What Difference Does Easter Make? Easter/Lenten Series 2007.
Sunday March 25th
“Why The Cost Makes All The Difference”
Do you have anything in your possession you wouldn’t give up, trade, or give away?
Take a moment to write down an answer or two.
If you were to arrive home and find it on fire, and if you were permitted, what would you run in after to save? Would it be your wedding photo album? Or your pair of cowboy boots? A favorite guitar? A box of photo CDs? Would it be something gold, or silver, or some piece of jewelry?
After kids and since we don’t have a pet, the things I’d want to rescue would by a family tree box filled with CDs of old family photos—somewhat irreplaceable? A wedding album, a picture here or there off the wall…I think most other things to me would be replaceable.
There aren’t any right or wrong answers here…so take a moment to write down a thing or two. What would they be? What items are close to your heart that’d you want to try and save?
Now take a look at your answer(s). Would you say those things are precious to you?
Certain things have meaning to us because they cost more. Some things have more meaning to us because they cannot be replaced! Their replacement value would be a great cost to us.
Just let someone play with or mess around with or use it as common thing and see how the level of your concern for that item may rise.
My mother had some precious family heirloom China she would only use when we had company over for Easter or Christmas dinner. The tableware was precious to her and I can still feel something inside when I use my imagination to see her getting those plates down from the cupboard.
You take extra precautions when handling precious things. When we brought each of our children home from the hospital, we held them close to us—you hold things close to you when they are precious, when they could be easily broken or endangered. You handle precious things differently than you do with common everyday things, don’t you.
The NT writers state that several things are precious.
The promises of God are precious, The believer’s faith is precious, The Son of God is precious to God and to believers, A gentle and quiet spirit of a woman is precious to God, The symbolic stones or gems heaven is made of are precious. All of these things are in the same league of being precious because of their value and irreplaceable nature!
If the price you pay for, say a necklace, is higher than any other necklace, could that make it more precious to you? It could. If the price paid for an object is precious to God, would that make the object being paid for precious too?
Little JOHNNY had spent hours building a small sail boat, crafting it down to the finest detail. He carried his new boat to the edge of the river and then carefully placed it in the water. How smoothly the boat sailed! Little Johnny sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat and moved it far from his reach downstream.
Little Johnny ran along the riverbank as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, little Johnny sadly went home. He knew it’d take quite awhile to build himself another boat. But what he didn’t know was that downstream a man found his boat and took it to town where he sold it to a shopkeeper.
A few days later, on his way home from school, little Johnny spotted a boat just like his in the store window. When he got closer, he could see -- sure enough -- it was his!
Little Johnny hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!"
"Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it."
Little Johnny ran home and counted all his money and had exactly enough! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here’s the money for my boat." As he left the store, little Johnny hugged his boat and said, "Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you."
What makes the difference about Easter is the COST that was involved to make that first Easter happen! There is one more thing the Bible states is precious and that’s in 1 Peter 1:18-19: For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Easter makes all the difference because of the Cross, because of the Christ, and because of the COST!
There has been some confusion over who Jesus paid the ransom to. Was it to Satan? Or was it God? Who was the offended party?
In the Chronicles of Narnia’s “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, the evil White Witch is obviously a symbol of Satan. When Edmond betrays his brother and sisters to the White Witch, Aslan, as a type of Messiah, trades himself for Edmond so that Edmond is freed from the Witch’s hands and Aslan dies in his place.
What we must be careful to understand is that when Jesus went to the cross and shed His blood and died it was not to pay something to Satan as though he was the offended party and God owed him something.
The only Person offended by sin…is God. He could claim offense and therefore it was His sole right to name the price that would be required to pay its penalty. That price…was death; the death of the offending party.
It was God’s mercy and grace that determined to require the blood of His own Son to pay that penalty once and for all. He did not owe Satan anything.
The Apostle Peter’s first readers understood that when they heard a reference to a ‘lamb unblemished and spotless’.
The COST to bring us Easter is …how can we describe it? What is the biggest sum you can think of? A million? A trillion? A Gazillion or a Bazillion? A Google = a number with a 100 zeros after it? Whatever number you would like to use to describe the cost, it is huge, enormous, gigantic, mammoth, astronomical. You’d need a thesaurus to help you! And even then you wouldn’t touch the monstrous nature of the enormity of the cost THAT WAS PAID…for you! That description is simply OUT OF THIS WORLD!
“It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s…sacred…blood.”
It wasn’t with things that could rust, decay, or get lost that God paid with—not even silver or gold were good enough to pay with for you. God used something better to redeem you with. He paid your ransom so you could be freed from the cycle of living a pointless life—the lifestyle this deceptive world has said is normal for generations. God has something far better for you so God paid in blood—the most precious, blood He could find. And by comparison, the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, without question, was the purest and best in every way.
