P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

PAYOFF BUT NO PICKUP

It was a moment of high tension. FBI agents were swarming all over the house; bugs and digital recorders were installed on the family estate’s three main telephone lines and both cells. Infrared photography equipment was everywhere. Four miles away, trained specialists were in place at the designated drop site, night goggles ready, wireless mikes secreted in their clothing, ear pieces all set to receive information from crime headquarters.

For two nerve-shredding weeks, the billionaire software king had been talking with the kidnappers, who used computer software themselves to disguise their voices. But now, right at midnight, a plain black suitcase containing ten million dollars – no recorded or sequential serial numbers, no invisibly marked bills – was to be dropped off. Any shenanigans, any sign of law enforcement . . . and their eight-year-old daughter would never see the light of day again.

And after waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting for the cops to give the all-clear, finally the phone call came. “The package was taken.” The drop was successful, and Melissa had been safely restored. She was in Room #241 at the Auburn Holiday Inn.

Everyone back “at the ranch” broke into whoops and hollers, high-fives all around. Federal agents pulled the little wireless earpieces out of their ears and began dismantling the satellite phone-tracing equipment. The department head came over and shook the wealthy mogul’s hand. “It was an expensive night,” he said, mopping his perspiring brow, “but we got your little girl back.” He glanced at his watch. “If we drive over right now, she’ll be home by her usual bedtime.”

And then something strange happened. The computer billionaire and his wife gave a dismissive wave. “Naaah,” he said. “Not tonight. My wife and I are catching the 11:20 out of Sea-Tac Airport. We already booked two weeks at our condo in Maui. In fact,” he said to his wife, “we better get going or we’ll miss our flight.”

The federal agent couldn’t believe it. “Hang on,” he said. “You’re not going to get your
kid? You just paid out ten million in cold cash. And you’re skipping off and going to Hawaii?”

The father just shrugged. “Ten million, so what? I got things to do. If you’re so concerned, you go get her. She can look after herself.” And he picked up an overnight flight bag and went out to the garage.

Well, friend, what you just heard certainly qualifies as one of the Voice of Prophecy “Top Ten Silly Segments” of all time. Somebody pays the ransom, and then doesn’t go to the Holiday Inn and pick up their redeemed child? That just doesn’t happen. Once you sacrifice to that level, and go through the pain and the tears of redemption, then you certainly do get in your car and drive with a police escort and sirens blazing to Room #241 where there are hugs and tears of joy and cake and ice cream and party favors and “killing the fatted calf.”

As we get close to the conclusion in our three-week radio series, BEHOLD, HE COMES!, I think we want to just pause today and make these all-important two points. First of all, Jesus WANTS to come. He’s DYING to come . . . and that is not hyperbole for Him, is it? He is eager to come.

We’ve talked in this series about how Christians have wistfully looked up in the clouds, and anxiously studied through their Bibles, and sometimes made the mistake of setting a date. And then when our predictions aren’t fulfilled, we’re bitterly disappointed. “Why didn’t He come?” we cry. “Where is He? Jesus, don’t You care?” Listen, friend, He cares about it a lot more than we do! Have any of us died for our lost brother? Have we shed our blood? Have we spent heaven’s resources on a salvation plan? Jesus did all of those things, so let’s never think that we have to persuade Him. Our best “Maranatha” prayer really shouldn’t be, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus,” but rather: “Jesus, we know YOU want to come quickly. How can we live OUR lives with more spiritual passion, how can we evangelize with more intensity and unselfish love . . . so that You can do what we already know You WANT to do?”

We discussed in an earlier radio episode how Jesus doesn’t send a delegation or a representative or a vice-president to sit in His seat at the Second Coming. The authors of the Adventist Bible Commentary observe:

“Christ does not send a deputy, nor does He come spiritually. He Himself comes in person. The same Jesus who ascended to heaven now descends from heaven.”

