Have
you ever wondered about the origin of some of the bizarre phrases we
use? Phrases like "fair to middling." Huh? Or how about "no skin off
my nose," which has been transformed over the years to include other
body parts such as teeth and the back? And what's up with "beating
around the bush" or "barking up the wrong tree"? Perhaps one day I'll
write a book on these odd sayings and their origin, but for now, I want
to focus on one that I thought of Sunday morning.
We had a guest preacher at church, and during the morning service, he preached a wonderful sermon based on Luke 8:49, which reads, While he yet spake, there
cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy
daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. The focus of the message
was on the last phrase: "trouble not the Master." Throughout the
message, the preacher highlighted different problems of people in the
Bible (Jairus' daughter, the woman with the issue of blood, the maniac
of Gadara and so on) and explained how their problems were no trouble to
the Master. Their biggest plights weren't too difficult for the Lord
to handle. And at the end, he talked about how salvation and how when
we cry out to the Lord to save us, no matter how bad we've been, He'll
say, "It's no trouble."
At
that point, my mind took its own trail (which it has a habit of doing),
and I immediately thought of the phrase, "It's no skin off my back."
But before I could go any further, I was stopped short by an awful
realization--that's not true. While it is true that God can save
anybody at anytime, my simplification of the entire process was
seriously flawed. Salvation did cost the skin off my Savior's back and
so much more. He was bruised, beaten, ridiculed and scorned. He was
rejected and abandoned, even by His own Father who couldn't bear to look
at the sin Jesus bore on the cross. My salvation cost Jesus His life,
His fellowship with God and more than we could ever imagine or
understand. Yet, He did it willingly because of His great love for us.
It's easy to look at the greatness of God and think, Sure, He can do anything, so what's the big deal?
The big deal is that, while salvation is free to you and me, it costs
Jesus everything. It was a big deal. Yes, He could do it. Yes, He
could bear the weight of our sin. Yes, He's the almighty God. But the
big deal isn't that He could do it; it's that He did do it. The big deal is that He looked into the future, saw what I would be and said, "Now, that's something worth dying for."
Oh, Lord, may I never get over the cross!
For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. - John 3:16
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