Transactional Trust?

---

3rd Sunday of Luke

Oops!

When you go to the store, you expect to make a transaction, but … is life only about transactions? 

As I was walking in the woods a few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast. The guest—a CIA agent—was talking about his relationship with his wife when he made this comment, “I accept that what [my relationship with my wife] is, is a transaction.” 

Ok … ? This got me intrigued. Are all our relationships transactional? Even for important people in our lives?

He continued,

“[People] want love. They want attention. They want affection. In return, for that love, time, and affection, they will give love, time, and affection. And, we will build positive memories for the future. It’s transactional.”

I thought to myself: That’s an interesting way to look at relationships. I’ll give him that maybe relationships with our bosses, our teachers, or our politicians are transactional—after all, we want money, instruction, or lower taxes—but I’m not sure about family.

Historically this might have been true. We know that sometimes fathers married off their daughters as a “business arrangement,” or that women depended on their husbands, or other men in their family, to give them food and shelter, but is this still true today?

Perhaps? 

Ugh!

And what about our relationship with Jesus? Do we view that as transactional?

It seems the folks in scripture did. 

Today, we experienced Jesus healing the son of widow (Lk. 7:11 – 16). We’re used to these experiences. On many Sundays throughout the year we witness such miracles. But, I think it’s easy to start to see these miracles as transactional.

What good is Jesus? Well, he’s useful. You see, he can heal a son so that his widowed mother has someone to look after her in her old age. Maybe Jesus will do the same for us? Maybe he’ll keep our kids safe so that they can look after us in our old age?

If we look back a few verses, we see that Jesus healed a Roman centurion’s slave. If you know this story, you know that it starts out as a transaction. The Judeans ask Jesus if he can do them a favor. This centurion had built their synagogue: “He helped us, so you need to help him.” Jesus, of course, heals the slave. So, you see, Jesus is useful. He even heals slaves so that they can continue to serve their masters! 

I’m glad I’m not a slave. Who wants to be resurrected to work as a slave for the Romans!?!

Sometimes, I think we’re no better than the folks of Jesus’s day. We want our transaction with Jesus to be transactional. 

How many of us have thought to ourselves: Jesus, if you only do this one thing for me, then I’ll change! I’ll be sure to go to church on Sunday!

Or, perhaps, we gotten angry because Jesus didn’t hold up his end of a transaction. Jesus, I go to church every Sunday, why did you let this bad thing happen to me?

When we view our relationship with Jesus as transactional, then we end up treating Jesus like genie. We forget that he’s the Son of God. And, just as bad, we lose trust that Jesus is truly the one in control. 

We lose trust because Jesus didn’t live up to our expectations. And, who are we to put expectations on the one who freed the Hebrews from the powerful Egyptians?

Aha!

Instead of building relationships based on transactions, we should really be building relationships based on trust. And, surprise, surprise, Jesus shows us the way.

Just think about what the Father asked of his Son: To go to the cross and die in order to defeat death. This wasn’t easy.

Jesus, as the Son of God, knew what was coming, and, as the time for the crucifixion drew near, he prayed that “this cup be taken away” from him. He was so anxious, in fact, that he sweat blood.

But, what did Jesus do? He had faith. He trusted his Father that everything would be OK. And what happened. On the third day, the Father raised up his Son. He justified his Son’s death showing us that Jesus had not misplaced his trust. 

A relationship built on trust brings new life.

Whee!

St. Paul was a man with a lot of trust. As we know, he was a very successful man before his conversion to Christianity. He had everything going for him. He had studied at the best schools, had the best lineage, and was progressing quickly in his chosen career.

And, what happened when he gave it up to become a Christian? Well, he went from the persecutor to the persecuted. He had to trust that even though all of the Judeans and Romans were against him, things were going to be OK.

Trust was the key, and it turned Paul’s perspective completely around. Listen to what he told us this morning (2 Cor. 4:6 – 15):

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

This is trust at work … giving new life to the disasters that befall us. Trust allows us to be OK with the bad things in life. Trust allows us to turn lemons into lemonade.

Paul continues,

“Since we have the same spirit of trust as he had who wrote, ‘I trusted, and so I spoke,’ we too trusted, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

Trust, eventually will resurrect us. And, this trust stems from our relationship with Christ. It’s not transactional, but a leap of faith … a leap of trust. 

Yeah!

Now, it’s time for us to form a relationship of trust with Christ. It’s time to stop seeing Jesus as a genie who’s here to do good things for us. Scripture promises the world will be against us, so we shouldn’t expect miracles to solve our problems. So, we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus … follow him out of trust.

So, where are you hurting? What’s making you frustrated or anxious? Give it to Jesus. Write it down and burn it up. Trust him with whatever it is. What are you waiting for? Now’s the time.

There’s no better way to get to know someone than to trust them with your life. And, Jesus is definitely someone we can trust.

Amen.