What Price? (2)

  

Does everyone have a price at which they can be bought?

 

It certainly can seem so and it is easy to be cynical, for we have monetized life. We value people and make decisions based on money, Money is our measurement. When I listen to folks my age talk about their adult grandchildren, they don’t talk about character, they don’t talk about their service to others, rather they talk about how much money they are making and how fast they are rising within their careers. Money, money, money – is the sum of a person’s life really to be valued in money? Can everyone really be bought?

 

You would think that when you arrive at the end of life that you’d realize that life is more than money and possessions, you’d think folks my age would know better. However, the adage is true, “The way you live is the way you die.” If you live believing a lie, then you will likely die believing a lie. What a shame that we pass lies onto our children and grandchildren.

 

I recall when a hurricane was headed toward our home outside Richmond, VA and we needed a new generator in the event we lost power (which we did for seven days). I saw a cardboard sign tacked to a utility pole that said, “Generators for sale,” with an arrow pointing into an industrial park. I followed a series of signs to a small engine shop. Thankfully the shop still had generators in stock and the price was quite reasonable.

 

The owner of the shop said to me, “My wife called me an hour ago. She was at Big Frank’s Big Box Store and they are selling this very same generator for $300.00 more than I am selling it for. She wanted me to raise my price. I told her that I wouldn’t do it. This is what is wrong with this country, people chasing the dollar and taking advantage of other people. My price is fair and I am going to keep it fair.”

 

What do you think about the way this man operated his business?

 

I had a business career in which I acted in a fiduciary capacity for my clients. This means that I was legally required, under what is known as “the Law of Agency,” to put their interests first, always first. I was required to put their interests above my own interests and the interests of my firm. Sadly, not everyone in my industry did this, and it’s likely that many weren’t even aware of what a fiduciary duty is – they needed to know the definition in order to pass regulatory exams, but after that they forgot all about it. In my business career, if you could be bought then you could breach your duty to your clients. I saw folks breach their duty all of the time, but since life has been monetized there was little, if any, recognition of what has occurring – even though it was unethical and illegal.

 

Some business lobbies are so powerful, such as the financial investment and services lobby, that they successfully block commonsense legislation that would require investment brokers to act in a fiduciary capacity. Do I really want someone making investments for me, someone managing my financial portfolio, who is not putting me first? (Thankfully, there are some financial services firms which use a fiduciary standard, holding themselves higher than the industry, but they are in the minority.)

 

The point is that the law recognizes what we call “fiduciary duty” because most of us face the temptation, at one time or another, to sell ourselves at the expense of others. Whether or not we all have a price, many of us have been tempted with a price.

 

After Jesus’ baptism He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew Chapter 4, Luke Chapter 4). Satan was attempting to buy Jesus. If Jesus was tempted to sellout, do we really think we can avoid the temptation to sellout?

 

I have often written and spoken on Matthew 8:5 – 13, Jesus and the centurion. There is a fundamental principle here that we miss, and I have never had a class or small group or a congregation that has seen the principle the first time through the story. NEVER. How can this be? It is because of the way we think, for the way we think is the way we read, it is the way we “see.”

 

What did the centurion see in Jesus that caused Jesus to speak of his great faith? Everyone tells me that the centurion saw that Jesus had authority and could therefore heal his sick servant. But that is not the truth. That is our self-centered version of the text, a text which is not there, but we read it as if it were there because that is how we think – we read but we do not “see” – we read into the text, we do not submit to the text that we read. We superimpose our own images on the text, rather than allow the text to work its way into us and upon us. We attempt to transform the text into our own image, rather than allow the Word of God to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do that! And he does it.” (Matthew 8:9).

 

The centurion recognized that Jesus was under authority, and that Jesus therefore had legitimate authority, accountable authority. The centurion’s authority was derived from the Roman chain of command, leading all the way up to the emperor – the centurion could not be bought, he belonged to another. Somehow, someway, the centurion recognized in Jesus a kindred soul, someone whose demeanor indicated that He was not a loose cannon, but that He was accountable [to the Father].

 

If we are living in submission to Jesus Christ, can we be bought?

 

If Jesus is our Lord, to whom do we belong?

 

If we do not belong to ourselves, then how can we sell ourselves?

 

To be continued…