Radical Gratitude: Simply Sacrificial!
Luke 7: 36-47
November 16, 2008
How grateful are you to God?
How giving are you?
I want us to find out if our attitude of gratitude is reserved, complex and calculated or is it radical and simply sacrificial?
How do we find this out?
Through a bottle of coca-cola classic, a bottle of perfume, and a ring.
I want to share with you a story about the most incredible bottle of coca-cola I have ever tasted in my life. I have never tasted such an incredible bottle of coca-cola classic as the one I want to tell you about.
Now some of you coca-cola classic fans may be thinking to yourself, “The formula is the same so no matter where you get a coca-cola classic, it will taste the same.” That is true. The taste of coca-cola classic is the same no matter where you drink it. However, it is the experience of drinking a coca-cola classic that makes the difference. It can be the location or the event or the significance of that bottle of coca-cola that causes it to taste better than any other bottle of coca-cola classic you have had in all your life.
The bottle of coca-cola classic that I want to tell you about is one that I had in the country of Tanzania. I was with a small group of folks who ventured into a remote rural area to visit two churches. After a long and dusty, bumpy, dirt road ride in a jeep, we arrived at the village of mud huts and a concrete block church. There were no stores, or towns for miles.
After the brief time of celebration and dedication of the church building we went outside. We were each offered a bottle of coca-cola from one of the church leaders. I was hesitant to take it but our guide shared that it was their way of thanking us for being there with them that day. I drank the bottle of coca-cola classic. It was not ice-cold. It was room temperature. It was not served in a glass with ice. I drank it from the bottle in front of a hundred on-looking church folks. I thanked them for the drink and it was time for us to load up and head to the next rural village and church.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at a similar remote village. The scenario was played out the same as from the first church we visited. Celebration…dedication…bottle of coca-cola classic as a gift of thanks. The first bottle of coke had been shaken up in my stomach from the jeep ride. I really didn’t think I could drink another bottle.
However, the top was popped on the bottle and it was handed to me. I took a drink and then noticed over 50 set of eyes of children looking at me. One little boy had a small plastic cup in his hand. I poured some into it. Then I began to pass the bottle of coca-cola classic around to allow some of the children to take a sip. My fellow travelers did the same.
I gave the empty bottle back to one of the church members and thanked him for the coca-cola. We got back in the land rover and waved to a group of folks who had shared with me the greatest bottle of coca-cola classic I have ever experienced.
As we were riding back to where we would be staying for the evening it occurred to me the cost of that bottle of coca-cola classic. Let me share with you the cost:
The average yearly income of a person living in Tanzania is $300.
Divide that by 12 to get the average monthly income of $25.
Divide that by 4 to get the average weekly income of $6.22
Divide that by a 40 hour work week to get the average hourly pay of 15 ˝ cents.
A bottle of coca-cola classic cost 50 cents.
That means that an average wage earning Tanzanian would have to work three hours to afford a bottle of coca-cola.
Now let’s bring it closer to home. In our state the minimum hourly wage is now at $6.55.
If we, like the Tanzanians, had to work three hours to afford a bottle of coca-cola classic, that bottle of coca-cola would cost us $19.65. How many of us would be willing to pay almost $20 for a bottle of coke and then give it away to a stranger?
My heart was overwhelmed when I realized how much sacrifice and gratefulness went into that bottle of coca-cola I had received that day. It has been the greatest bottle of coca-cola classic I have ever experienced in my life. It was a bottle of coca-cola that taught me a great lesson on extravagant gratitude.
There was a similar experience that Jesus had with a bottle of perfume in one of the most unlikely settings from one of the most unlikely individuals. Listen to this story:
Jesus was invited to have dinner at a religious leader’s home. In the Eastern style of that day and time, Jesus was reclining at the low table, His bare feet stretched out behind Him.
A woman with a bad reputation snuck into the home. She slipped in behind Jesus and knelt at His feet. She started crying. Tears were running down her face and landing on the feet of Jesus. Realizing what was happening the woman took her long hair and began to dry His feet from her tears.
She then pulled out of a pouch a small alabaster jar of perfume. It was priceless and would have cost her a lot of money. In fact, it would have cost her over a year’s salary. She broke open the jar and smoothed the rich ointment on Jesus’ heels. The aroma of the perfume filled the house.
The religious leader, the host of the dinner was disgusted. He thought Jesus would have known what kind of person the woman was and why would He allow her to touch Him. Jesus sensed this in the Pharisee and so Jesus tells him a story.
It was the story of two men who owed money to a lender. One owed five hundred dollars and the other owed fifty dollars. Neither could pay the lender. The lender decided to cancel their debts. Jesus then asked the religious leader, “Which man loved the lender more?”
“I suppose the one who had the greater debt canceled,” said the Pharisee, grudgingly.
“Correct!” said Jesus.
Jesus knew that woman. He knew of her sin and her shame. And he forgave her…extravagantly. This woman realized the extravagant love that had been shown to her and she responded with radical gratitude that was simply sacrificial.
