Buying without Money Sounds Like the Gospel

Eighth Sunday after Trinity

July 17, 2016

Isaiah 55:1

Buying without Money Sounds Like the Gospel

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

We never hear of Jesus selling anything. We might assume that He sold furniture as a carpenter in order to care for His mother, but during His ministry we never hear of any selling on His part. He gave His life as a ransom for many, but He never sold Himself.

Indeed Jesus is the opposite of a seller. Sellers aren't trusted because they so often bend the truth or omit it. They might play on your greed and exploit your lust. Now there are honest salesmen and when you find one, you treasure him like an honest auto mechanic, but the expection proves the rule.

But Jesus doesn't sell. He is the honest Man. We note how often His listeners go away disappointed or even angry because He doesn't tell them what they want to hear. He doesn't bend the truth to sell Himself to them; He doesn't leave out part of who He is to suit His audience. Instead He gave them what they needed, which was the truth, the whole wonderful truth.

He is the God's Servant, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He came to die; He came to rise. He came to feed us with Himself.

And so He calls out to us:

¹“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

(Isaiah 55:1 NIV 1984)

Dearly beloved, come, buy without money. But how do you buy without money? You might think of buying on credit, but then you still need to pay. The bill is still due, and usually means you end up paying more in the end. You might think of payments in kind: you don't have money, but you can work off your bill.

But Jesus says buy without money. He rejects our payment schemes: He doesn't need your money and your hard work isn't enough to pay the bill. The bill is massive. All your sin, arrogance, false humility, doubts, lust, and greed, and more.

So Jesus' solution is to pay your bill for you. Without gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent sufferings and death. Simply put, buying without money is the Gospel, Jesus' death and resurrection paid for you and credited to you.

Buying without money isn't really a thing. Attempts to make it real always involve a trick. But Jesus dying for you is no trick. Indeed buying without money, getting something for free, is the definition of a GIFT.

So, come, buy His Baptism for you.

Come, buy His word of forgiveness.

Come, buy His holy body and blood.

All without money, effort, or goodness from you, because it is ALL from Him.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!