whoever wants to save his life…
As promised the start of my reflections on three verses that I have wrestled with, stumbled over, and given much thought to:
Mark 8:34-36 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
The same teaching and thought can also be found in Luke, where I have been reading recently:
Luke 9:23-27 “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
When I worked at Camp Carl as an elementary counselor I had the priviledge of talking to the kids in big group rallies and Chapel times; this was something I greatly enjoyed and took delight in doing. During Wild West week (which for anyone who cares is the hardest one to program, you’d think cowboys would be easy to program, but take away the guns, whiskey, saloons, gangs, and violence and all you got is horses and sheriffs) we were talking of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. I asked the kids as a big group, “Who parted the Red Sea?”
In a preprogrammed response they mumbled, “Moses.”
I retorted to the crowd, “No. God parted the Red Sea and he used Moses to do it.” I think the thrust of the talk was that God uses little people (like elementary campers) to do big things. I can remember one camper coming up to me after the talk slightly disgruntled, remember these are fifth graders so their emotions are as clear as day. He asked me, “Why did we learn in sunday school that it was Moses who parted the Red Sea and not God?” He tried to convey as well as any fifth grader could the feeling one has when they feel they have been slighted, short-changed, sugar-coated, or glossed over.
And there it is. How many teachings of Christ have I read about in the Bible, have recieved instruction about, only to find that the instruction falls short of the actual teaching. Case in point the above verses in Mark and Luke. Before I start my rant, please know that I am not faulting any individual instructor, institution, or church. My intent is to dig deeply into these verses as I never have before and unearth the freeing truth of the message of Christ from the clutter of interpretations that I have aforeto received.
+What I received in youth group:
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” This means that you need to prioritize Jesus above your own life. Your relationship with Jesus should be more important than soccer practice, boyfriends/girlfriends, band, even school. Regardless, continue to do your best in school and participate in extra-curricular activities because you need them on your resume to get into good colleges. You should lose your life by participating in service projects, going on trips, coming to church, and by being an all-around nice and loving person; and by doing these things you save your life because you are developing Christ-like characteristics that are transferable to college and the workforce.
Now I realize that this is a bit cynical, and perchance this is more pessimistic than true, but that dichotomy was there! How can I lose my life if everything I do, I do to get it on my resume so I can get scholarships into a good college and essentially “save my life??” No, this definition can’t be what Jesus meant. Just like my fifth grade camper, I look back at this teaching with a disgruntled uneasiness, because there has to more to Christ’s message than building a good resume and getting into a good college.
+What I received from my local church body:
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” This means that some are called, like Jim Elliot, to give their lives in serving God, while others are called to send, and others are called to support in prayer. Thus you lose your life by giving some of what you have in the form of a tithe to support the few who lose their lives by actually going to the mission field. Try not to save your own life, by not buying too many expensive things. Well, actually what Jesus means here is that we can buy expensive things, we just need to give Him our money and heart first.
Again, know that I love my local church and that this is more of a hyperbole of my own angst with the current position of my own faith, then a public outcry against the church as it stands. But, there is truth is this above response. We always proclaim Jim elliot when we use this passage, why? Is it because we have noone else to compare it to? Are those who have lost their life so few today that the only example of this passage we can muster is a man who excellently lived out this passage 50 years ago? I know this is not the case. I know and can list many men and women who I feel have lived out this passage truly. But again I feel that as a whole and for myself, we have missed the mark of this verse.
+Literally what it means:
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” This means that if we work for our own end, our work is in vain and we will have wasted our life, lost our life to Sheol, condemned our soul, fill in your own definition for “losing your life.” But, if we lose ourself for the cause of Christ, we will save our life to a life of fulfillment, Heaven, fill in your own defintion for a “saved” life.
And again my wrestling over this verse is the whole idea of college. For the past 5 years, people have asked me what are you doing with your life. What is your major? What are your plans? What are you going to do? and although I apprecaite the concern, I can’t help but get lost in the selfishness that is college life. Get your life together, figure out your life now, so that.. so that what? You can save your own life.
Now, I have no intention of dropping out of college, (especially with sweet graduation in sight), and I feel that I have done a mediocre job of living out this verse throughout my college career by putting others above myself, being faithful in tithing, and being generous with what I own, but as I am quickly coming upon the next phase of my life, I wonder what it looks like to lose myself for the sake of Christ and His Gospel.
As I decide what to do and where to go and how to live, this question rings forever in my head, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
Grace and Peace
