Do you get the picture? In every area of life, there are things people desire, and there's a cost (often non-monetary) involved in getting those things. We spend enormous quantities of time and energy trying to figure out how to balance the equations between what we want and what we have to give in exchange. And interestingly enough, we tend to fret, not only when we feel gypped because our contribution was worth more than what we received, but also when we're robbed of the opportunity to make some payment that recognizes we have something valuable to offer someone else. Plainly put, being robbed OR receiving an undeserved gift are equally difficult for most of us.

And that's why we're dumbfounded by the concept of grace. We tend to see religion as the economics of abundant, eternal life, which means the logical question is, "What do I have to pay as a fair exchange for the forgiveness of my sins?" It only seems right that we should contribute something of value in order to receive something of such great worth. But grace (the gift of abundant, eternal life) runs contrary to "what seems right."

Do you remember the parable from Matthew 20:1-15 of the farmer who hired people to work in his vineyards? Some clock in at sunrise, some at noon, some at afternoon coffee break, and some an hour before quitting time. At the end of the day, they line up at the payroll desk and those who worked 12 hours notice that all the others, including the ones who put in barely an hour, got exactly the same wages as they did. They were outraged! It was atrocious economics, plain and simple. But the response of the vineyard owner was, "Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I'm generous?"

In light of all this, Frederick Buechner observed, "[People] are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains, but not for a God who gives as much for an hour's work as for a day's."

What happens to you emotionally when you read about the dying thief who, in his final moments on earth, gasped, "Jesus, remember me," — and the response of Jesus, "Today you will be with Me in paradise"? Do you experience an uncomfortable sense of unfairness, realizing that this guy never studied the Bible, attended church or made restoration to any of the people he had wronged? Something inside of us wants to object, "This is poor economics!" God says the more relevant question is, "Are you envious because I'm generous?"

Robert Farrar Capon wrote, "If the world could have been saved by good bookkeeping, it would have been saved by Moses, not Jesus."

Jesus welcomed tax collectors, reprobates and prostitutes to His banquets. He came for the sick, not the well — for the unrighteous, not the righteous. And He did all of that as an expression of grace.

How does that strike your personal sense of economics?

May grace prevail,
Richard