I’ve been contemplating the idea of value quite a lot recently. Having just been laid off, it’s a question that can somewhat naturally come to mind. What am I worth? We may ask, and the silence of our former employer may be the answer that feels too quiet to bear.

But I remember a quote from Confessions of a Shopaholic (yes, an intellectual classic), where the main love interest, a man of finance, says, “value and cost are two different things.”

In our world, our value can become synonymous with what we do. Heck, even in small talk, the second or third question that comes up after sharing names is, what do you do for work?

Given that, of most single tasks in life, work is one of the most dominant and consistent elements that we all experience. It’s also one of the only parts of our lives that are measured numerically. Our cost is what the company incurs to have access to our minds, our abilities, and our efforts. What we accomplish can be mapped on our quarterly KPIs, scale-driven reviews, or the number of people who report to us.

So, we can often (wrongly) assume that this is what our value is. I know I have.

But, on this Easter weekend, I am reminded that what we cost someone is not a reflection of our value.

In Matthew 26: 14-16 (NIV), we recount the following verses:

“Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’ So, they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 

Doing further digging, we see that at that time, 30 pieces of silver is what it cost to buy a slave. But we should not forget the passage that comes just before this heartbreaking scene where Jesus was anointed for his crucifixion:

“While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.” (Matthew 26: 6-7)

These are two very different opinions on what Jesus’s life cost.

But Jesus’ value quite obviously was far greater than 30 pieces of silver, it was even far more valuable than the precious perfume. I think most people can agree that even if you do not believe that Jesus the Messiah, the value of human life is greater than what we can numerically assign as an arbitrary cost.

If only God can define our value, and he paid the price of His perfect, sinless son’s life—whose value was immeasurable, even greater than that of any human—how can we ever believe that we have no worth?

Because no matter how much we make, what our title is, how much respect we command in a meeting room, what level of decision making we are involved in, or, even how many people we employ, none of these things will ever come close to reflecting our value.

God, Himself has told us our value—we belong to him. He purchased us at a cost far greater than any one of us would believe our value to be and far greater than we deserve. Because of this, our value is infinite, our worth is already laid out regardless of what we do with our time on Earth. Because, as Romans 8:38-39 says

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, we have eternal value because our Lord paid an eternal cost.

No matter what you do as a profession, you are value. People may not always or even ever see this, but remember, people also didn’t recognize the value of the Son of God. This world does not know how to care for eternal things, that’s why we are only here for a short time, but our Lord does. He cares for us deeply. He values us in ways we cannot possibly earn or understand.

Remember this when you ask, what am I worth? and do not get the answer you hope for from this world. Your question was already answered 2,000 years ago.