Matins Devotion: June 26, 2024

Acts 8:1-25

When it comes to money, the Bible gives us a wonderful paradox: The Gospel is worth your money because the Gospel doesn’t require your money. The salvation of Jesus Christ is worth every penny you have because the salvation of Jesus Christ is aggressively and even angrily free. We see this in the cleansing of the temple, when Jesus angrily drives those who are selling animals out of the house of God. No one has the right to sell sacrificial animals that point forward to the true Lamb of God when the true Lamb has arrived and is now giving eternal life as a free gift to all who receive His blood. So the fact that eternal life can’t be sold is why you should sell everything in order to possess it, in order to hear it and consume it.

And we see the same thing in our reading from Acts today with Simon the Sorcerer. This man perceives the power of God. He sees that Peter and John have the ability to give the gift of tongues to those who believe, and he wants to buy this ability, presumably so he can launch a true sorcery business. But Peter and John rebuke him and curse him, saying “may your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.” And these words, of course, are recounted for us by St. Luke, writing to Theophilus in part to inspire him to support the preaching of the Gospel, most likely.

So hear the paradox explained. Salvation is a free gift. It cannot be purchased, and any attempt to buy salvation from the hands of Jesus Christ is a denial of Jesus Christ. You cannot inherit eternal life if you want to purchase the treasure of God’s kingdom. And yet, when you receive the glorious free salvation of Jesus Christ, when you see that our Lord gave up everything to destroy your sins in His blood and give you the right to live forever, what does that do to your heart? It makes you recognize that this free treasure is worth sacrificing everything to continue possessing it and to share with your neighbor. Salvation is free, but the mouth that preaches it still needs to eat, so the hearts of Christians should always be moved to support those who labor for the harvest. The Gospel is free but the house in which it’s given still costs money to construct, so Christians should always sacrifice their earthly treasures to keep the lights on in the place where the heavenly treasures are distributed. When all nations are made one family through the one baptism, this is entirely free, but it still costs money to send missionaries into foreign lands to give that baptism, so the hearts of Christians should always rejoice to pave the paths those missionaries walk. The Gospel is free, entirely and eternally. And that’s why it’s worth your every penny to ensure that it’s preached.