Jesus Was Sold Out Cheap

Yesterday evening, as the speaker left his downtown office, he was confronted by the sight of 15 police automobiles, blocking all the streets near his office and around the courthouse.

It quickly developed that two men had tried to assassinate Lee Abraham, a prominent local attorney, a mere two blocks away. Agents of the Attorney General's office were able to foil the attack, with one assailant shot dead and another flown to Jackson for trauma care.

This causes each of us to reflect on this irony: that life is infinitely precious, yet the undesirable life may be snuffed out very cheaply. A hit can be bought for $20,000 or less!

Our Lord Jesus was sold out very cheaply for 30 pieces of silver. It was the price of a slave, and yet it had been foretold by Zechariah the prophet.

The Prince of Glory's life was sold dirt cheap! This showed how little the leaders of Israel valued Messiah, the one who would redeem Israel.

Notice well that Judas Iscariot was working for the government. Just because the government takes a life doesn't mean it's moral or just.

The people's valuation of life was all perverted. They valued a murderous rebel, Barrabas, more than the Savior!

That's because he was closer to their ideal of Messiah than was Jesus. He offered a hopeless political deliverance. Jesus only brought salvation from sin and judgment.

The cause the people valued more highly came to naught: Jerusalem was utterly destroyed within that generation.

No good comes from selling out an innocent life cheaply.

But when Jesus was sold to death for chump change, His true value was exposed: he was the priceless sacrifice for sinners, given by God to save us!