Getting the A, Earning the F

In the exhaustion and stressfulness that comes along with finals, I had a refreshing thought and was reminded just how much a price Christ paid for us. During a time of year that so much hard work finally pays off or so little work is finally made evident, Jesus allowed me to see a little bit more of just what He did.

John and Sam are in the same class together. John spends the whole semester working and reading, and doing his best to get his work done. He reads each night before class, pays attention, taking notes during class, completes all the homework, studies for all his quizzes and tests, and works really hard on any of the projects. His hard work pays off, and John earns an A in the class. Sam, on the other hand, never opens the book, when he decides to go to class, he spends the whole period on the internet and doesn’t pay attention to the teacher. Since Sam is never there, he misses a lot of the quizzes and homework grades, and when he is there, he doesn’t have a clue of what to do. Sam’s laziness earns him and F in the class. But to the teacher’s surprise, on the last day of class, John comes in and tells the teacher that he would like to give his A to Sam and he’ll take Sam’s F.

I’ve always heard the stories that illustrate the price Christ paid when He died on the cross. Those stories about the person that didn’t do anything, the one that didn’t commit the crime, taking on the punishment for the person that did, or the little baby that was needed to die to save the rest of the world. Well my thoughts from today reminded me that Jesus wasn’t someone that did NOTHING and paid the price for us who have “committed the crimes,” but in fact He did EVERYTHING. His whole entire life was spent learning more about the Father, growing that relationship with Him, constantly praying and worshipping Him. He was committed to spreading that truth and making God’s glory known. He was exhausted from the hard work; he was left out and ridiculed for the mission he was on. So a man that did so much, gave up his life so that we in return have a “free A.” All we have to do is accept him and admit those times where we continually fail and continually fall short. We put in none of the studying time and hard work, yet we get an A…