Your Money
or Your Life!
For whoever
wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and
for the gospel will save it.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mark 8:35-37
The 2003 movie, 21 Grams starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts gets
its name from an apparent fact: at death a human body loses 21 grams of weight--the
equivalent of five nickels. Is this the weight of the human soul? But who
can weigh a soul?
Who can price a human soul? In the U.S. south, the price of a slave was
anywhere from $125.00 to $350.00 between the late 1700's and the mid 1800's.
For that, you bought the person for life.
Recently, a man named Sterling Jones tried to auction his soul on Ebay.
Besides the moral issue, his attempt failed because he could not guarantee
delivery.
Jesus asks the question, "what does it profit a person to gain the whole
world at the cost of their soul? With what will you ransom your own soul?"
Recently we have seen CNN display the photographs and names of men who have
gained hundreds of millions, sometimes billions of dollars all the while pushing
the U.S. economy over the brink.
What is your integrity worth?
I think once you get into the hundreds of millions of dollars, there will
be no shortage of takers on that deal.
Not many people will close the box over the button and shout "No deal, Howie!"
When we possess something of great value, we generally safeguard
it. Through a series of errors, a South African woman failed to properly care
for a collection of gold coins she inherited from her mother.
The valuable coins were mixed with the rest of the woman's loose change.
While on a shopping trip near Cape Town, she parked her car and used a Kruger
sovereign to feed the parking meter. The gold coin, minted in 1890, is said
to be worth a small fortune. Despite its value, the coin bought no extra parking
time.
How often do we exchange the priceless for the common or trade the eternal
for the temporary? 1.
But for all those who would line up to take Faust's deal, there are still
those who will not.
In Elijah's time, he thought he was the only man in Israel with integrity
enough to say "no" to Jezebel and Ahab. "I and I alone serve you. Lord", he
said.
But God reminded him "I have thousands more just like you who have not bowed
the knee to Baal".
In you and in me, God has created something of great value. The human soul.
And God created us to have significance.
The weight of a soul is more than 21 grams.
How do our lives have meaning?
For some it is in accumulated wealth and the power and rank it affords.
For some it is a list of accomplishments which other people herald as worthy.
Paul has written that God has created us for significance, for good works.
God wants our lives to count.
As much as I would like my life to have significance, the measure of significance
is by God's measure, not mine. And it is most often in the small deeds we
do selflessly day by day--rarely by the large deeds we dream about.
And truthfully, most of us, most of the time live by the small deeds, invested
day by day.
Jesus says the only way for our lives to have weight and significance is
to invest them in His life...to follow the leader.
He says whoever tries to find significance by doing the things we think
are important or pleasurable is on the wrong track and will lose.
He says trying to save your life by holding it tight guarantees it will
be empty.
Only by giving it away sacrificially, and especially in service to God and
people, will ensure our lives will have meaning.
The famous British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge writes, "I can say that
I never knew what joy was like until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared
to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus."
What is the price of your soul?
The price that was paid is beyond measure.
Jesus laid down His life for your eternal freedom.
What can a person pay for their own soul? Nothing.
You could not raise enough to pay what your soul is worth, and the price
has been paid.
There an endless number of ways of fulfilling your purpose and only God's
knows where that fits His purposes for you.
Follow what God puts on your heart, and do so with peace and joy. It will
be worth the trip.
In the old days the highway man would rob his victims with the words, "your
money or your life."
Maybe the answer is "take it all Lord, my money and my life."
Which is it? With what will we ransom our own souls?
Deal or no deal?
Preached March 8, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. John Beukema, Western Springs, Illinois; source: "Woman
Drops Rare Gold Coin in Parking Meter," Reuters (7-22-04)
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