09/03/2023
What does the church do with the fruit of great sacrifices that have been made for it? Does it horde them like provisions in its larder? Does it consume them itself like a fine wine? Or, perhaps it distributes them among the needy and deserving? This greater question that I have asked about the church begs each of us to answer similar questions of ourselves... what do I do with the fruit I receive from the sacrifice of the martyrs, and of Jesus? What do I do with the blood offering of Christ, and the suffering of so many others? There are certain things that people give you, or blessings that God lavishes upon you that are just too great to accept unto yourself. Let's look in scripture at a bible story that serves as an example...
“And David said longingly, "Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!" Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, "Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.”
2 Samuel 23:15-17 ESV
David would not accept the risk these men placed their lives at. He could not accept and drink the offering of water because it was too great a gift. How could he ever repay them for such an act? So David gave that gift to God. This was a touchy situation wasn't it? If he simply refused the gift it would turn these men's hearts against him, so what to do that would both honor them and yet relieve him of the debt he owed them. David chose wisely to offer the water to God... who alone could repay such an act of love.
We can draw a direct correlation between this "blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives", and the blood of Christ that was offered in communion and then on the cross. Like David, how do we accept the life that Jesus gave for us? Can we ever hope to repay Him for it? Well, the answer is emphatically NO... so we pour out our redeemed lives, and the gift of eternity that Jesus returned to us, to God; we return to Him what His Son has purchased for us with His blood, and, we do this at the altar when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Oswald Chambers wrote of such offerings in this way...
"There are certain acts of other people which one could never accept if one did not know God, because it is not within human power to repay them. But immediately I say - This is too great and worthy for me, it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out unto the Lord, then those things pour out in rivers of living Water all around." - Oswald Chambers
Jesus sets the value we should place on a life that is offered and it is beyond our ability to repay without giving our own. The scripture I am thinking of reads this way:
“"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13 ESV
Jesus tells us to give the gift of love He has given us to our neighbors, and, we understand now that this gift of which He is speaking culminated in His death on the cross. So we give our lives back to Him... to God... and then that offering of ourselves is measured out by the Lord to all those who come in contact with us. The Love that was the greatest gift we could receive is sanctified and spread by God in ways we alone are incapable of. The sacrifice of the Son returns to the Father through an outpouring of ourselves before Him... and then Our Holy Father shares us with many.
The gifts that are too great to receive... Have you, or someone you love, been the recipient of such a gift from another in your life? Do you know the recipient of a donated organ? Do you know a person who was given the gift of life by a person or family that loved others in a way that was so great that it was manifest in the offering of life out of the very tragedy of death they were facing? What did you, or your loved one, do with the life received? I hope it was poured out to the Lord, and is being used by Him every day to touch others.
Sacrifices of life... they represent unredeemable gifts to us, and offerings that only God can repay. The parents that give up their lives to care for a handicapped child, the soldier that saves a comrade's life at the expense of his own, the man who donates his organs at death, or the fireman that runs into a burning building to retrieve a victim... all of these things and more provide someone with a gift too great for them to repay. So rather than trivializing them, or letting them eat away at you, the appropriate thing to do is to honor the sacrifice by pouring it out to God.
Are you pouring out the gift of Christ before God? Are you allowing Him to redistribute the love contained in you that was given through His sacrifice? Or, have you accepted this gift as belonging solely to you? Think about this today...
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for receiving the gifts that are too great for me to accept unto myself. I thank you for those sacrifices made on my behalf, and I honor them by placing them at your feet. Take these gifts Lord, even if they are represented by my life, and do with them as your will dictates. Use them, use me, in the realization of your great purpose. Lord your wisdom, mercy, and grace, serve to repay the greatest offerings and blessings in my life, and only you know how to use them to such a degree that they will honor their giver completely. Take my life today, saved by the blood of Jesus, which He so painfully offered, for I am unworthy to receive what He has lavished in love and sacrifice upon me. Take this gift that your Son has given me, and that I consume in communion as a remembrance of Him. I return my redeemed life lovingly to you Father, and ask that you will share it with all those in need of hope, or testimony. Holy God Almighty, make me righteous in Jesus Christ, and take this life that was made perfect in Him, so that you will be glorified in it forevermore.
Rich Forbes