4th November 2015

In a sermon on one of Jesus’ miracles, seventeenth century Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford said: ‘The Lord Jesus would not give a low and base price for us clay. He would buy us with a great ransom, so as He might over-buy us, and none could over-bid Him in the market for souls. If there had been millions of more believers, and many heavens, without any new bargain His blood should have bought them all.’

What a lovely expression that is, to over-buy.

I’ve attended a few auctions in Sydney, and the concept of over-buying is not an abstract one. Not far from our church, a unit was up for sale. The bidding began and continued as anticipated, until one alpha-type male injected an outrageous bid, way above where the current bid was being finely divided. Jaws dropped and the room went silent. But an unassuming omega-type male in the corner quietly went higher, and after a few tense exchanges, won the day and the property was transferred to his possession. Not sure what that’s called: to out-bid the over-buy?

No such disappointment however happened on the day when the Master submitted his bid. When he placed it, to be sure, the room went silent, for it seemed to be outrageously high. He would bid with his blood. But no one in the room would go higher. No one could even come close. And so the deed was done, and grateful people are still moving into the property which he bought.

DM 4^th November 2015