The religious leader had committed several social errors regarding Jesus as a guest at his dinner table. The Pharisee neglected to wash Jesus’ feet, a common courtesy extended to guests because sandaled feet got very dirty.
He also failed to anoint Jesus’ head and to offer him a kiss of greeting. Did the religious leader some how feel that he was too good to treat Jesus as an equal?
The sinful woman, by contrast, lavished tears, expensive perfume and kisses on her Savior. She willingly, sacrificially and freely from her heart expressed her love and gratitude to Jesus. It is the grateful prostitute and not the stingy religious leader who displayed the radical gratitude sacrificially towards Jesus. It was one of the most memorable moments of radical gratitude Jesus experienced from one of the least likely individuals in one of the least likely locations.
The woman displayed the words of the psalmist:
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:25,26
There is provided for us in this experience God’s sacrificial love and the challenge of our response to be one of sacrificial gratitude.
God’s radical and sacrificial love…how much of it do you realize and understand and appreciate?
John Piper’s words from his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, can help:
“All we deserve from God is judgment…Therefore every breath we take, every time our heart beats, every day that the sun rises, every moment we see with our eyes or hear with our ears or speak with our mouths or walk with our legs is, for now, a free and undeserved gift to sinners who deserve judgment.
I say ‘for now’ because if you refuse to see God in His gifts, they will turn out not to be gifts but High Court evidence of ingratitude…
But for those who see the merciful hand of God in every breath they take and give credit where it is due, Jesus Christ will be seen and savored as the great Purchaser of every undeserved breath. Every heartbeat will be perceived as a gift from His hand.”
God is love. He loves you! It is the very nature of God to delight in communicating Himself. God has no selfishness; God keeps nothing to Himself. God’s nature is to always be giving, simply and sacrificially. He loved us enough to send Jesus. He loves us enough that He died so we could be with Him forever. God delights to pour out His love to us.
Do we grasp how incredible, sacrificial, and freely given is God’s love for us in Jesus? Do we understand how much we have been forgiven?
Overflowing love is the natural response to forgiveness and the appropriate consequence of faith. But only those who realize the depth of their sin can appreciate the complete, sacrificial and forgiving love of Jesus. Jesus has rescued us from sin and death. He has offered to us the gift of life eternal. This gift of love is given to the worst of sinners as much as it is offered to those who are conventionally good. The question is, “How do we respond to such radical and sacrificial love?
How do you express your gratitude to God for all the love He has poured out into your life? Do you neglect even common courtesies of thanks? Do you fail to recognize the worth and value of His sacrificial love? Are you so familiar with the story that it no longer brings you to tears? Do you recognize daily the life He has breathed into you?
How do you respond? Do you have a response of calculated gratitude or radical gratitude? The Apostle Paul asked this question of the Corinthian Christians with this reminder:
“Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.” II Corinthians 9:6-8 Message Bible.
Radical Gratitude…simply sacrificial gratitude…giving to God is not something you have to do.
Radical Gratitude…simply sacrificial gratitude…giving to God is something you want to do, delight to do.
Simply sacrificial love, simply sacrificial giving comes from those who realize who and what Jesus has done for them. The tears of love flow from their hearts when they hear again, taste again the most incredible experience of life they have ever lived…Jesus’ forgiving love for them while they were yet sinners. Jesus’ daily grace and love to guide and strengthen them through each day. Jesus’ radical, sacrificial resurrecting love gives eternal life.
Radical Gratitude…simply sacrificial gratitude is to be our response!
We have talked about the bottle of coca-cola and the bottle of perfume…but what about the ring?
This ring belonged to a woman named Diane. She was part of our church for about 4 months. There were some nights she slept on the Backporch because she had no place to stay. She was homeless and on the streets. All she had was one bag of clothes.
She came up to me one day before church and asked if it would be okay if she put a ring in the offering plate, because that was all she had to give. She shared how thankful she was for Jesus in her life and for this church being here. She shared how welcoming this church was to her just as she was and she wanted to express her gratitude not only to Jesus but to this church.
The following Monday, the counters brought me this ring.
It is not worth much in the world’s eyes. It is beat up on the outside but still smooth and shiny on the inside.
In the middle is a cross. On each side of the cross is a heart.
Diane left the following week. It has been close to a year since I have seen her. Diane’s ring reminds me of a radical gratitude for Jesus’ forgiving and saving love in her life.
Diane’s ring is radical gratitude that was simply sacrificial.
You and I have lived a life that is representative of Diane’s ring. We may be tarnished, scratched and beat up on the outside by the world, but on the inside is the simple and sacrificial love of Jesus. We are reminded of His love by the cross.
The question is how does our heart respond to His simple and sacrificial love?
Is our gratitude reserved, complex and calculated?
Or is our response radical and simply sacrificial?
You see your love for Jesus will dictate your response of gratitude and giving.
Jesus simply gave his life for you because he loves you.
Jesus sacrificially gave his life for you because he loves you.
Jesus radical love has been given for you on the cross.
What is your heart’s response?
A bottle of coca-cola…a bottle of perfume…a ring!
Radical gratitude…simply sacrificial.
