Something for Nothing

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:20-25 ESV). Buying a car is often one of the most anxiety filled experiences of our lives. It is a major purchase and often is accompanied by the kind of negotiation we are not familiar with, nor comfortable doing. Most people are suspicious of the entire process. Having been in the car business, I found it most difficult helping people trust they were getting a good deal on their trade-in. Often folks don’t realize that the moment you begin talking about your trade-in you become the seller, not the buyer. As a buyer we want the lowest possible price; as a seller, we want the highest possible price. Hopefully you meet somewhere in the middle and get a fair deal. But, regardless, you can't get something for nothing. God has said to us, "I will give you eternal life. I will give you the forgiveness of sin." Isn’t it natural to ask, "What's the catch? Surely there is something I need to do." It is hard for us to accept that God could simply give us something for nothing. The truth is that God says, "No, you have broken all the laws. There is no way you could earn grace or forgiveness. I offer it to you for free. I give you everything. All I ask in return is your life." Now, some of us have a pretty battered, beat up life. I remember some of the dairy farmers that would bring their trucks in to trade them for new ones when I was in the car business. None of my sales staff wanted to deal with those! The dairy business is a messy kind of ranching. There’s just no way the inside of that truck is not going to look and smell like the inside of a cow barn. Yuk! I hope that was not too graphic for you; but, it is true. They were always beat up, battered, and yucky! They weren’t really worth much to us for resale. Sometimes our lives are like that. Jesus doesn’t want our lives for resale. He wants to give us a new life as the old life is destroyed. To gain life, we must embrace that destruction. Those old trucks from the dairy farmers were just auctioned off for scrap. Then they drove off in a brand new truck. God does that for us through Jesus. We fall to our death and he raises us up in newness of life! That’s God's deal. Because Jesus paid the price, we get something for nothing! Pretty good deal, isn’t it?