Day 11

11 - JESUS' MISSION: TO GIVE HIS LIFE AS A RANSOM FOR MANY

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:45

“The word “ransom” carries negative connotations because of what we associate it with. Kidnapping. Being held hostage.

The largest ransom ever paid? $134 million. Victor Li, son of the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing, was kidnapped by “Big Spender” Cheung Chi Keung in 1996. The gangster who kidnapped him would be arrested and executed in 2000.

Perhaps the most famous kidnapping in the United States was a sophomore at Cal Berkley, the 19-year-old heiress to the Hearst media conglomerate, Patty Hearst. The left-wing radicals known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped Hearst, demanding her grandfather, William Randolph Hearst, distribute $70 worth of food to every needy Californian, which would have been a total of $400 million. He eventually paid for $6 million worth of food, but the kidnappers were unsatisfied, and Patty Hearst was never released. In a shocking twist of fate, Patty Hearst would join the SLA in their crusade, eventually being arrested.

When you convert the ransom into today’s dollar, the largest sum ever paid was for King Richard the Lionheart. The 150,000 marks paid for King Richard in 1190 would be the equivalent of $3.3 billion today. The king was sailing back from the Crusades when bad weather forced him to land in unfriendly Corfu. Richard and his men disguised as Knights Templar and made their way back to central Europe, but while passing through Vienna they were captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria. The Duke demanded 150,000 marks, 2-3 times the annual revenue of England, which was paid around one year later.

But think for a moment about the powerful concept of giving a ransom for another person. In the 1998 movie, Les Miserables, there is the powerful scene where Jean Val Jean has been offered a warm bed and a hot meal by a priest, only to steal the church’s silver, knock out the priest, and flee in the dark of night. After being captured by the police and brought back to the priest, Val Jean is stunned when the priest refuses to press charges, instead saying the precious silver was a gift. In doing so, when the police had left, the priest said this:

“Jean Val Jean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I bought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred. And now I give you back to God.”

While $6 million was paid for Patty Hearst, $134 million was paid for Victor Li, and $3.3 billion was paid for King Richard the Lionheart, an even greater ransom was paid for you and for me.

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Read the following verses.

• Pause and reflect on the ransom that was paid for you.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.” 1 Peter 1:18-20

• What thoughts and emotions does the concept of ransom stir in your heart?

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One of the titles used for Jesus is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist was the first to call Jesus by this name.

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

The concept of the Lamb of God comes from the priestly sacrificial system where a spotless lamb was offered as a sacrifice for sins. The demands of God’s justice had to be met, but in His mercy, God would allow a lamb to be offered as a substitute. While this sacrifice was temporal and had to be made over and over again, Christ’s sacrifice was perfect and eternal.

“With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever… Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins… Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.” Hebrews 9:12,14,28

• When we think of ransom, we think of bondage, of being held hostage. What does Christ free us from when He offered His life as a ransom for us? What have you been ransomed from?

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Apart From Him…

• Thank the Father that through the ransom paid for you, you have been freed from both the penalty and the power of sin in your life.

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Walking As Jesus…

• Watch the Les Miserables’ clip, “I give you back to God,” on YouTube. Pray and ask God if there is someone with whom you should share this video clip.

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• My Personal Disciple-Making Plan: