1 day Ago By By Jonathan Rockey Faith
Do you know the TV show, “The Price is Right?” I did some research. This game show first aired from 1956 to 1965, and was then brought back again in 1972. It is still running today, over 50 years later.
The Price is Right is one of the longest running shows on television. That may be a surprising way to start a devotion. However, please consider how the contest works.
Contestants have to figure out the retail price of an item and compete against other contestants to see whose guess is the closest. Or in other words, “What is that item worth?” So, . .
. I have a question for you, “What is our forgiveness, our salvation worth?” We are in the midst of Holy Week for 2025. It began with Palm Sunday on April 13.
During Holy Week the Christian Church will observe Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday this coming Sunday, April 20. If you participate in Holy Week worship services, and I encourage you to do so for the benefit of your faith, you will walk with Jesus through His Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, and through His disputations in the temple with the religious leaders. If you participate in Holy Week worship, you will watch Jesus as He celebrates Passover and institutes the Lord’s Supper.
You will again observe as Jesus prays in agony in the garden of Gethsemane, as Judas betrays Him, as Jesus is arrested, and as His disciples dessert Him and run away. Perhaps you will again be shocked as Jesus is put through a sham trial, as He is beaten and whipped, as He is nailed to the cross and dies in agony. In the game show, The Price is Right, contestants try to figure out the value of an item.
But, how much are you worth? What is the cost of our forgiveness? What Jesus endured during Holy Week shows us how much God values each of us. Jesus willingly accepted this Holy Week gauntlet of suffering in order to pay the debt and the punishment for the sin of the world, and to pay for our sin. That is how much God values us! Scripture also gives us more insight concerning the price God paid to save us.
Consider the words of St. Peter. “ .
. . you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
” (1 Peter 1:18-19) The price which God paid for the debt of our sin is the blood of Christ, is the suffering and death of the promised Messiah! God moved St. Paul to write in Romans 5, “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
” (Romans 5:6-8) The death of Jesus reveals the depths of God’s love, even for sinners who actually deserve punishment and death. Yet, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” John 3:16 also teaches the price our Heavenly Father paid for our forgiveness and salvation.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The Father gave HIS SON! That is the price our Father paid to save us! I am praying that the depth of God’s love, the love we see especially during Holy Week, travels from your head into your hearts. In Ephesians 3 Paul prays “14 .
. . I bow my knees before the Father, .
. . that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
” (Ephesians. 3:14, 17-19) Paul’s prayer moves me. I also pray that my family, my friends, and the members of churches I have served, know the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ.
How much does God love you? What are you worth to our Heavenly Father? I encourage you to participate in worship this Holy Week. You will be amazed at the depth of God’s love for you, at what you are worth to our Creator, and Lord, and Savior..
