Even diehard Apple aficionados had to admit recently that the frenzy over iPads had gone too far when a 17 year-old in China sold his kidney on the black market to buy the coveted device.
According to People’s Daily Online, Xiao Zheng, who lives in the southern province of Guangdong, received the equivalent of $3,300 US for one of his kidneys. With the proceeds he purchased an iPad 2 and a laptop computer. Since such organ sales are illegal in China, his mother reported the incident to police upon discovering her son’s new gadgets.
When asked his motivation, Zheng said simply, “I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn’t have the money.”
Though the incident rightly strikes us as horrific, it is not an isolated phenomenon. Rather, it is the bizarre outworking of a common tendency: stretching our resources thin in order to acquire what we value most. Of course, this tendency is not always negative. Consider the parents who reduce their standard of living in order to afford college for their daughter, or the child who foregoes ice cream for three weeks to save his money for a special toy. But the tendency becomes toxic when we give up what God says is important (like a kidney) to gain what, in comparison, is trivial (like an iPad).
Tragically though, it happens every day. The small church struggles to meet its budget while its members drive luxury cars that they bought at the expense of giving their tithes and offerings. The couple that could live on one income decides to both work at the expense of spending time with their kids—merely to have a bigger house. And the covetous businessman cheats on his taxes so he can have money to buy more toys.
As a realistic book, the Bible admits that sometimes our resources will be stretched thin and we will have to give up some things in order to gain other more valuable things. But its assessment of what’s most valuable differs vastly from the world’s. While the world craves toys, treasures, and prestige, God calls His people to crave obedience, holiness, and honor for Christ. The toys, treasures, and prestige are what we must give up at times. Yet the reward for such sacrifice is great. As Jesus told His disciples, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
There are opportunities to practice Christ’s call to sacrifice each day. We can take a break from work to help someone in need, put a little extra in the offering plate, or stand up for Jesus even though someone will think less of us for it. But the reward is marvelous. And in a world where people sell kidneys to buy iPads, there is a desperate need for God’s people to model the right kind of sacrifice.
