The Five Dollar Jesus

Back in July a neighbor had a moving sale. I didn’t go to it because I figured I had enough junk without going to a yard sale and buying another person's junk. A couple of days after his sale I stopped by just to talk. We talked a while, and as I was getting ready to leave he mentioned an outdoor nativity that he didn’t sell. “I’ll take $10 for it if you want to buy it.”  He remembered that I had complimented it during the past Christmas. Actually I didn’t like it at all. I was just impressed that he displayed a nativity scene, something not seen very often in our subdivision.

I thought $10 was too much because I had no intention of putting it in my front yard. And it was about ninety five degrees, and decorating for Christmas was the last thing I wanted to think about. I said, “You’ll need it when you move to a Maryland, besides I’m not sure where I would put it in my little front yard.” He replied, “Tell you what, give me $5, and you can have it. We can’t use it where we are moving. I would really like you to have it.” That man drove a pretty hard bargain, and I agreed to give him $5.

You might say I bought a five dollar Jesus, and a Mary and a Joseph came with him. Sherri kind of liked it, and we never had an outside nativity. So Jesus, Mary and Joseph are now in the spotlight on our front porch. They look a lot better than I thought they would. I now feel badly that I didn’t give my neighbor the $10 he was asking. I think Jesus is worth at least $10. That sounds bad doesn’t it? There is a reason I put it that way.

Jesus is priceless. He is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. He is our salvation, our only hope. Because of what he did you, and I have an opportunity to be royalty and live forever in God’s heavenly Kingdom. There is no monetary value we can place on Jesus. Yet millions of people continue to treat him like he is worth no more than the $5 I paid for that nativity. Jesus means nothing to them. For some the only time they mention his name is when they swear. Comedians on TV make fun of him. Even people who claim to know him worship things like sports, the pleasures of this world  and their material possessions rather than worshiping him. For hundreds of thousands of people Jesus’ birthday is just a reason to buy and give gifts, greet friends with “Happy Holidays”, have days off from school and work, and get with family and friends to eat and drink. Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus for many people today.

What is Jesus worth to you? I hope he is worth a lot more than $5. I remember singing a song that said, “Jesus is so precious to me!” That baby in the manger of our nativities should remind us of how precious, and how valuable he really is. This Christmas think about how much Jesus means to you. The greatest bargain you and I will ever hope to get is that Jesus died and took away our sins so that we will not perish but have eternal life. Jesus certainly is precious!