In one of the adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes, the great detective was approached by the servant of a nobleman of the Royal family to help discreetly to recover the noble man’s son. The boy was only eight years old, and had disappeared from the boarding school he attended. Holmes agreed to the assignment, and began by interviewing the father, who was haughty and dismissive of Holmes. Before long Sherlock Holmes knew that his hands would be so tied that he couldn’t rescue the boy. Holmes confronted the father, who finally “opened up” and gave Holmes the information that he needed. Together the father and Holmes and Dr. Watson discovered the boy’s location and reached him in time to save his life and return him to his family. The father learned a lesson in life, found a closer relationship to his son, and a new outlook on his own and his family’s lives.

When the episode was over the lordly father handed Sherlock a check for his services. “This is a king’s ransom!” remarked Holmes. The father replied, “You gave me more than money could buy. You gave me hope and a future, not just by rescuing my son, but in showing me what is really important. I will always be grateful.” Gratitude itself was actually new to this character, and he faced a brighter future because he had experienced it.

These are all fictional characters, but they echo the truths of the Bible: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

A King’s Ransom is the highest price paid for a captive. A King’s Ransom is what Jesus paid when he went to the cross, for he paid his very life, the life that had been given to him by God. His gift is still at work in the world, and it is the opposite of fiction. It is the reality of the unimaginable gift of eternal life to souls who have lived and experienced nothing but terminal life. By Jesus’ resurrection, souls who have been imperfect from birth are extended the very life of their creator. Such free access to a different “reality” is beyond our understanding. Only by the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself can we catch a sense and maybe a view of what it will mean in each of our lives.

To be like Jesus means to know what we don’t know now, and to love more than we love now, and to receive entirely, a love we have only tasted. All of this comes to mind in this season of Lent, and at Easter we know we have been bought with a King’s Ransom.

Love in Him,

Prue