This fact is often used as a short form for a number of other things, but more often than not, to discuss the uniqueness of the human person. That is, just like no snowflake is exactly like another, so too are we all different, and individual. This goes significantly deeper than you think it is, you know. It goes deeper because, on a cosmic level, you have to understand that the extreme unlikeliness of you being conceived, you being born, and all of a sudden, you figure out that you are actually much more different from every other human being than snowflakes are from one another. There are really only 35 different forms of snowflakes, they differ much more on a molecular level. So too, there's really only one way that human beings are put together (two legs, two arms, a head, etc). Sure, there are minor differences, but you get my point. Just like snowflakes are unique on a molecular level, though, we are all unique on a spiritual level.
So when it comes to the cost of a soul, they should fetch a pretty fine price. They should fetch a high price because each of them is a one-off. There is only one of each, and that's all. All economics is based on scarcity, you know. Absolutely all of it. Things are only expensive because they are rare. Anything that is hyper-common has no value whatsoever, precisely because it is common. That's why nobody can ever charge for air, for example, because it is everywhere, unless you're in a situation where it isn't. Then it is worth a lot.
Think of it this way - There is only one of you, your soul is completely different from anyone else's, and even if you were to be cloned, as identical twins are essentially clones of one another, you would be different on a spiritual level. You can see this with identical twins. Although they are identical physically, they are operating on a different level emotionally, spiritually, what have you. So given that your soul has uniqueness that even snowflakes do not, it stands to reason, from an economic sense, that it should be worth a lot. An awful lot.
The legend of Faustus, being the prototype for a lot of other soul-selling narratives, has the brilliant doctor selling his soul to the devil, with Mephistopheles doing his bidding for seven years. He wagered that in those seven years, he would be able to wring all the enjoyment out of life that he could, so that eternity in hell with Satan and all his little wizards would be tolerable. Well, Mephistopheles had to grant him an awful lot, because Faustus, being a man of his time, understood what a human soul, his soul, was worth, and he wasn't willing to part with it easily. It commanded a hell of a price for the devil to get, because people really weren't willing to part with immortality and paradise unless it was for a very very high price. Now, contrast that with the going price for souls these days, and I would hope you'd agree that the bottom has fallen out of the soul market. These days, you have to wonder what it is that people are willing to essentially sell their souls for. What price is the right price for them to lose their eternal salvation. Is it seven years of amazing love, power and cash? Or is it upvotes?
For you see, these days, the average person doesn't want to rock the boat at all. The average person is in no mood to stand out spiritually. The average person doesn't want to make ripples in the water in the slightest. And so the average person who fears the disapproval of man more than the wrath of God, will sell their souls out completely just to avoid any momentary discomfort here on earth at all. No social anxiety, no even mild tsk-tsking, no semblance of any kind of disapproval from the masses in the slightest. We want to go along to get along, you know, and so when push comes to shove, and the prospect of people thinking that we are operating outside the norm shows up, we pull back almost immediately. Forget the seven years of power and prestige, all the devil needs to do now is to say 'forsake your faith, or I won't like you anymore.' And like suckers, we go for it.
Essentially, if we had any concept of how valuable our souls were worth, how they aren't just a thing we have, they're a thing that we are, then there's no way we would sell them as cheaply as we do. But we have either forgotten, or we never really knew, and so we are willing to give them away for nothing. We will sell them for a mess of pottage, if you will, simply to avoid even the possibility of momentary discomfort, exactly as Esau did. And if we're willing to sell for nothing, the devil is quite happy to pay that much.
And that brings us to the season of Lent, and to the wandering of Jesus in the wilderness. For 40 days he fasted and prayed, for 40 days he was alone. At the end of the 40 days, the devil arrived in the wilderness and made him some promises, by way of some temptations. The devil showed up and said to him that he would supply all of Jesus' needs of body, safety, and prestige. He would give to Jesus all the attention that the world would not supply, he would give to Jesus all the power that the world would deny him. All this would be given to Jesus by the prince of this world, if Jesus would just turn aside from his quest, and follow him. But Jesus resisted him.
Jesus was willing to pay the price. Not just the price of being dismissed by his followers and deserted by his friends. Jesus was willing to go further than you or I would, by giving up his clothes, his freedom, his safety and his life. He was willing to pay the ultimate price, pay it in blood, because he knew how much this was all worth. He knew how much your soul was worth. And he was willing to do whatever he had to do to save it. In many ways, the story of lent is not so much the question of whether or not we sell Jesus short, but whether we sell ourselves short. What is your immortal soul worth? If the devil were to show up and ask you to haggle, would you demand top dollar, or would you sell it for lentils? What is eternal salvation worth? Would you suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it, or would you shrink away to avoid any cost at all? Well, Jesus is well aware of how frail we are when it comes to this. He is aware that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is most certainly weak. And he knows that when it comes to value, we are always tempted to ask too little for what we have.
But he is willing to outbid the devil, you know. He is perfectly willing to pay more than the devil does. Again, we're going to look at this in economic terms for a moment. Think of it this way, in a capitalist way. Your soul is on offer, but now it's not a transaction, it's an auction. And you know how an auction works, right? In an auction, you get to figure out not how much something is worth according to its sticker price, you get to figure out how much something is truly worth. Everything that exists is only worth what someone will pay for it. If nobody will pay for it, then the item in question has no value whatsoever.
Now, here we get into what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. It's about the value of your soul. That soul that you take very lightly, the soul that is undervalued by us. God bless us ,we take this very lightly indeed, only truly understanding the value of a thing after it is gone and wasted.
This is the almost was situation of the prodigal son, the one who wasted his precious inheritance on wine, women and song. The horrifying idea that you have undervalued that inheritance so powerfully, and would only want it back when it is long long gone.
You would give that soul away, blow through that inheritance on essentially nothing. And the devil, because he doesn't have to, will only give you what he has to. He will take your soul for whatever bargain basement that you will offer it up for. He'll take whatever he can, and will give you only what he has to. And in this auction, the highest bidder will take the prize. But the devil will only offer what he has to, in order to secure the deal. But Christ offers the highest price, a price higher than the devil can. The devil, even if he is trying to outbid Jesus can't do it, because Jesus offers up the highest price in creation. There is no price higher. If the devil was only offering you what he thought you would sell for , then you'd sell for rock bottom; likes and upvotes. But he's not offering you a price, he's in an auction against the blood of Jesus Christ, the source of forgiveness and grace, the thing that pays the cost for the sins of the whole world.
And really, this is what lent and Easter are all about. They're about the reality of the offer of Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of the whole world with something that cannot be outbid. The one perfect sacrifice from the one perfect penitent. The offering up of the blood of the Lord, the God of creation to redeem creation. And no matter how much the devil offers, he literally can't offer up more than that. It's always good to remember that your salvation rests not in your hands and how highly you value your soul, but in the hands of Jesus, who can pay infinitely more than any of us can.
No comments:
Post a Comment