Speakable and Unspeakable gifts

I was thinking about the unspeakable gift that God gave us when he allowed his son to be brutally sacrificed. And by the way that word “unspeakable” is awfully easy to say… unspeakable, unspeakable, unspeakable.

I’m not sure though that we really understand that word. Would I, for instance, ask my son to allow himself to be killed for a murderer or a rapist or an abuser of children… probably not.

Every once in a while I hear about someone needing a kidney to save their life. Even though I have two kidneys I have never been to be tested to see if I was a good donor. I might think… I really need both my kidneys or I don’t like to stay in a hospital or be cut on. What if I catch some kind of infection in the hospital like COVID?

I might donate a kidney for my wife or my children or my grandchildren if you’re in that circle or even close to that circle, but for a stranger… probably not and for a derelict of society… definitely not.

I know some people who won’t even put the transplant option on their driver’s licenses in case the doctor has a friend who needs a kidney and says something like… “he’s too far gone, we can’t save him… harvest his organs”

God didn’t ask Jesus to give up a kidney for one of his righteous disciples for instance. He asked Jesus to give up his precious, precious life for the worst of humanity… that’s an unspeakable gift and one I’m ashamed to say… I’m not ready to give.

Fortunately God doesn’t ask us to do that. What he does ask is for us to give up our old lives and transform our lives into the pattern of Jesus Christ’s life.

That “speakable” gift is not too much to trade for an “unspeakable” gift is it? Of course it isn’t.