Free!

We love that word don’t we? Everybody loves to get a deal and there seems to be no better deal than what the word free offers.

For proof that we love the word free consider the surging campaign of Bernie Sanders. Sanders, who makes no qualms about being a socialist, is promoting free health care, freed education, and a host of other government programs free to Americans.

Many of my readers are already saying to themselves, “But nothing is free—look at the tax plan.” I’m asking you, though, to put that aside for a moment. Sanders is appealing because to many Americans it really will be free…to them. What Sanders is doing is giving hope to those struggling through the mire of poverty. He is giving them a gospel which says their plight largely isn’t their fault—it’s the system, and he is going to fix that system.

The gospel of Bernie is built on our sense of entitlement. There is no accident that a large portion of his supporters grew upon Saturday morning cartoons and Mr. T. We were told from a very early age that we were entitled. We could be and do whatever we wanted. We got trophies just for showing up. Nobody could tell us that we didn’t succeed and nobody could withhold success from us—it was ours by divine right.

And so when Bernie tells us that we ought to get everything for free he is speaking our language.

Mercy Ministry in the Age of Entitlement

I’ve been in ministry for over a decade. Which means I have been working with folks living paycheck to paycheck. Or better yet pawn shop to pawn shop, where your next two checks will go to Check-Into-Cash to pay that debt that never seems to go away. It’s a never ending cycle of poverty.

Many people are one travesty away from their whole financial system falling apart. When it falls apart that’s when the church gets called. Families cannot feed their children. They cannot buy Christmas presents for their kids. If they could just get a little bit of gas money, then they could get to the doctor or finally get that job they’ve been waiting for.

At times we are able to help. At other times we have to say that we simply do not have the funds to help at this point. I’m always shocked in these times when our “no” is met with anger. But I shouldn’t be surprised—this is the sense of entitlement that has permeated our culture. I’m convinced a vast majority of people believe churches exist to give people what they want when they need it.

I’ve wrestled with this issue for years now (I’d say I’ll always struggle with it, as mercy ministry is difficult). A huge part of me wants to help every single person who is broken and hurting. Even if they show up with a mouth full of cigarettes and eyes which betray their meth addiction. I want to help because I know the poverty is real. Yeah, it’s mostly their fault—but they are still hungry and hurting and I want to help. I want to show them mercy as our church gives them mercy.

After all isn’t this what the Lord has done for me. I was in far worse shape when I cried out to Him for help. I hadn’t cleaned myself up. I was still in the filth of my sin when Christ died for ungodly me. He didn’t extend mercy only when I cleaned up my act. And so shouldn’t I reflect mercy in this same way?

Yet, I also realize that when the Lord showed me mercy it wasn’t just a handout. It was transformative. Tim Keller speaks to this in his helpful book Ministers of Mercy:

The goal of mercy is not simply to provide spot relief or to stop the suffering. Our real purpose must be to restore the poor person. We must carefully build up the individual until he or she is self-sufficient, and that means we must, in love, demand more and more cooperation. Mercy must have the purpose of seeing God’s lordship realized in the lives of those we help. We must give aid so that people grow in righteousness. We must not give aid so as to support rebellion against God. (97)

There was a time when a handout might have been less dangerous. A sense of entitlement was considered a vice instead of a virtue. But in a Bernie Sanders world a handout only perpetuates the myth that I deserve help. In deepens our rebellion to God and actually keeps the poor person in poverty. What needs to happen is that the entire system needs to be confronted.

As a general rule I’ll help somebody once without many questions asked. I’ll try to build a relationship with them and provide opportunities for the gospel and for real transformation to happen. When a person comes back and needs more help that is when I’m going to pretty much require the church to be part of their life—mercy demands this. We have to break this sense of entitlement even if it angers them.

There is no gospel of entitlement. The only thing we are entitled to is hell. The good news of the gospel is that we don’t deserve grace but we get it anyways. But grace doesn’t tend to thrive or grow in a culture where it is expected and demanded. In fact we cannot reserve grace at the same time we assume we deserve it, because in that very moment we have somehow turned the whole thing into a work. We are saved by undeserved grace through a bare-naked faith, not by our being given the grace that God somehow owes us.

Mercy demands that people understand the gospel isn’t free. It is costly. It will cost us our lives to drink from its streams. That doesn’t mean the gospel is based on works. It means that when you taste and see that the Lord is good it will take your life. When you understand that it was very costly for Jesus to redeem you—it cost his very blood—you won’t be looking for a handout, you’ll be looking to extend mercy yourself. The gospel of Jesus is really good news. The gospel of Bernie is just a mirage that will leave more and more people hurting and broken.

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