A Costly Gift

King Duncan, in Collected Sermons, tells the story of a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless, he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. His father met him in the living room and also said nothing. You know how sometimes silence can speak louder than any words?

At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water.

He looked at his father’s plate, full of roast beef, savory carrots, potatoes and gravy, a buttered roll.

And then he looked at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew up, he said, “All my life I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night.”

My friends, sometimes it is hard for us to realize how much damage our sins do, and what a wondrous blessing God’s grace truly is. Even despite our sinful actions and inactions, despite our selfish and lustful thoughts, despite our skepticism and doubt and distrust, still our Lord offers us the gift of grace, and what a costly gift it is too, for it cost God His only Son, forgiving us, redeeming us, saving us. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “What cost God so much, should never be cheap to us.”

And he [Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. -Luke 24:46-48

Ron Trimmer is pastor of Hope United, a new church in Georgetown, Texas. Click here to visit Hope United’s website.