The Lutheran Hour
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"Looking for Jesus"
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Text: John 6:24-35
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! If you see with eyes of faith; listen with spiritual understanding, you will know what God is telling you through the message of the empty tomb. He is saying: “When you look for My Son, see a Savior and Brother; hear His call to repentance and life. See Him for what He is, My Son, Who has sacrificed Himself so that you might have a new life in this, and the next.”
Many years ago, a gracious old king called his wise men together and gave them a job: “I want you to compile for me the wisdom of the ages. Put it in book form so we can leave it to those who come after us.” The wise men left the king and worked for a long time. They returned with a leather bound, twelve-volume set of books. The king looked at the twelve ponderous volumes and said, “Gentlemen, you have done as I have requested. There is no doubt in my mind that these books contain the knowledge that must be shared with the centuries. But frankly, gentlemen, it is my belief that twelve volumes of such a size are too much. People will not read it. Boil it down!”
You may not know this, but wise men do not like to reduce or remove any of the words they have put upon paper. They believe every word they have written is the finest of diamonds and every paragraph and page nothing less than the purest gold. That is why, it was only with murmuring, that the king’s wise men departed to perform surgery upon their twelve-volume work. Eventually, they came back to the king, and with much fanfare, unveiled the product of their labors – one volume. True, it was a very large volume, very thick, and had very, very small print. But it was one volume. The king did a five-minute royal read through, and decreed: “Try again.” They boiled the wisdom of the ages down to a chapter. The king said, “Try again.” They submitted a page. He said, “Try again.” They got it down to a paragraph. “Try again.” Finally, they tendered to the royal reader one single sentence.
Can you guess this great truth? Do you know what the sentence said? The wisdom of the ages that the wise men recorded was – “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”
In the early years of the 1900’s, it was common for most neighborhoods to have their own corner bar. Depending on who you talk to, these taverns were the devil’s den of iniquity, or a delightful departure from the drudgeries of the day.
At any rate, the owners of these establishments would put out food, usually salty foods such as ham and peanuts and pretzels and popcorn; anything that would make the clientele desperate for a drink. Amazingly, the charge for the lunch was nothing. “Help yourself to the free lunch” read the sign above the table. But remember, everything on the table was designed to make you thirsty. It was expected that you would be thirsty, and buy a beer, or two, or twelve. In short, there was no such thing as a free lunch. Most of us know the updated version of that expression: “If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Even though we know about “no free lunches,” and “things too good to be true,” that doesn’t stop us from searching for the free lunch, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the buried treasure. When the lottery gets to a monumental figure, the free-lunchers circle the counter like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Did they hear that a horse at the racetrack, a stock on the market, a new invention is a “sure thing,” free-lunchers wave their money around like it really did grow on trees, and they owned an orchard. We all want to beat the system. Almost all of us, down deep, are free-lunchers looking for an easy way, someway, anyway, to reap what we haven’t sown.
A few years ago, a middle-aged schoolteacher invested her life savings in a business enterprise, which had been elaborately sold to her by a swindler. When her investment disappeared, and her wonderful dream was shattered, she went to the office of the Better Business Bureau to complain. “Why on earth,” they asked, “didn’t you come to us first? Didn’t you know about the Better Business Bureau?” “Oh, yes,” said the lady, most sadly, “I’ve always known about you. But I didn’t come because I was afraid you would probably tell me not to give them my money.” There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
So, why have I spent so much time talking about free lunches? And what do free lunches have to do with Christianity? All I can tell you is that looking for the free lunch is part of each of us, and not a very admirable part, at that. Adam and Eve wanted a free lunch. It didn’t matter that God had given them everything anybody could want. They wanted more. Adam and Eve found out, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Fifteen hundred years before Jesus, the Children of Israel wanted a free lunch. God had, with powerful proofs, delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But that wasn’t enough. They wanted more. They demanded water at Marah – and God took those pungent waters and made them palatable. In the wilderness of Sin they complained that God had brought them out of the security of Egypt only to kill them with hunger in the desert, so God gave them manna, and meat enough for each day. They still wanted more. They wanted to tell God what to serve in that free lunch, how to serve it, when to serve it, and to whom He should serve it.
