Take Me
Let us suppose you have a very good friend. One day, this same friend accompanies you to the bank so that you can make a deposit. While you are waiting on line, several men enter the bank, armed, intending to rob it. They compel the customers to huddle together against a wall and they order the tellers to fill their sacks with money. One brave teller, however, manages to trip the silent alarm. Soon the silence is broken by a police loudspeaker. "This is the police. We have the place surrounded. Come out with your hands up."
The robbers do what robbers always do in these situations. They yell out to the police: "We have hostages. Unless you let us go-and take the money-we will shoot the hostages."
The police respond that this is impossible.
Talking among themselves, the robbers come to the conclusion: "They don't think we'll do it. We'll show 'em. We'll kill one of them and throw him outside. Then they'll know we mean it. Then they'll let us go." The robbers choose you. They put a gun to your head.
At this moment, your friend steps forward and says: "No, take me."
Everyone is stunned-yourself included. Even you. You ask "why?"
Your friend answers: "I do not want them to take your life. I will give my life for you."
Taking the path of least resistance, the robbers shoot your friend and kill him.
In the commotion, however, the police burst in arresting the robbers and saving everyone else-except your friend.
How do you suppose you'll feel? What do you suppose you'll do?
We already know.
For one thing, you will never tire of talking about your friend and what he did for you. You will tell the story to everyone you ever meet.
For another, since you have your life because someone did something for which he can never be paid back, you will never worry about whether others will repay the help you can give them. On the contrary, you will want to do for others who cannot pay you back.
Best of all, you will look in a mirror and you will see a person that someone gave his life for. Thus, you will take your life seriously, and you will strive to make it the very best life you possibly can.
These are only some of the fruits God wanted from the sacrifice on the cross. Moreover, there would have been a sacrifice on the cross if only to speak to you.