Unequal Exchange

By Rev. Heidi L. Barham |  July 5, 2026

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Read Matthew 11:25 – 30 (NIV)
 
Some of you may know that I spent the earlier part of my career, working in the retail industry.  What started as a part-time job at the former Higbee’s department store eventually led to full-time management positions at two smaller retail specialty stores that are no longer in existence… although, let me be clear, those store closings were through no fault of mine!
 
All of that was before I went into banking in the late 1980s, where I spent roughly 20 years working at two different financial institutions.
 
Now, if we are being honest… my days in the retail industry back in the 1980s bore little resemblance to what we see today.  We did not have price scanners at the registers or self-checkout lines because barcodes were still an invention waiting to be discovered. 
 
The cashiers keyed everything into the register by hand… and at one store where I worked, we actually hand wrote the receipts detailing the merchandise purchased and then attached the register tape that showed the final total.
 
And while that now antiquated system left a lot to be desired with many opportunities for mistakes to be made… we had one nice convention that made things relatively easy.  It was the way we processed what is known as an “even exchange.”
 
When someone brought in something to return and was getting something else in exchange that was the same price… even if the replacement item was a different color, size or style… because it was technically an “even exchange,” there was little to no work that needed to be done… there was no register transaction that needed to be keyed.  We simply exchanged one item for the other, and the customer went on their merry way.
 
However, that type of transaction is not quite so simple today. 
 
Regardless of whether or not you are getting an item of the same value, color, size or style… the cashier is required to login the return and process the replacement of that item by doing a return of the original item… selling you the new one… and then having you sign away your rights to your first-born child in order to take the new item out of the store.  Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that extreme… but it does take more effort than it did in the old days.
 
And while the updated process does allow for much cleaner record keeping for inventory purposes… on a day when you are in a hurry, it can definitely leave you wishing for those bygone days.
 
But as we look at our text for the morning which comes once again from the Gospel of Matthew… we find the promise of an exchange of a different kind.  It is not the mere swapping of one thing for something else of equal value… it is what could best be described as an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE.
 
Because what we bring to the table in comparison to what the Lord offers us in return is far from being equal.
 
We come with our heavy burdens of sin, guilt and fear that are the result of us trying to live outside of God’s will for us.
 
We bring the exhaustion that results from attempting to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders… a weight, I might add, that we were never meant to carry in the first place.
 
And we show up loaded down with the frustration that comes from not seeing our hopes and dreams come to fruition in the ways in which we anticipated and expected.
 
But in exchange for the exhaustion and frustration that weighs us down… Jesus calls us to come to Him and when we do that, He offers us a much better way… He gives us the opportunity to make an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE… one that we will discover is unquestionably for our benefit.
 
Now, as we look at our New Testament lesson for today, Jesus first mentions two types of people… those who are considered to be “wise and learned” and those who He describes as “little children.”
 
At first glance, it may seem as if Jesus is simply referring to young people in comparison to elders or seniors… but given the context for what He is saying… it would seem that there is more to this than meets the eye.
 
Jesus is praising God because He has “hidden these things from the wise and the learned.”  What things?  And why would God hide them from the wise and learned?
 
In the verses that precede this morning’s text, Jesus had been chastising the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum because they had been first-hand witnesses to the works that He had done… but they refused to repent of their sins and believe in Him. 
 
Jesus told them that if the wicked peoples of Tyre and Sidon had seen the miracles He had done… they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes… and God would not have had to destroy those ancient cities. 
 
And then Jesus gave those “wise and learned” citizens of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum the really bad news… that on the day of Judgment, the people of Tyre and Sidon, as wicked as they were… they would have a much easier time than the wise and learned folks would.
 
Jesus offered an extremely strong rebuke for those folks who may feel no need to repent… words that bring to mind similar words of caution found in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes (9:11 – 12), where we read:

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

In other words, all the wealth and wisdom in the world cannot save anyone from confronting the challenges of this life or ultimately facing the day of Judgment.  It will come upon us all.
 
But, as crazy as it may sound, there are some people who think they know it all and think they have figured out all the answers… it is those same people who don’t understand that they really do need of the Lord… despite having had the truth spelled out for them. 
 
