“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12;24-25) “Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” What does that mean? It means, at least, that you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. In other words, it just doesn’t matter much what happens to your life in this world. If men speak well of you, it doesnt matter much. If they hate you, it doesnt matter much. If you have a lot of things, I doesnt matter much. If you have little, it doesnt matter much. If you are persecuted or lied about, it doesnt matter much. If you are famous or unheard of, it doesnt matter much. If you are dead, these things just don’t matter much.But it’s even more radical. There are some choices to be made here, not just passive experiences. Jesus goes on to say, “If anyone serves me, let him follow me.” Where to? He is moving into Gethsemane and toward the cross.Jesus is not just saying: If things go bad, don’t fret, since you are dead anyway. He is saying:choose to die with me. Choose to hate your life in this world the way I have chosen the cross.This is what Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). He calls us to choose the cross. People only did one thing on a cross. They died on it. “Take up your cross,” means, “Like a grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die.” Choose it., You will invest your life in something, or you will throw it away on nothing. That something must be Christ. Its all or none. Prize Christ or lose your soul. Prize Christ and gain life in him for all eternity. If you want to find your life you must lose it. Maybe, from Gods perspective, there is something beneficial about severing yourself from everything this world values and binding yourself to Christ. Just maybe. This saying, if you want to find your life you must lose it, is repeated six times in the gospels: (Matthew 10:39) Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Mark 8:35) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. (Luke 17:33) Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 9:24 ) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (John 12:25) The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. In all but one passage, the context of this saying is Jesus prediction about his own death. we live in a culture where winning is everything. We understand winning. We very easily grasp the concept of eternal life because thats winning. We understand the language of saving and preserving and finding because those are all part of the imagery of winning. In contrast, we really dont understand what it means to lose. We hate losing. Losing is despised and frowned upon. Losers are forgotten. We lose something and then panic. We lose a game or an account and then lose sleep over it. Winners are loved and adored and winning makes you popular and successful. Theres no such thing as a lovable loser. We raise our kids to be winners. And yet Christ says, in the most important arena with the most important trophy at stake, the goal is to lose. Thats the rhetoric of subversion. From Gods perspective, losing is winning. And yet everything about our culture and the way we raise our kids makes it hard to accept the goal of losing. If you want to find your life you must lose it.Those who are in the flesh cant please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesnt have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didnt receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, Abba! Father!( Romans 8:8-15)Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:25-27) Therefore dont throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.In a very little while, He who comes will come, and will not wait. But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:35-39)
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 15:22:47 +0000
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