If you were to go to Exodus 12 and read verses 1-13 you would see what the sacrifice for sin cost the people of God.
• It cost them their VERY BEST! = the strongest, oldest and best looking lamb.
• It cost them their PRESENT SECURITY = how could they make it with one less lamb for food?
• It cost them their FUTURE INCREASE = what would they do with one less producer of wool or reproduction or meat?
It cost them something more precious than that lamb, God says. It cost them FAITH! They had to put their faith like money where their testimonial mouth was! It is one thing to SAY you believe in God especially when things are good, but when you have to make sacrifices and put that faith into action and actually go without and trust God to supply, that is quite another story! But that is exactly the new and better life God wanted and has established for his people to live! The living experience of God’s people is the act of worship AND sacrifice—belief AND action, faith AND deeds; and the two always go together!
Jesus was this lamb! He was God’s first Son…he was God’s very best Son as He was God’s only Son.
Because YOU as the object of love were so precious, God had to pay for your freedom—freedom from His wrath—with something lasting and secure…a blood whose donor was perfect. Do we have any applicants here? It had to be the blood of his own Son!
And just like the father treated the prodigal son when came home God treats us--and what did the father say to do? Calculate the expense? No he said to:
Kill what = the fatted calf
Bring a ring of gold and what = put it on his finger
Place on his back what = a robe
Put what on his feet what = shoes!
All of these acts were for princes, not slaves!
The father didn’t need another slave. The father didn’t want another slave. The father wanted a son! It was as if his son was raised from the dead—the father got his son back again! And NO cost was too great to celebrate that event with!
And you have been celebrated over. You have been purchased at such a great price! God didn’t want more angels. God didn’t want slaves! He wanted a redeemed people for his own! He wanted a people who were freed forever and who felt the cost paid for them deeply within them—so much they’d be changed by His gracious act!
I know of no other story that illustrates this so well than one of my favorite stories I’d like to share with you. It is called the story of JOHNNY LINGO’S EIGHT COW WIFE. It is quite lengthy, but well worth the cost of your time to listen to it.
The writer of this story, Patricia McGerr, says,
When I sailed to Kiniwata, an island in the Pacific, I took along a notebook. After I got back it was filled with descriptions of flora and fauna, native customs and costumes. But the only note that still interests me is the one that says: "Johnny Lingo gave eight cows to Sarita’s father." And I don’t need to have it in writing. I’m reminded of it every time I see a woman belittling her husband or a wife withering under her husband’s scorn. I want to say to them, "You should know why Johnny Lingo paid eight cows for his wife."
Johnny Lingo wasn’t exactly his name. But that’s what Shenkin, the manager of the guest house on Kiniwata called him. Shenkin was from Chicago and had a habit of Americanizing the names of the islanders. But Johnny was mentioned by many people in many connections. If I wanted to spend a few days on the neighboring island of Nurabandi, Johnny Lingo could put me up. If I wanted to fish, he could show me where the biting was best. If it was pearls I sought, he would bring me the best buys. The people of Kiniwata all spoke highly of Johnny Lingo. Yet when they spoke they smiled, and the smiles were slightly mocking.
"Get Johnny Lingo to help you find what you want and let him do the bargaining," advised Shenkin. "Johnny knows how to make a deal."
"Johnny Lingo!" A boy seated nearby hooted the name and rocked with laughter.
"What goes on?" I demanded. "Everybody tells me to get in touch with Johnny Lingo and then breaks up. Let me in on the Joke."
"Oh the people love to laugh," Shenkin said, shrugging. "Johnny’s the brightest, the strongest young man in the islands. And for his age, the richest."
"But if he’s all you say, what is there to laugh about?"
"Only one thing. Five months ago, at fall festival, Johnny came to Kiniwata and found himself a wife. He paid her father eight cows!"
I knew enough about island customs to be impressed. Two or three cows would buy a fair-to-middling wife, four of five a highly satisfactory one.
"Good Lord!" I said, "Eight cows! She must have beauty that takes your breath away."
"She’s not ugly," he conceded, and smiled a little. "But the kindest could only call Sarita plain. Sam Karoo, her father, was afraid she’d be left on his hands."
"But then he got eight cows for her? Isn’t that extraordinary?"
"Never been paid before."
"Yet you call Johnny’s wife plain?"
"I said it would be kindness to call her plain. She was skinny. She walked with her shoulders hunched and her head ducked. She was scared of her own shadow."
"Well, I said, "I guess there’s no accounting for love."