Fifteen hundred years later, Jesus, God’s Son, our Savior, fed well over 5,000 people on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Most of those there that day shared the belief that when the promised Deliverer arrived, He would make the miracles of Moses seem second rate and substandard. Yes, Moses had fed them for forty-years; but they were confident that their Deliverer would feed them forever. “If Jesus is the Messiah,” the crowd thought, “we have hit the jackpot; picked the powerball, our horse has come in; we have struck the mother lode.
They were looking for Jesus, but not as a Savior from their sins; not as a Redeemer from all they had done wrong; not as a Substitute Who would fulfill the laws they had broken; Who would take the punishment they had earned; Who would die the death they deserved. No, they wanted a free lunch. Literally. They wanted food to fill their bellies, medicine for their maladies.
I suppose it’s not much different today. People are still looking for a free lunch from the Lord. Say a certain prayer, in a certain way, quoting a certain Old Testament personality, and God will give you wealth and health, riches and rewards beyond your imagining. “If your faith is strong enough,” say the free-lunch preachers, “God has promised to give you anything, everything you want. Lay claim to God, and you will have Him in a heavenly chokehold. He must submit to your supplications, surrender to your requests.” Even though almost 2,000 years have come and gone since Jesus walked the earth, people are still not looking for a Savior; they want a free lunch, and more.
Now, please don’t think I’m undercutting some free-lunch preachers because of some sort of spiritual sour grapes on my part. Not at all. I would love to join them if I could, and tell you that when you follow Jesus, your life is going to be nice and normal, secure and satisfying, filled with love, lazy days and laughter. But I can’t say that, because Scripture doesn’t say that, Jesus doesn’t say that. Jesus said, “If anyone is going to follow Me, He has to deny himself and pick up a cross.” (Matthew 16:24) After the Apostle Paul had been stoned for preaching about salvation that comes through the Savior, he shared, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22b) No, I can’t tell you that following Jesus means you will have it made in the shade, and your life will be a bed of roses. I can’t tell you that, because Jesus didn’t come into this world to make you a shade-sitter. When Jesus’ well-fed Galilean groupies tried to make Him king so that He could do His free-lunch miracles on a regular basis, He told them they were looking for the wrong thing, from the wrong Guy. “You’re looking for Me because you are stuffed” Jesus said, “rather, come to Me, looking for the spiritual food of salvation that can sustain you, nourish you, take you to eternity.”
Throughout His ministry, Jesus always tried to make the same point: He had come to seek and save the lost, to call people to repentance, to send His Holy Spirit, so their lives and eternal destiny could be changed. If Jesus was always making that point, people were always misunderstanding that point. When they went looking for Jesus, people wanted Him to take care of their bodies, which He almost always did, but most of all, He wanted to take care of their souls. He wanted to give them a good life, a better life for this world, but most of all, He wanted to give them an eternity in the world to come.
When some people came to Jesus, looking for healing for a paralyzed friend, the first thing Jesus did was forgive this man of his sins. (Matthew 9:1-5) When a woman came to draw water from a well, she wanted to know how she could avoid that embarrassing trek. Jesus told her that He could satisfy her spiritual thirst. (John 4:7-17) When the disciples asked the resurrected Lord whether He was going to restore the ancient kingdom of Israel, and thereby make them into some very important people, He told them to go, teach, preach and baptize the entire world, making them members of His spiritual kingdom. (Acts 1:6-9)
That’s why, today, as you come looking for Jesus, I hope you see that He wants you to keep your priorities in order. He wants you to see Him, first and foremost, as your Savior. How did He say it? “Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) When the Holy Spirit calls you to Jesus, you should remember that on judgment day, if Jesus isn’t your Savior, you won’t get any free lunch from God. If you knew Jesus once upon a time but have forgotten Him, there will be no free lunch. If you think there are other ways to get into heaven other than by the Savior’s precious blood, there will be no free lunch. You may have won every argument on earth, but you will not win this one. That day there ain’t no free lunch. On that day God will say, “I sent My Son to find you, you hid from him, now you may spend eternity hiding from Him in hell.”
