Size does NOT matter!

    The phrase "Size does not matter!" appears often in many different areas of conversation.  Some of which we will not go into for this article.   It is a human condition to compare ourselves to others.  We do it on Facebook, we do it the car, at work, at the gym.  Heck we even do it at church too!

    Jesus addressed this issue when he was at a dinner party of a noted Teacher of the Law.  While he was there a woman of bad reputation (probably the prostitute he saved from stoning) came in and washed Jesus' feet with her tears, dried them with her hair and poured expensive perfume on them.   The host took offense to it and thought that if Jesus' was a true prophet he would know this woman was unworthy of being in his presence.   Jesus tells him this parable

    "There were 2 men who owed the King money.  One owed him 5 denari (a weeks wage) and another 500 denari (2 years wages).  Both of them did not have the ability to pay him back and so the King had mercy on them and cancelled their debt.   Who of the two men do you think loved the King more?".   The host replied, "I guess the man who had the larger debt!".

    I am a numbers person.  I love numbers.  When I read this parable I can't help but visualize the two debts sitting on a table.   One stack of 5 verses 100 stacks of 5 (arranged in a 10x10 square none the less!).   The problem is when we do this we miss the most important part of the parable.   Jesus said, "Both of them did not have the ability to pay him back".   Both were flat broke without a penny to their name.  In this parable Jesus illustrates that some people are "less sinful than others".   There are "good people" out there.  We often get confronted with that by unbelievers who love to point to very good and well-meaning people out there.   In the credit-card-of-life some people live very responsible lives for the most part.   They don't run up huge debts and live very reasonable lives.   While others run off to Vegas and go on a betting streak!   But in the end, BOTH have no means to pay it off.

     All too often we try to impress on non-believers that their debt to God is this HUGE mountain of debt and we are a bit put off when they seem to shrug their shoulders and say, "I don't think I am a bad person!  I am not as bad as Hitler!".   They see themselves as the person with the 5 denari debt and it not being that big of a deal.  The real issue is not the size of the debt but the total lack of income to pay for the debt no matter how small it is.  For some, they think they can "work the debt off" with their good works.   The problem with this idea is that there is no "over time credit" in God's economy.

    To illustrate this imagine you work for a small company and you get paid $100K per year.   A sign at the door reads:

All employees must be at their desks at no later than 8AM and go home no sooner than 5PM with lunch from 12:00 to 1:00 , Monday-Friday.  

    One day you make a mistake that costs the owner $20K.   You go to the owner and say, "To work off the $20K I will be at work from 8-5 Monday thru Friday and only take 1 hour for lunch!".  The owner would point to the sign and say, "That won't pay it off!  That's what I require all my workers to do!"  He then tells you "Since you lost 20% of your salary I am going to require you to work 20% MORE!  You will work on Saturday from 8-5 with 1 hour for lunch for the entire next year!"

    But in God's world the sign doesn't read: "Be holy 40 hours a week!", instead it reads "Be holy!" (24/7).  There is no overtime in God's business.   There is no extra we can do.   It's what God already requires us to be, so when we give to the poor, that is what God expects of us anyway.   Even if we try to use our money or even our very bodies as "guilt offerings" we accomplish nothing because all our money and even our bodies is HIS!  He owns everything and using them to pay off the debt is like you trying to use the company credit card to pay off your debt.

    Instead, God asks us to trust him that he loves us and has take care of it all.   But to get there we must first admit we are flat broke and have nothing to offer of our own.  Like those 2 men in Jesus' parable who trust showing themselves in front of the King and telling him they are flat broke.   We must trust our loving and merciful Father who has already paid the full amount because he is the only one with the resources to cancel the debt.  Jesus declaration on the cross of "IT IS FINISHED!" is his stamping on our debt "PAID IN FULL".