Mt 10:37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."
If you think about we all have a basic philosophy of life. Seriously. We all do. Our philosophy might be to build a business. It might be to simply go in and be a good employee, do a good job, and be rewarded for our work. Some people have the philosophy that society should provide them with the basics of life. Others have the philosophy that one can never count on society to provide one with anything at all. Still others will say that they have no philosophy, which sounds nice, but usually only means that they haven’t really thought about it. Talk to someone for long and you’ll begin to sense the idea that guides their most basic beliefs about their life.
Jesus in this text challenges those who put even their own self-preservation before God. He begs the question that is so powerful – “Is there anything worth living for if you don’t have anything worth dying for?”
For Jesus, what’s worth dying for is a vision of God’s reign that draws in people of every stripe and calls them to simply be who God created them to be.
That sounds too simple! You mean that Jesus didn’t give his life for a political ideology or for economic prosperity or for some notion of personal freedom? That’s right. Jesus died for a vision of the world where people lived in freedom, had REAL prosperity, and lived with perfect governance because they lived in willing obedience to God.
To the cynic, that sounds pretty Pollyanish. How incredibly naïve to think that broken, selfish human beings could ever experience, let alone achieve anything like that. And the cynic would be right. Human beings could never achieve that. But God could.
Through God’s own power (and grace), he could take broken, selfish, self-protective human beings and mold them into a people who could enjoy creation and each other rather than live in fear of their own annihilation. If only they would say “yes.” If only we would say “yes.” If only I would say “yes.” Saying “yes” is to enter to “abyss” (Kierkegaard!) of trust. It’s on the other side of that abyss that we are restored to the Garden of Eden – to perfect intimacy with God- where literally heaven and earth meet.
Do I trust enough that God is able? Am I willing to lay down my life and all the hopes of this world to trust that maybe, just maybe, life with God is as amazing as the Spirit has revealed to us?
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