Years ago, a pastor was preaching a sermon, not unlike this one, and he was encouraging God’s people to live a life of commitment to the Savior. He was telling them that when they went looking for the Lord, it was going to cost them. After his message, one of his leaders, a learned man, well studied in the field of Christian doctrine, came up to the preacher and said, “Reverend, I’m confused. Today you said that the Lord’s work was going to cost us. I’ve always thought that God’s grace was free.” The preacher, not a slow man himself, replied, “You are absolutely, completely correct. God’s grace is free, but my friend, somebody has to pay for the plumbing to get it to your house.” Now those of you who have been listening to this message have been hearing me say, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” You’re probably ready to write in to my bosses and tell them, “What’s going on, we heard that the Lutheran Hour Speaker said ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and we know we’re not saved by works, or anything else we can do.'”
If you’re saying that, you are absolutely, completely correct. Salvation is free, for us. But it certainly was not free for God. Our free pass into heaven cost God His Son’s life. To connect us to God’s grace, Jesus left His throne of power in heaven and was born in an earthly stable. Jesus turned His back on the perfection of heaven, to live among the perversion of earth. Jesus stepped down from His angels in heaven, to be spit on by sinners of this world. So salvation could be free for us, Jesus put aside His crown of heaven, to ascend the cross of Calvary. This was all done for you. Every moment of His life lived in payment so that you might be adopted into His Father’s family, and then, when Judgment Day comes, to be received, without price, or payment, into heaven. To minimize the price Jesus paid, to disregard it, to cheapen it, to ignore it, to malign it is a monumental mistake. Far better, I believe, to fall to your knees and give thanks to the Savior for this unbelievable, incomprehensible payment He made to save us. That is what we need to see when we look for Jesus. We may eat, what is to us, the free lunch of salvation, but we can do so only because God’s Son has paid our bill.
In Minnesota I have a computer-savvy friend who has a mind unlike any other that I have ever met. He sees things differently than I do, and because of that, he has helped me through many difficult situations. One of his great joys is to perform what he calls “unanticipated acts of kindness.” If he is driving on a toll road, he’ll probably pay for the car that is coming after him. At McDonald’s he may pick up the tab for a mother, with two small children that are next in line. It doesn’t cost him much, it makes him feel good, and it changes the entire day of those who are recipients of his generosity.
Now, the point I’m trying to make is, that person who drives through the tollbooth without paying a fee, the family who eats lunch for free, does so not because they deserve it, or have earned it, or because there was no charge. They have this gift, because someone has paid the bill. That, my friends is what Jesus has done for you. He paid your bill. With His life, with His death, He paid your bill. Now, if your day would be changed because someone picked up one day’s lunch tab at McDonalds, what should be your response for Someone Who has, at great sacrifice and unbelievable personal cost, saved your soul for all of eternity? Is it not your duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him? This is what you want to do, if you know Jesus as Savior.
Many years ago, the Triune God, our Heavenly King, called His prophets, evangelists and apostles together and gave them a job: “I want you to compile My spiritual wisdom for salvation. Put it in book form so we can give it to those who come after you.” The wise men left their Lord and, under His direct guidance, worked for a long time. They returned with a volume of sixty-six books. The Lord looked at the sixty-six books and said, “Gentlemen, you have done as I have requested. These are My words, perfect, and inspired. There is no doubt that these books contain the knowledge I wish to have shared with humanity.”
