“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45
As long as there have been villains who are willing to kill and hurt innocents for profit, there have been wealthy people willing to pay the bad guys off so that it doesn’t happen. Since there is no standard rate for a kidnapping, the size of the ransom doesn’t depend on the value of the victim as much as the bank account of the one paying the tab.
In 1932, Charles Lindbergh paid $50,000 to the kidnappers of his son, only to discover later that they murdered the boy even before the ransom was paid.
The ransom of Patty Hearst was $6 million in 1974. The enormity of the sum shocked many people, but 22 years later, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ku Shing, paid $134 million for the release of his son.
Historically, these prices are low. When Julius Caesar was 25 years old, he was captured by Sicilian pirates and ransomed for 8,522 pounds of silver. King Richard the Lion-Hearted was released by his captors after 65,000 pounds of silver was paid – the modern equivalent of $3.3 billion. Atahualpa, emperor of the Incan Empire, was strangled by Spanish Conquistadors after 13,000 pounds of gold and 26,000 pounds of silver were paid for his release (roughly $34 billion today).
But none of these compares to the ransom paid by Jesus Christ for the lost human race. There are no deeper pockets than those found on the Creator of the Stars. He could have made a solid gold planet or listed a galaxy on the real estate exchange, but none of these could “ransom mankind” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
In giving the only thing in heaven that couldn’t be recreated, God overpaid for the deliverance of sinful man. Jesus paid it all and for all. He’s not only the ransom for many; He’s the ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6). Not everyone is saved, because not everyone responds in faith to the salvation that is already paid for. What a pity!
January 26
