A Ransom for Many

"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The word to stay with is "ransom," and it is the most everyday word in the sentence, a word people used in the marketplace.

A ransom is a price paid to get somebody out. It might buy a slave's freedom or a prisoner's release, or it might clear a debt, paid by someone who owed nothing. Exodus uses the word twice for the price of a life. If a man's ox has killed somebody, he may be allowed to buy back his own life: "he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him." And when the whole nation was counted, the law said, "then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them." The small word after "ransom" matters just as much. In Greek, "a ransom for many" means a ransom in the place of many: one life given for a whole crowd. Paul uses the same picture: "Who gave himself a ransom for all."

Notice when Jesus said this. The mother of James and John has just asked for her two sons to sit on His right hand and His left in His kingdom, and the other ten disciples are angry with the two brothers. Jesus calls them all together and tells them, "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them," and then, "But it shall not be so among you." The ransom sentence comes at the end of an argument about rank, as the reason for everything He has just said. Nobody fights over the lowest place even now, and that is the place Jesus took when He came to serve and to pay the price for you. He invites you to stand beside Him this week, in the one place where you have been holding out for a better chair, and to serve others the way He has served you.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 314 is According to His Mercy (Titus 3:5).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two