant really understood the value
of what is priceless, he would have also given the shirt off his back – for “all
he had” would not have been nearly enough!
That’s the rub for us, isn’t it? That while we may find it within ourselves to
express gratitude for salvation in Christ in certain moments, as when things
are going our way, we do not fully appreciate its true value when things are not going our way. Another preacher has said, “For the ‘believer’ who has not
comprehended the gift of God, he or she is living in bondage from a
self-imposed form of reproach” (Damian Phillips, 2012, “The
Free Gift of Grace”). If we are still
being ugly to each other and are willing to harm those we don’t happen to like,
what can we possibly think we understand about “grace” that we would claim it
for ourselves but deny it to others?
Gratitude is not expressed by what we have but in what we give –
what we do with what we have.
How can we measure that which is priceless (that is,
no human value can be assigned) and yet comes at such great cost? This, I think is an important element in
understanding a Priceless Treasure. There
are many references to Divine Grace as being a “free gift”, and there are some Bible
translations that use the word “free”. But
what is a “gift” if it is not free? What
is a gift if there is a cost attached to that gift? In other words, if someone gives us a gift
but actually expects something in return, then it is not a gift – not if there
are strings attached.
But what is more perplexing is how eagerly we will
rush out to buy a gift we had not intended to give only when we are given a
gift, yet knowing what we have been given from our God through Christ does not
produce that same enthusiastic, truly transformational response. And the question is why?
Why are there good Christians who would literally give
the shirt off their backs to someone in distress, but there are other professed
Christians who would politicize the distressed person and ultimately turn away,
“judging”
the neighbor rather than blessing them?
Why do some Christians tithe faithfully as a matter of gratitude while
other Christians see tithing as “old law” – or at least use that excuse to keep
their money for themselves? After all,
worship should not cost us … right?
St. Paul expresses “free” in this way: “While
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That is, while humanity
was in active rebellion and least deserving of anything, The Lord still did this thing. Even as we were showing Him we are not
interested in being children of God, He still made reconciliation with Him possible. Possible … but not necessarily probable. Still, calling it “free” or “without cost”
(depending on the Bible translation you use) is being dishonest not only with
the text but with the principle.
St. Paul also wrote, “By grace you have been saved
through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the
result of works so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, it
seems The Lord did not do this thing just
because. Even He had a purpose, an
ulterior motive, perhaps? “We
are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2:10).
“Good
works” as our “way of life”. But is this the “catch” as if The Lord wanted
something out of it? Or is it restoration
and fulfillment of the created Divine Order established “beforehand”? Before sin entered into the world?
Could this Divine Order actually be why The Lord
created the heavens, the earth, and humanity? What must it be for our understanding so that
it may become so “priceless” for us that we would willingly and literally give up all we have – our homes,
our cars, our pensions, our savings - to obtain it? What must it become for us that it is not
already?
20th century pastor and author A.W. Tozer
once said, “The reason why many are still
troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress [in going “on
to perfection”, Hebrews 6:1] is because they haven't yet come to the end
of themselves. We're still trying to
give orders, and interfering with God's work within us.”
And if we find ourselves in such a state of being in
which we have not – and will not, reasoning we “don’t have to” in order to be saved – we do not see nor do we
acknowledge or even comprehend “the Lamb of God” as St. John the
Baptizer did. And more’s the pity …
because we are cheating ourselves – and one another – out of not only a
genuinely Priceless Treasure but the fullness of life which comes with that
Treasure and cannot be measured in human terms.
As if Mr. Tozer were actually speaking directly to me
this past week, he also challenged me as I now challenge you. He wrote: “By
the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, I say any man or
woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for
heaven.”
By this he surely means mot only corporate worship
when we gather on Sundays, but also the worship of participating in the means
of grace meant to draw us closer to The Lord.
Fasting is worship. Tithing is
worship. Scripture study alone and in
small group is worship. Prayer is
worship – or should be. So if we will
not and cannot find any sense of fulfillment in these religious practices and
disciplines designed to prepare us for something greater, how can we say we are
ready for something greater?
We cannot say we are not still looking for something,
though. Can we? When the Baptizer was standing with two of his
own disciples, he exclaimed, “Look, there is the Lamb of God” (John 1:35-36)! Once these disciples heard this, they began
following Jesus. When Jesus noticed them
following Him, He asked what they were looking for. And the best answer they could come up with
was, “Where
are You staying?”
I would like to think if Jesus were to turn to me and
ask me what I’m looking for, what I’ve been seeking for a very long time, I
would like to think I could come up with something a little more profound than,
“What’s up?” Now we may think they
wanted to know where He was staying so they could stay with Him just as they
did. But if following Him and staying
with Him in order to learn more about Him were the point in the first place,
why didn’t they just say so?
Though the Baptizer was continuing to fulfill his
mission by “making straight the way of The Lord” and leading his own
disciples to the Messiah, it may be said these disciples still had no real idea
about Jesus, the Promised One, the Coming Messiah, the Lamb of God, and what He
meant to them then … and what He means to us now.
For us, up to this point, it may be as the prophet
wrote; “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and
vanity; yet surely my cause is with The Lord, and my reward is with my God … my
God who has become my strength” (Isaiah
49:4, 5c)
So it may be said that while we may conceptually know of our God as the very
“strength”
of our being, it may also be said that much of our lives has been spent
“for
nothing and vanity”. That is, we
do not appreciate what is priceless more than we value what is most important
to us. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “If you look for truth, you may find comfort
in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get comfort or truth - only
soft soap or wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”
So when the Lamb of God teaches us to “seek
first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), He is telling us what
sort of answer He will expect when He turns to us and says, “What
are you looking for?” More than
even this, however, He is teaching us what must be our focus from the time we
awake to the time we lie down again. Everything
we do and everything we are must be devoted to the Kingdom of Heaven and for the
sake of His righteousness; i.e., mercy and justice. Everything.
Our God, our Holy Father “whose Name is Jealous” (Exodus 34:14), will never play second
fiddle to the world we have created for ourselves because only He knows what it
is we truly need. There is, however, a catch to even this. In order for us to get what it is we truly need, even if it is adversity to
strengthen us, we must first give ourselves completely to Him. That is the “catch”. That is the “cost”.
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