Day 18: Free of Charge

Driving back from Maryland this afternoon on 95, I noticed what seemed to be a relatively new thing: EZ Pass "Express" Lanes. You basically pay a voluntary toll for an express lane, and the rate fluctuates depending on how much traffic you are avoiding by taking it. It's kind of like flying first class (for driving). I'm not opposed to this kind of pay-to-play set up, but it does smack of interstate gentrification: those who can afford to can cruise along for an extra $17.59 while the rest of us schmoes idle in gridlock. So it goes.

Whenever I encounter pay-for-privilege setups like this, I am reminded of the radical nature of the Gospel. Jesus the Christ extends the invitation to salvation to all who believe. Free of charge.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, writes the Apostle, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Rom 1:16)

Caste is irrelevant. Background is meaningless. What you look like, how much money you have, what your race is, your gender, your education, your degrees, your occupation, your handicaps, what neighborhood you live in, what you've done...Salvation is available to you. To YOU! Free of charge!

The prophet Isaiah extols us,

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! 

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and east what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." (Is 55:1-2)

It costs nothing to be baptized. You can eat and be nourished every day on the Bread of Life...free. To repent of your sins, receive absolution--no charge. Experience a joy no one can take from you, which no circumstance can snuff out. Sit at the feet of wisdom and learn. No expectation of payment for services rendered.

Free and available to all is the Gospel. It costs nothing--and yet, paradoxically, the Gospel will cost us everything.

It may cost us our family:

"If you come to me but do not leave your family, you cannot be my disciple." (Lk 14:26)

It may cost us a comfortable life:

"Foxes have their holes and the birds of the sky have their nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head." (Lk 9:58)

It may cost us our life itself:

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." (Mt 16:25)

But Jesus turns no one away. Not children:

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Lk 18:16)

Not prostitutes:

"She brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears." (Lk 7:36-50)

Not swindlers:

"Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today." (Lk 19:5)

Not even the masses:

"They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." (Mt 14:15)

You see when we have everything we need we tend to think we have no use for coach class gifts.  "No thanks," we say, "I'm good." That is why it is so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

A treasure of infinite worth is yours, a pearl of great price. Free of charge. No one is turned away. It will cost you everything you have. All you have to do is ask for it. Will you lay claim to your inheritance as an heir? What will it take for you to believe?

"Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." 

(Rom 8:17)