Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

“There is no free lunch.” That is not an announcement about our refreshments after the service today. That is the reality of life in this world. There is a price to be paid, although it may be hidden. Economist Milton Friedman made the statement in his 1975 book, exposing the economic reality that restaurants offering a free lunch were in reality finding a way for the consumer to pay for that lunch by some other means (through the cost of drinks, or other extras, or in return visits, or transferring the cost to other consumers). “There is no free lunch.” And so we should learn to ask, “Who is paying?”

Come to the Waters

In today’s Old Testament Reading, the LORD invites through Isaiah the prophet, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). If you are not paying, then who is?

In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). The hunger for righteousness is a craving for everything to be right with you. It is a longing to be right with God, that is, to have your sins forgiven and nothing in the way between you and your Maker. It is a desire to be right with family, friends and neighbours, that your love for each other would be like God’s love for you. And to be right with the created world, that all of your physical needs in life would be met, including your health and shelter and yes, food.

But if there is no free lunch, then someone has to pay. In our Gospel Reading, when Jesus was healing the sick of the great crowd that followed Him, “the disciples came to Him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’” (Matthew 14:15). Someone has to pay, and the disciples realized that they could not buy food for everyone who was there (“about five thousand men, besides women and children” v. 21).

The disciples could not pay for the food. What about you? Can you pay to assuage your hunger and thirst for righteousness? Can you pay for all of your sins? Can you pay for the sins of your family and friends? Can you pay to remove the curse of sin from off of all of creation? Maybe you can’t even pay for your lunch today. Many people cannot. But there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay.

Back to the Old Testament reading, the LORD asks, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Is 55:2). The people of Israel at that time were spending their money. They were looking to pay a price that would save them from the evils of the world, from oppression and violence, from famine and poverty, and on an individual level (like each of us) paying for healthcare and food and housing and stability.

The LORD warned them not to waste their money. It was not that He was telling them they shouldn’t buy any food, but that they should remember that their true hunger goes beyond the day’s lunch. We hunger not merely for food for today, but for food that will give us eternal life. Our true hunger and thirst is for righteousness, something that money cannot buy, something that we are unable to pay for. There is no free lunch. Someone has to pay.

You may be able to pay for your lunch today. You may be grateful that others gave of their substance, their time, and their talents to supply you with something for lunch today. We would never expect any one person to pay the cost for everyone’s lunch. What about the cost of their sins? There is no free lunch. Someone has to pay. Who’s paying?

In order to make this clear, Jesus took the meagre five loaves and two fish (barely enough for a small family) and “He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Mt 14:19-21).

Jesus supplied the need with an abundance. He supplied more than they could eat. He supplied more in leftovers than there was to start with. He paid the price for their hunger for food. He showed His almighty power over created things to satisfy the needs and the wants of His people. And He demonstrated that He is the one we should come to when we hunger and thirst not just for daily bread, but for righteousness, for forgiveness and restoration and eternal life and paradise. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!”

Listen for Its Richness

How do we come to the LORD without money in order to buy righteousness from Him? It would be a grave mistake to think that you cannot come to church if you do not have any money to put on the offering plate. That would go against the clear summons of the LORD: “he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Our offerings do not pay for the LORD to satisfy our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our offerings go toward the cost of having a place to gather and supplying the bread and wine and physical things that we use when gathered together, and primarily they go to supply food, clothing, and housing for the pastor that serves us. They also supply the physical needs of those who proclaim the Gospel in other places, and the needs of those around the world who cannot provide for themselves. But they do not contribute to the cost of our true hunger, that hunger for righteousness before God and the world.

Our act of buying righteousness is not to lay out any money or commodity at all. In the LORD’s summons to come He says, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” Money cannot acquire for you what you truly crave. Rather, “Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live” (Is 55:2-3).

Instead of opening your wallet or your banking app, open your ears. Eat by listening. Incline your ears to take it all in. What you hear will satisfy your hunger and thirst for righteousness. He feeds you by speaking to you. He gives life to your soul as well as your body. He feeds you not just for a day but for eternal life. We don’t come to Church in order to pay the bill by doing things for God (or even for other people) so that He will love and forgive us. Rather, we come to listen because in His Word He feeds us for eternal life and He gives it without money and without price.

But still, there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay. A couple of chapters prior to our Old Testament Reading, bidding us to come and eat without money and without price, Isaiah relates the familiar words of the LORD, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). Someone has paid the price for us.

And we find out who picks up the cost when we listen to His words that feed our hunger and thirst for righteousness. He says to us: “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David” (Is 55:3). It is in this covenant that we find out who pays the price for our righteousness. On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus was feeding people again. “And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Mt 26:27-28).

Yes, it is Jesus who paid the price, the price of His holy, precious blood through His innocent suffering and death. That is the price to satisfy your hunger and thirst for righteousness. That is the cost of the forgiveness of all of your sins, and the sins of the whole world. That is the payment for the restoration of all things that have been damaged, corrupted, soiled, and cursed by sin. It is free to you, but someone had to pay, and it was Jesus.

The LORD said that this everlasting covenant is His sure love for King David. Jesus Christ Himself is the LORD’s “steadfast, sure love for David” (Is 55:3). The eternal Son of God coming in the flesh, born of Mary, is the covenant and promise that the LORD made in love to His servant King David when He promised David that one of his offspring would reign over his kingdom forever. And that is what the angel told Mary. The LORD’s promise to David would be fulfilled in the child that she bore. Jesus Christ is God’s eternal Son who came into the world to fulfill God’s loving promise. He died upon the cross and rose from the dead to be the eternal King of an everlasting kingdom.

He feeds us the bread of His body and gives us to drink of His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life in His kingdom, living as His holy and purified people, free from every sin and from all shame, holy and righteous before Him and all the world. He paid the price so it would be free for you and for all.

The everlasting covenant is the guarantee of everlasting life that He gives to you. It is His promise to always forgive your sins and to restore all that has been damaged by them. It is a promise that is there for you forever, every day, whenever you follow His summons to come and listen. This is the promise, the oath, the covenant that He has made with you that will never end.

The invitation goes out not just to you, but to all people from every nation. For Jesus Christ did not pay the price only for the physical family of David, but for all nations. Because even those nations that seem to be more prosperous, more powerful, and more progressive are full of people who still hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Whether they sleep in king beds or on top of a piece of cardboard, whether they eat in fest halls or soup kitchens, they are all hungering for the same things, and can only be satisfied by the one thing. Their souls need to be fed the forgiveness and grace that Jesus acquired through His suffering and death upon the cross. And although not one of them from any strata of society has money enough to pay for their sins, He paid the price for all of them and for you.

Someone had to do it. Someone had to pay the price. There is no free lunch. There is no free forgiveness. But it is free for you because the price was paid for you. The only one who could pay the price for the sins of the whole world, paid with His body and blood. And so the thanks should all go to Him. The praise is all due to Him alone. He paid. Glory be to Jesus.