(Text and Audio)
Title: At What Cost?
The great question of the age: What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
This question has been asked by mankind since the dawn of history. We see it today as much as any theme in our stories as well. Let me offer you a few examples from popular culture. I’ll provide the quote, you see if you can tell me who said it.
They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – – Carpe – – hear it? – – Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary. We are all food for worms, lads.
-Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
-Mel Gibson in Braveheart
Tell me I’ve lead a good life?
What?
Tell me I’m a good man.
You are.
-Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan
Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you’re already dead! Brothers, what we do in life… echoes in eternity.
-Russell Crow in Gladiator
In essence, Jesus, with this one simple, profound question is digging and picking at the thoughts that mankind so often attempts to numb over with life, and business, and THINGS, but we can’t stop that voice, can we? We can’t quell this thought deep within us that begs the question: Why?
Why do I do these things?
What is the point of my life.
I want to be about something greater than myself, but the only thing my flesh wants is selfish comfort for this moment.
Last week I made a point about God’s plan for our lives vs. our plan for our lives and I made this observation: If we were granted an amount of wishes from a genie, no combination of wishes would be a good as God’s plan for our lives. By design and definition, HIS plan is the perfect one.
And I want to build on that thought this morning by reminding us of what Jesus tells us in verse: We are eternal. If you feast now and sow in sin, you will reap destruction forever. If you sacrifice joyfully now, you sow in faith, and you will reap glory forever. Therefore, there is nothing more valuable to a man than his very soul.
And “soul” is not “life.”
“Life” is finite. Many of us give our lives up willingly for something we love. This happens at least three ways:
- For a very small number of us, we may be called in an instant to sacrifice our lives to save others. (Johnny Ferrier example).
- For a few more of us, we may consciously make a decision to put ourselves in harms way for a greater good, knowing we may very well not come back from that journey. A soldier going into battle, a cancer patient undergoing the most extreme treatments. Jesus consciously deciding to go toward the cross instead of away from it.
- But for most of us, this sacrifice, this giving up of our lives, takes place over the course of our lifetime.
We sacrifice for our families, to provide; food, shelter, and joy.
We sacrifice for our spouses, because we love them and want to see them joyful.
We sacrifice our time for our churches, because we believe the work we do here “echoes in eternity.”
We are eternal.
We are either eternally in His grace, or in His wrath. Therefore, logically speaking, there is nothing more precious to a man than his soul.
We must also consider these words against the backdrop of at least two other passages in scripture. The first is Luke 12:16-21. Turn there with me.
Jesus’s point here is the same: He who dies with the most toys, still dies. (For more on that concept, I’d encourage you to read Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes.) So what’s the point of life, if you still die? Your stuff doesn’t go with you, but you go somewhere. So the better question regarding your stuff isn’t “What stuff do you have?” or “How much stuff do you have?” But rather, “For what purpose do you have stuff?”
The second passage is Psalm 49:6-8
“Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches,
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him-
For the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever…” (they shall never be redeemed.)
We can’t earn our salvation, we certainly can’t buy our salvation, that seems basic, but boy will we try. We will give gifts to church in hopes of God’s favor, or even worse, in pockets of history with the Roman Catholics, the church will actually sell indulgences at a certain price to absolve you of sin, as if such a foul thing could exist.
But, we protestants aren’t off the hook, either. We give our time, our attendance, our monies, often in hope of earning some eternal favor from the Almighty.
Theologically speaking, faith produces work, work does not produce faith.
We know this, yet we often pursue things with motives outside God’s glory.
What will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Like most men, I’d give everything, and it still wouldn’t be enough. And, yet, by the design of the Father, the Son died, so that penance was already paid, and here I stand. A broken sinner, speaking to broken sinners, begging you to be able to account for all the “stuff” in your life.
Because that stuff either glorifies God, or it glorifies you. And our God is a jealous God.
(Pray)