Refusing Half a Million Dollars?

It is a refusal made out of an arrogant and fatal ignorance.

Maybe you never heard of this before, but it does occasionally pop up and circulate in social media.

It is another way of framing an objection to Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. To be clear, I’m not putting a dollar value on the cross, it is only an analogy, as you’ll see.

The objection simply goes like this. Jesus, since He is God, is a timeless being. What really is a few hours on the cross and a few days in the grave to an eternal Being who has always existed and always will exist? His suffering and death, in light of eternity, isn’t even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of second, comparatively speaking. Therefore, we really shouldn’t call it a sacrifice at all. Let’s just call it a “bad weekend in Jerusalem” for Jesus. For Jesus knew all along He would resurrect from the dead and continue living forever with the Father in the glory He had with Him before the foundation of the world.

In short, since Jesus is the eternal God in flesh, the skeptics claim He really did not sacrifice much at all. He should have done more than He did. It’s barely an inconvenience for an all-powerful, timeless Being to suffer for a few days, remain dead for a few days, and then rise again, so the objection concludes.

So there it is.

First, a finer theological point. God did not die. If God actually died, the universe and everything within it would have ceased to exist. Jesus, as the fully human Son of God, experienced death, but God Himself did not die.

Now, while no analogy is perfect, this one I think will at least set the tone of what’s really going on behind this objection.

Let’s say you’re half-a-million dollars in debt and you only make a few thousand dollars a month, after taxes. To you, your debt is enormous and burdensome and impossible for you to pay off.

But let’s say one day you’re invited to an after-hours party at your office with your fellow co-workers. There you meet and befriend a multi-billionaire. He asks you how you like your job. You tell him it’s ok, but that you’re not making enough to pay all the bills. After you share more of your story with him, he graciously - shockingly and unexpectedly - offers to pay off all your debts.

Take a second to imagine what you might say.

Is your first reaction going to be a complaint to the man about how he ought to give you more money, or how you think he should suffer in poverty, or how you think that he should work for minimum wage for the rest of his life?

You decide to cross your arms in protest and tell him that due to the fact he is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, half a million dollars is hardly making a sacrifice. Therefore, your conscience bids you to refuse the money.

“You could make a half a million dollars in two weeks if you wanted to,” you tell him. “You capitalists are just Robber Barrons. If you really are sincere about making a sacrifice, you should give me your entire estate. Only then will I consider it, thankyouverymuch.”

But it gets worse.

After you’ve made your case, you boast about your rejection on social media the next day, quite proud of yourself for refusing the spoils of what you consider to be his lack of a sacrifice and his tyrannical capitalistic ethos.

Monday morning comes. You arrive your cubicle only to have your boss call you into his office.

Your boss tells you he has some bad news. Your feet get cold and your face turns pale. You discover that billionaire at the office party Friday night turned out to be the owner of the company. He invited everyone from the office to the party and wanted to help each one of his employees in whatever way he could.

You’re speechless. You had no idea.

“He wouldn’t force anyone to accept money from him,” your boss says, “and you could have just said ‘No, thank you’ of course, but he, and I, are a bit taken aback by what came out of your mouth afterward. My goodness, do you want to try and explain to me what you said to him?”

“I uh…I told him…half a million dollars wasn’t much of a sacrifice, given he said he was a billionaire…”

“Ya, that’s what he told me. But how is that even remotely a reason for rejecting his offer? I’ll answer that question myself. It isn’t. And what do you know of what it’s like to be in his position?”

“I don’t.”

“That’s right. None of us do, really. I’ve never made that kind of money and I probably never will. But he generously paid for my daughter to have much needed surgery that my insurance would only partially cover. And he paid off our mortgage. You should talk to everyone else to see what he did for them and then maybe rethink your ingratitude. Be thankful you still have a job.”

You don’t quite know what to say and stand before your boss’s desk for a few awkward moments in silence, looking down at the carpet.

“Does everyone else know?”

“Only if they happened to follow you on social media.”

“I’ll take it down.”

“Good idea.”

“And by the way,” the boss said, “I actually have some good news. The chief wants you to call him today some time. He’d still be willing to help you. He’s much more forgiving than I would be. He’s been through a lot more than you know. Talk to him. If you don’t, you’re a fool.”

Your boss hands you the owner’s business card.

Let us all see to it we do not refuse Him who is speaking with us. Lord Jesus, remember what you prayed from the cross, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”