Ransomed by God
By Rev. William Dohle
Children age backwards, beginning at age 12.
I've always known this. A 13 year old will often act 3, a 14 year old 4 and so on throughout their teenage years. I've often joked to myself that, after 11, you take their age and subtract 10 and THAT'S how how they act.
But I've never had to experience it... until now.
My oldest has crossed into this arena. A 12-year old now, he has begun asking questions he hasn't asked in 10 years! Questions like "Why!?" Only when he asks them, they come out like whining, crying, screaming "Whys" instead of the cute 2-year old "Why?" Still... same question.
Take this morning for example. I walked downstairs and found the office door was closed. We have told him countless times not to close the door because with the door closed he can't hear us. Well... he closed the door and when I opened it and instructed him to keep it open he responded: "Why!?" No matter how many times I tried to explain it to him, he said the same thing again and again.
Talk about frustrating!
Of course we don't ever really grow up out of that question. It gets more sophisticated, sure, but after age 11 we struggle with the "Why" question for the rest of our lives.
Take the highly political question: "Why do we pay taxes?" Adults of all ages still struggle with this question. Some say we pay too many taxes. Others say too little. And with all the question "Why?!" hovers behind the scene.
The book of Exodus, though, takes up the taxes question in the 30th chapter. Here the Lord says,
"When you take a census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them...Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old an upward, shall given the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than a half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives." (Exodus 30:11-16)Do you hear the "Why?" question being answered here? Why should we pay taxes at the census? "To make atonement for your lives...to give a ransom for his life to the Lord." And the consequences of NOT paying for your life? A plague at the time of the census.
Talk about the "Why?!" question being answered.
In America with the division of church and state being what it is, that "Why!?" question for taxes isn't answered still. We still struggle with paying taxes to the state as we struggle with where we see that money we think is still ours going. We would have a hard time convincing a red-blooded American that the reason we pay our taxes is because everything belongs to the Lord. Our bodies. Our possessions. Try convincing many Americans that our lives are on loan from God and that loan must be paid to God and the state.
That reason wouldn't fly as a reason to pay our taxes now. "A ransom for his life..." that seems absurd in our secular culture.
So, instead of looking at this as a reason to pay our taxes to the state, why not look at it as a reason to give back to God? How should we give back to God? And why?
Today, this pattern of giving found in Exodus is followed by Jews the world around. After the "Day of Atonement" in September, their religious dues are due. Jews do not take offerings like Christians do at their services. They are forbidden to touch money on the Sabbath. They pay dues once a year to the synagogue of their choice. They do so for the reasons described in this passage. To "give a ransom for his life to the Lord."
Christians of all varieties take offering each Sunday and struggle paying for the ministry we provide. We struggle sometimes, I think, because at the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that God has ransomed us by grace and that grace is free. In Christ, we are ransomed from sin and death. We are Christ's forever. God has paid the price for us. He has ransomed us for himself. We know in our hearts we should give. It is proper to give God a portion of what we have been given, but it is hard to give back to someone who has showered us so freely with every good thing.
Though we may not always have this "Why?!" question answered fully, we need to trust. We need to have faith that God's work will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We need to not be like our 12-year olds who challenge everything with a "Why!?" but we need to put our faith in God who has ransomed us from sin and death and given us far more than we can ever return to him through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God Above, in Jesus Christ we are ransomed and bought. By his blood, we are yours forever. Teach us to be generous with ourselves and our possessions as you are with yours. Amen.
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