"True enough," agreed the man. "And that’s why the villagers grin when they talk about Johnny. They get special satisfaction from the fact that the sharpest trader in the islands was bested by dull old Sam Karoo."
"But how?"
"No one knows and everyone wonders. All the cousins were urging Sam to ask for three cows and hold for two until he was sure Johnny’d pay only one. Then Johnny came to Sam Karoo and said ’Father of Sarita, I offer eight cows for your daughter.’"
"Eight cows," I murmured. "I’d like to meet this Johnny Lingo."
I wanted fish. I wanted pearls. So the next afternoon I beached my boat at Nurabandi. And I noticed as I asked directions to Johnny’s house that his name brought no sly smile to the lips of his fellow Nurabandians. And when I met the slim, serious young man, when he welcomed me with grace to his home, I was glad that from his own people he had respect unmingled with mockery. We sat in his house and talked. Then he asked,
"You come here from Kiniwata?"
"Yes."
"They speak of me on that island?"
"They say there’s nothing I might want that you can’t help me get."
He smiled gently. "My wife is from Kiniwata."
"Yes, I know."
"They speak of her?"
"A little."
"What do they say?"
"Why, just...." The question caught me off balance. "They told me you were married at festival time."
"Nothing more?" The curve of his eyebrows told me he knew there had to be more.
"They also say the marriage settlement was eight cows." I paused. "They wonder why."
"They ask that?" His eyes lighted with pleasure. "Everyone in Kiniwata knows about the eight cows?"
I nodded.
"And in Nurabandi everyone knows it too."
His chest expanded with satisfaction. "Always and forever, when they speak of marriage settlements, it will be remembered that Johnny Lingo paid eight cows for Sarita."
So that’s the answer, I thought: vanity.
And then I saw her. I watched her enter the room to place flowers on the table. She stood a moment to smile at the young man beside me. Then she went swiftly out again. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. The lift of her shoulders, the tilt of her chin, the sparkle of her eyes all spelled a pride to which no one could deny her the right.
I turned back to Johnny Lingo and found him looking at me. "You admire her?" he murmured.
"She...she’s glorious. But she’s not Sarita from Kiniwata," I said.
"There’s only one Sarita. Perhaps she does not look the way they say she looked in Kiniwata."
"She doesn’t. I heard she was homely. They all make fun of you because you let yourself be cheated by Sam Karoo."
"You think eight cows were too many?" A smile slid over his lips.
"No. But how can she be so different?"
"Do you ever think," he asked, "what it must mean to a woman to know that her husband has settled on the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when the women talk, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe six. How does she feel, the woman who was sold for one or two? This could not happen to my Sarita."
"Then you did this just to make your wife happy?"
"I wanted Sarita to be happy, yes. But I wanted more than that. You say she is different. This is true. Many things can change a woman. Things happen inside, things happen outside. But the thing that matters most is what she thinks of herself. In Kiniwata, Sarita believed she was worth nothing. Now she knows she is worth more than any other woman in the islands."
"Then you wanted--"
"I wanted to marry Sarita. I loved her and no other woman."
"But--" I was close to understanding.
"But," he finished softly, "I wanted an eight-cow wife."
And God wanted a precious, blood-bought, redeemed people. So he paid with the highest commodity—His Son’s blood.
What is your attitude about this? Does the cost that God paid for you mean anything to you? Does it make Easter mean any more to you?
A young boy had to feed his father every day when he came home from school. His father had been so injured and couldn’t do many things for himself and to help with things the mother gave him one job to do and that was to feed his father every day, once a day.
But on this particular day, the boy, now a teenager, didn’t want to do it. “I never get to do what I want to do. Never get to go with my friends after school because I always have to feed him. Why do I have to do this all the time?”
His mother believed it was now time for her son to know the whole story about his dad. She sat him down and began, “Not long after we were married, we had a fire in our home in the middle of the night. A neighbor called the fire dept. and then came into the house to get us out. We both got out fine but when it was discovered that our baby was still in the house, your father didn’t hesitate. He ran back into the burning house and was only able to rescue the baby by jumping out the second story window onto the ground below. The baby was saved and was without injury, but your father was badly injured in the process. The heat from the fire burned your father’s throat and lungs, and the fall broken his back and paralyzed him. That baby was you, son. She got up and went to back to doing things in the house.
After a long time, the young man got up and went over to the table and picked up the plate of food and the fork and sat down in front of his dad. Now that he knew the cost that his father paid for his life, and why he needed to feed his dad everyday, the boy saw his father differently, and never had a problem willingly feeding him everyday.
Does the COST of Easter make any difference to you? When we understand the COST God gave to redeem us from death, it makes all the difference!