Well… as Jesus says in our text, those people will face a much harsher time than even the wicked inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon.
 
But in contrast to those so-called wise and learned folks… Jesus talks about the little children… those who are humble and open to receiving the truth of God’s Word. 
 
These are the little children we read about in Matthew 18 (3) when Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
 
And Mark 10 (14) and Luke 18 (16) when He said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
 
It is to these “little children” that the truth has been revealed… the truth of who God is… and the truth that because of their relationship to Jesus, the Son… they have an all-access pass to be in relationship with God the Father as well.
 
And let me just say, the benefits of that type of relationship are beyond anything we can think or imagine.
 
We often describe the ideal relationship with another person as being 50/50 to denote an equal level of giving and receiving.  Some would argue and say that for a relationship to be ideal, it ought to be 100/100, an indication that each person ought to give their whole selves to the relationship.
 
And while reality may in fact lie somewhere in between those two scenarios… more often than not, one party usually feels like they are giving much more than the other which on the flipside means they believe they are receiving much less.
 
And it is this type of UNEQUAL EXCHANGE that ultimately leads to the relationship breaking down and eventually breaking up.
 
But when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, while it is definitely an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE… it is absolutely by design… because Jesus desires to give us so much more than we could ever hope to give to Him in return.
 
You see, the fact of the matter is that we can never give or do enough to earn Jesus’ love.  It is a gift that has been freely given to us. 
 
And along with that love comes grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace, rest and so much more for our souls… but compared to what we have to offer – sinfulness, pride, arrogance, laziness, etc. (the list could go on but I know we want to get out of here today)
 
Let’s just say that in comparison to the list of our faults, our flaws and our failures… the fact that God still loves us anyhow is nothing short of amazing…
 
As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Talk about an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE!
 
And as we look at the closing verses of our text… the fact that Jesus offers rest to all who are weary and burdened is nothing short of amazing either. 
 
It is not a rest that means we will never labor again… but it is a rest that promises love, healing and peace with God.  It is a rest that provides an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE of our meaningless, worrisome, weariness for a spiritual purposefulness and productivity that comes as we seek to draw nearer to God and to do His will.
 
Jesus offers us the opportunity to come to Him and learn how to live a life like His… a life that honors God even while He is doing the work that God has sent Him here to do. 
 
And make no mistake, God did send His Son with a purpose and a plan.  All we have to do is look at John 3:16 – 17 where we read:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And the salvation of the world would seem like a pretty heavy yoke to carry… and yet, Jesus says in our text, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
 
How can that be?  How is such an UNEQUAL EXCHANGE even possible?
 
The answer is in the sharing of the burdens and bearing of the yoke. 
 
Alone, it is too much to bear, but when shared with the Lord… our yoke becomes easy and our burden becomes light because someone with much broader shoulders than ours and someone with infinitely more power than we could ever hope to possess continues to be there to help us.
 
Now, it is on this July 4^th weekend, that many have paused to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the founding of our country… a country whose Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
 
And yet, we are reminded on a seemingly daily basis, that not all of us are seen as or treated as equal… not all of us are deemed worthy of those rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… at least not when we look at it based on worldly standards.
 
However, when we look at who Christ calls us to be… we are provided with a completely different picture.
 
It is in Ephesians 2 (14 – 18, MSG) that we read:

The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
 
Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. 

Jesus willingly gave His life as a ransom for us on that cross at Calvary… He paid the penalty that our sins deserved… and because of that UNEQUAL EXCHANGE that Jesus was willing to make on our behalf… we have all been granted equal access to God the Father.
 
And if we were to keep reading Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we would find these words:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4 – 6).

Paul explained this further in his letter to his young protégé, Timothy, where we read, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:5).
 
One God… One Lord… all people… talk about the ultimate UNEQUAL EXCHANGE!
 
That is why we thank God for Jesus… the One we need now more than ever… especially as we celebrate on this Independence Day weekend… as we are reminded that it is through Christ that we have been set free… and we know that if the Son “sets [us] free, [we] will be free indeed” (see John 8:36).
 
And so, as we celebrate our freedom through Christ and give thanks for the UNEQUAL EXCHANGE that set us free… let us acknowledge that we need Him now more than ever as we stand and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship I Need Thee Every Hour #578.

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