A Done Deal--February 22, 2024

A Done Deal--February 22, 2024

"For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in this way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliati0n; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us." [2 Corinthians 5:14-19]

Did you ever go out to a restaurant and discover, when the meal was over, that someone else had paid your bill?  Sometimes it's one of the members of your party who whispers a word to the server before you even arrived at the table.  Maybe it's a good-natured stranger who sees your kids and it makes them think of their grandchildren, and so they ask their waiter if they can pay for yours as well, or an acquaintance you didn't realize was there at the same time as you, who stealthily picks up your tab.  Maybe it's the person in front of you in the drive-through line who is doing a random act of kindness for whomever comes next up behind them.  Maybe the manager of the restaurant knows you and wants to be kind and just tells the server that your meal is on the house.  Whatever the particulars of the situation (and I do hope you've had the chance at least once to be in a situation like this), there is something wonderfully surprising about discovering that your meal was paid for, and you didn't even realize you had been given a gift.

It's the unconditionality of the gift, I think.  When you ask the server for your check and the response comes back, simply, "Oh, it's already been taken care of," it's an already accomplished fact.   It's a done deal.  You are not being given an offer, "If you will just fill out this contest entry, there's a chance that you'll win a free meal." And you're not being paid back for customer loyalty, like, "Because you've eaten here ten times before now, your meal today is free!"  You are being informed about an already-real situation that is being given as a gift.  You haven't done a thing to earn it, and yet it's already in your hands.  You can't un-receive a free meal like that--it's already been paid for by whomever the mysterious benefactor at the restaurant might have been.  The one thing that is happening is that your awareness of an already-changed relationship is awakened.  You are being informed about a gift already given, a grace that has already been bestowed.

Sometimes I think we miss that the real scandal of the gospel is that this is the way God acts toward us to save, reconcile, and redeem.  To hear Paul tell it in what we call Second Corinthians, God has already done the reconciling.  The free gift has already been given, the bill paid, and the estrangement overcome in the cross of Jesus.  Jesus' death has settled things already, overcome our hostility toward God, and revealed that God has already put things right between us and God, from God's side of the equation.  In Christ, God says, "Put away your wallet.  We're already square."  In the cross, God announces with a loving look to us, "Your money's no good here.  I've already taken care of everything." And in fact, God has said this to the whole world.

Yeah, you really get the sense from these verses that Paul isn't talking about something conditional, hypothetical, or contractually limited to dues-paying club-members only.  Paul stresses that in Christ "God was reconciling the world"--that's not just church members.  That's "the world."  It's all of humanity that God has already reconciled with.  It's like God picking up the tab for everybody in the restaurant ahead of time.  And that means it's not merely an offer you have to register for a chance to win, or a prize for customer loyalty.  It's an already-given gift, a grace bestowed on the whole world.  And like our imaginary scene in the restaurant, it's a done deal.  The only question is how we are changed when we realize what has already been given to us that cannot be unreceived.  But you'll notice that nowhere here does Paul say, "Act now, before this offer goes away!" or "Supplies limited--only the first hundred applicants for God's free-salvation-lunch will be considered!"  Rather, he says that God has already reconciled the whole world through Christ's death, and now he and the rest of the Christian community are the ambassadors, the messengers and table servers telling the world, "Your bill has already been paid.  Everything's already been settled."

It really does change things to realize that the church is not a heavenly-commissioned marketing team trying to get the world to buy a product or sign-up for an exclusive deal. It is the name for the community of people learning to let it sink in that the gift has already been given and there are no old scores or debts to be settled, because God has put things right in Christ already before we were aware of it.  And it is the name for the way of life that unfolds when you realize that because you've been given a free gift (along with the whole world), your job is to help everybody else on earth know the news that the check has already been ripped up, the tab has been paid, and all accounts are settled through Christ. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "No abyss of evil can hide from him through whom the world is reconciled with God. But the abyss of God’s love encompasses even the most abysmal godlessness of the world." Or as Robert Farrar Capon said, it, "You are free. Your services are no longer required. The salt mine has been closed."  

How will you face the world differently in light of that realization?  What will it do to you and me in this day as it dawns on us that God has already reconciled all accounts, from God's side of the equation?  Who might you and I be sent to tell?  Who is waiting to hear the news, and is right now still sweating bullets worried if they'll have enough in their wallets to pay their tab?  How might we all be freed by hearing again that we've been given the exact grace we needed... for free?

Lord Jesus, thank you for reconciling us to yourself.  Thank you for the gift that was given before we were even aware of it.  Thank you for the way your love embraces the whole world.