Finding Life or
Losing It
Listen here.
When we
talk about becoming a Christian there are certain benefits to believing in
Jesus that we usually mention. Probably the most common and most important is
forgiveness. Jesus died for me and all my sins are forgiven. We might talk
about heaven or eternal life. Some people talk about purpose, a reason to live,
their lives going from brokenness to healing. Some mention a sense of
stability, a foundation, or even clarity in the priorities that guide their
lives.
Do you know
what people don’t usually talk about when they talk about the benefits of
believing in Jesus? Conflict. You know what else? Persecution.
But did
Jesus say that conflict and persecution would be part of our lives if we follow
him and become his disciples? Yeah. Yeah, he did.
And don’t
get me wrong, I’m not saying that I like conflict. I don’t usually shy away
from it, but I don’t go looking for it either! And persecution, I’d rather
avoid all together having had only the smallest taste of it. But it wouldn’t be
right for me to stand up here and preach, “If you follow Jesus your life is
going to be awesome and nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.”
This idea
is especially hard for us here in America. We live in a land with lots of freedom.
We live in a land that does not establish a particular religion for people to
follow, but our religion has had a rather favored status. Most of us can
probably remember when we thought it was weird when someone said that they
didn’t go to church.
We have
lived in a blessed time and in a blessed country. I have to tell you though,
that that era of comfort and favor is at an end. We still have some of it here
in Hudson, Stow, and Twinsburg. There is a bit of that small town America about
us still. But when I talk to my friends on the coasts … their experience is a
bit different than ours.
So Jesus
says to us today, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” And, “I have
come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Now, to be clear, is Jesus
advocating violence? No. As we read the whole of Jesus’ teaching violence is
not part of his plan. He’s saying that when we follow him there will be
conflict in our lives – conflict that comes to us because we believe in him, because
we share his Word, and because the world and people in the world do not believe
in him and they hate his Word (when they’re not ignoring it).
Let me put
it to you this way, salvation is a free gift from God. It costs you nothing.
Jesus gladly paid the price for your sin by dying on the cross for you purely
because he loves you. Salvation cost him everything, but it cost you nothing.
But when we live our lives following Jesus, when we are formed by his teaching
and we live according to his Word; eventually following Jesus will cost us
something. It might be a friendship. It could be relationship with someone you
love. It could be a job. It could be your reputation. It could be any number of
things that we turn away from out of love and gratitude to Jesus. And, yes, in
some parts of the world, the cost for following Jesus can be their lives.
Jesus says,
“Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever
loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” What do you think he
would say about loving our jobs more than him? Loving our comfort more than
him? Loving our freedom more than him? Loving our yards, our homes, our
favorite baseball teams, our prestige, our intellect, our degrees, our preferences
… more than him?
Jesus says,
“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Isn’t
it strange how we approach the cross? We see it in jewelry, people have it as a
tattoo, and we hang them in our homes. They’re decorative in our culture. But
in Jesus’ culture, they had seen real crosses. The Romans used them not just
for capital punishment, but also for intimidation. They had seen the suffering,
the blood, the tears, and the death associated with crosses. And sometimes
following Jesus can feel a little bit like death. It can feel a little bit like
death when our sinful heart wants one thing, but we know that God says that one
thing is sin. It can feel a little bit like death when all our friends are
saying this is good, this is fun, this doesn’t hurt anyone, come join us, and
in your heart you hear God’s Word whispering this is wickedness, this is sin,
the wages of sin is death, God says flee from immorality, to not gratify the
flesh, and to not give in to the ways of the world. It can feel a little bit
like death when, to get the promotion, to get the attention of that guy you
like, to live the lifestyle you want to live you have to compromise, you have
to do things God’s Word says are wrong, and you have to love these things more
than Jesus, more than his Word, more than his will for your life.
Man! Who
can possibly be worthy of Jesus if this is the standard he’s going to hold us
to? No one. And that is part of his point. We are not worthy. That’s why he has
to be the one who takes up his cross, to walk the path we are unable to walk,
to take our unworthiness upon himself, and to give us his worthiness by grace
through faith.
Now, did I
just say that we shouldn’t strive to live a life worthy of our Lord Jesus? No.
We strive to live following Jesus, because he’s the one who gave us this life,
redeemed us for this life, and calls us to forgiveness and to follow him.
And so
Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it.” If you find your life in the things of this world –
you will lose it. If you live for pleasure, for status, for your job, for your
team, or even for your family you will lose it all. I don’t mean that in some
kind of dramatic God’s-gonna-rip-it-away-from-you-in-judgement sense. But the
reality is nothing in this world lasts forever. Money is made and lost.
Pleasure comes and goes. Jobs end. People die. Including you and me. When we
live for this world – when we find our life, our meaning, our reason for
existence here and now we will lose it all. That’s just the way it is. As the
old saying goes, “You can’t take it with you.”
However
(however!) whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find life. And, yes,
that means dying for the faith, but it also means dying to self, dying to our
priorities, dying to our wants, losing this life … which we’re going to lose
anyway … and receiving the eternal life Jesus has won for us. Recognizing that
while our flesh desires to live for the world, Jesus has given us a new
spiritual life that lives in the world, but with God’s priorities. And that new
spiritual life leads not to death – although our bodies will die! – it leads to
resurrection, to new, holy bodies, everlasting life, and the glories of being a
new creation in Christ.
Will living
for Christ bring conflict to your life? Yep. Is it worth it to follow Jesus if
that’s the case? Is it worth it to take up our crosses to follow him? Well, is
it worth it to lose your life … which you’re going to lose anyway … and to
receive eternal life from the one who died and rose to forgive your sins and
give you eternal life as a free gift?
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