He comes Himself! Why? Because He wants to! And I agree with these writers 100% when they remind us that this is not a merely a “spiritual” second coming. Jesus doesn’t just mail down His influence, or the presence of His teachings, the beauty of His Sermon on the Mount. No, He comes physically, Himself, in person, the Man with nail scars and DNA from Bethlehem. “This same Jesus.” Why? Because He wants to. No one can stop Him from making that trip personally. In fact, Jesus very emphatically speaks in the first person four times in just one verse, way down in Revelation chapter 22:

“Behold, I am coming soon! MY reward is with ME, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”

Now, the second point is this. Not only does Jesus want to come – seeing as how He desperately loves us and craves fellowship with us – but He has already paid the ransom! The ten million has already been dropped. The Calvary blood has already been spilled. Matthew 20:28 is a classic statement about His gift:

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Let’s not get hung up on the question of who the ransom was paid to, or if somehow God and the devil entered into a sort of Faustian bargain. Listen, Jesus didn’t pay off Lucifer. Let’s not give any credence to what some people unwisely cobble together as the “fishhook” theory, where God dangled a ransom note in front of Satan, and then allowed Jesus to escape from the tomb on Sunday morning, leaving His adversary with nothing but a hook and no bait. Again, we don’t need to push this metaphor all the way to the finish line. Jesus ransomed us from the natural wages of sin, which is death. That’s all. Nevertheless, the price WAS paid. Jesus did die. The blood and the agony were real on Friday afternoon. And after paying such a monumental price, would Jesus and God just go to Maui instead? Would they not make the all-important, long-anticipated trip to rescue those they had reclaimed? Jesus has been waiting to make this journey of celebration for 2000 years now.

Someone once observed:

“The surety of the First Coming is our guarantee of the Second Coming.”

And we can look at that two ways, really. First of all, if God kept all His Old Testament promises about a Redeemer coming the first time, can’t we count on Him to keep Round Two of His promises as well? If the predictions in Isaiah about Bethlehem and a cross all came true, isn’t it logical that the statements about Him coming in the clouds and “every eye shall see Him” are something we can count on too? Some of you have probably bought every book a favorite author ever wrote. Why? Because after ten or so “good reads,” where your appetite is satisfied by that marvelous story, you just know that John Grisham or whoever . . . isn’t going to disappoint. You’ve come to count on Philip Yancey, let’s say, to bless your soul and uplift Jesus with each new volume. So you’re always the first in line at Amazon.com. Well, it’s the same here. The reliability of the First Coming nails down the truth of the Second.

And the second point is simply back to the “ransom” model. The whole point of the First Coming was to pay the price, to make the sacrifice. Please don’t ever think that Jesus was simply a good teacher who ran afoul of the political system of 31 A.D. No, He came here to be a ransom. He came here as the “Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world.” The First Coming was explicitly undertaken for the purpose of going to Calvary. And so, now that the sacrifice has been made, the lost child purchased back, what kind of Redeemer wouldn’t then come and make the pickup?

There was a tough, sordid little note on the Internet about how Colombia is the “kidnap capital” of the world. Back in 1999, 2,787 people were abducted. And going back over a five-year span, criminals and the “ELN”, National Liberation Army forces – the main perpetrators – had lined their pockets with something like $632 million. Hopefully, for that much money, a good percentage of those 2,787 people got to be taken home. But friend, that number – $632 million – is pretty paltry; it pales in comparison to what Jesus Christ paid for me and for you. And I can promise you, based on God’s sure Word, that Jesus Himself is going to embark on the mission where He takes His long-list children home with Him to heaven.

So one issue is settled, then. HE . . . is eager. The question, then, is this: Are we? Maybe, spiritually, right now, you have handcuffs on. A gag in your mouth and duct tape keeping you from crying out. You’re locked in Lucifer’s closet and he’s hidden the key. And friend, Jesus is coming to free to captives. Do you WANT Him to come?