But the King knew that some people would not take the time to read these sixty-six volumes. That is why, when absolutely necessary, He could boil down what humanity needs to know to just a line or two that can be understood by almost everyone.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in (Jesus) is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18) If you believe this, you will also believe Jesus when He tells you what these words mean, in a very practical way. You will know Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Him will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Him will never die. (John 11:25-26) No free lunch, but a saving Savior. That is the message for today. If you would like to know more about Him, Lutheran Hour Ministries stands ready to help. Call the number that we will give you before the end of this broadcast. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 24, 2003 “Christianity is a Crutch” (Part 1 of 2)
ANNOUNCER: Is Christianity a crutch for the weak? Pastor Ken Klaus responds to a listener’s comment. I’m Mark Eischer, and I have here a letter written by a Christian wife. She was talking to her husband about her faith, and he told her something to the effect of, “Real men don’t need the church. Christianity is just a crutch for those who are weak.” Pastor, do you have a response for that?
KLAUS: Yeah – I don’t think I’d like to meet this guy in a dark alley late at night.
ANNOUNCER: Or any other time for that matter.
KLAUS: Well, at least not with the attitude he has right now.
ANNOUNCER: But do you have an answer for him?
KLAUS: Well we do. First we ought to tell him he isn’t alone in his opinion. There are other people who have felt the same way. Karl Marx, the author of the Communist Manifesto once said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
ANNOUNCER: Now, did Marx maintain this low regard for religion and, for Christianity in particular?
KLAUS: Mark, as far as I know, he did; but Marx also wrote in a letter to a friend, “When all the political foundations of religion are wiped out, then normally religious faith, the Christian faith, would have to disappear. But it is not out of the question that the Christian faith will survive. This would mean that there is a religious reality that does not depend solely on the sociological and the institutional …” ¹
ANNOUNCER: How would you sum that up?
KLAUS: Marx was saying, if Christianity survives, even after you wipe out its organizations and institutions, then you’d better pay attention to it, because there might be some reality to it.
ANNOUNCER: And communism spent almost a century trying to wipe the Church out.
KLAUS: And today communism is basically in shambles, while Christianity still flourishes.
ANNOUNCER: Anybody else you can think of who thought Christianity was just for the weak?
KLAUS: Well, there is William Ernest Henley. He’s the fellow who wrote the poem Invictus. The most famous line of that poem is, “I am the master of my fate – I am the captain of my soul.”
ANNOUNCER: Well, he sounds like a solid, got-it-all-together kind of guy. How did life go for him?
KLAUS: After his daughter died, he was thrown into total despair. That’s not surprising. The death of a child will affect any normal human being. Sadly, the man who was the “master of his faith and the captain of his soul” ended up killing himself.
ANNOUNCER: Any others?
KLAUS: Well, Voltaire. He was a writer who used his pen to attack Christianity. He once boasted, “In 20 years, Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took 12 apostles to build.”
ANNOUNCER: That’s quite a boast.
KLAUS: It is, and it was also an empty one. At least that’s the way it seemed to be. Years later, the doctor who was at Voltaire’s deathbed said he cried out, “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of my estate if you will give me another six months of life. Then I shall go to hell, and you will go with me.” And then the doctor said he called out, “O Christ!” ² I’ve known a lot of strong men, big men, tough men. Men who had been tortured in war. Men who had withstood more than any man should have to withstand. But each of those men, in his honest moments, admitted there were things that he could not face.
ANNOUNCER: Such as . . .
KLAUS: Well, the sickness or death of a child. Your strength doesn’t make any difference at that kind of moment. There were times when they looked inside and saw that, although the world considered them to be tough, they weren’t nearly as independent as they wanted people to believe them to be. Some were lonely. Some had been hurt. Each one had a different moment …a time, a time when they hit a wall, when they couldn’t go it alone.
ANNOUNCER: What happened then?
KLAUS: The ones who survived, they found some assistance outside of themselves.
ANNOUNCER: Christianity?
KLAUS: For most. Knowing that you have Someone Who understands, Who cares, Who loves, Who forgives you, no matter what you’ve done, made a tremendous difference. They were still real men; but they didn’t have to stand alone anymore.
ANNOUNCER: May we continue this topic again next week?
KLAUS: Absolutely.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
¹ Karl Marx, in a letter to his friend, Max Rugge (quoted by Jacques Ellul in Perspectives on Our Age). Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 15.
² Last Words of Saints and Sinners, Herbert Lockyer.