The Heart of Losing Your Life

Matthew 16:24-26

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

People seem to like quoting this scripture. Pastors, mentors, teachers, those who would teach us something about God, about life, about others, or about ourselves.

Thing is, most don't tell you that it is going to be hard. They don't tell you that you're going to get angry with God about losing your life...or that it's not all sunshine and roses.

I met a good pastor today. From the start of our conversation, there were no punches pulled, no pretending things were going to get better / easier. I knew the truth, and I was told it in love, which affirmed me a great deal. All that man had to do was show up, and be who God made Him to be.

On the other hand, there's this guy:

Matthew 19:15-23

¹⁶ Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
¹⁷ So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
¹⁸ He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ¹⁹ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
²⁰ The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
²² But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

See, this scripture points to the heart of losing your life. What is so special about these possessions? "He had great possessions?" What made them so great? Why does this man turn away from the conversation sorrowful, instead of with urgency and exhilaration. Jesus just told him exactly what he wanted to know...right? The rich young ruler gets what he came for...but not what he wanted.

The rich young ruler defines himself by his possessions. It's part of "who He is" to himself. If you would ask him who he is, I imagine at this point he would say something about him being successful and making the right choices and that God has blessed him and that's the reason for everything. My point in this entry is this...Jesus asks him to sell his possessions not because He wants or needs this man to give to the poor; but because the rich young ruler needs to sell his possessions and give to the poor to be able to have treasure in heaven. Oh yeah...and go follow Jesus too.

The position of the possessions in the man's heart is the issue. The position of the great possessions is higher on the list than inheriting eternal life. And...don't think that just because you don't have a lot, this can't be your problem. You don't have to have lots of stuff to covet having lots of stuff - and this is a new one to me...but it's the same thing as far as your heart is concerned. Jesus wants your heart completely. The whole thing. He's not going to compete against possessions, pride, or any of that other stuff that creates a false image of you to make you feel better about how He fits into your life. Your heart needs to be full of Christ; and let the rest of what comes overflow from that.

Case & point:

Matthew 6:25-34

"²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

The rich young ruler couldn't get a grip on the fact that he wasn't in control of his own life. His attitude then reflected that his heart didn't know how to change. He leaves sorrowful because he doesn't know how to do what Jesus has just asked of him. He wants eternal life, but can't do what is asked of him. Let me say again that is isn't that he could "go sell all his possessions and give to the poor" it is that he can't change his heart. Right now, his heart is full of things he's done to earn his way to eternal life. He's fulfilled all the commandments, yet he still comes asking what he needs to do? What more does he need to do?

Another point is this: He is told to do something He cannot do. He can't make his heart change. God is the one in the business of changing hearts. Now I've heard mixed reviews on this, and my own personal verdict is still out. Some tell me that you can change your own heart, others tell me that it's God's job. I guess thinking about it, it is a co-operation of sorts. It's not that you really "do" anything, but it is that you let the Holy Spirit shape your heart however God sees fit. Therefore, you are shaped, your life is shaped, your words are shaped - by God for His purposes to His glory. That puts God on center stage, and not you...which is how it should be.

The rich young ruler couldn't give up the stage IN HIS HEART to Jesus. Can you?

Blessed are those Who Believe, Yet have not Seen

Yesterday as I was holding one of my newborn daughters in my arms, she started to cry out for something. Here's the thing, she's 1 month old; what could she possibly want? She could be hungry, she could need her diaper changed, or she could just be crying out because she cannot really see much unless it is right in front of her face.

I learned this in my journey toward fatherhood. Babies, for the first "while" after they are born cannot focus or see much of anything unless you're really close to their face. You have this little person (or little people in my case) that can't see and her only way to communicate with us big people is to make a noise. Not to mention, it's the only noise she can make right now. There's variations to the noise, but it's all basically a type of crying out.

The point is that the world, to newborns, is extremely fuzzy. They can see variations and stuff...but they do not see the physical world like we see it. Their eyes need to be trained.

John 20:24-29

"Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, 'We have seen the Lord.' So he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.' And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, 'Peace to you!' Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach your finger here, and look at my hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.' And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!' Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'"

Thomas needed to see and touch in order to believe. Thomas wanted to use the physical senses he had to convince himself of the impossible. Something had happened that was impossible. I think sometimes we are hard on Thomas here. People came and told Thomas that Jesus had risen from the dead; not an easy sell. Of course, if a group of people corroborate the story - - it's harder to not go along with it. Even still, I think Thomas shows us that no matter how overwhelming the stories are toward proving the impossible true, we will still seek some kind of proof before we believe it. Honestly, I kind of applaud Thomas in part for his ability to stand his ground and not believe. It had to take some kind of courage to tell all the other disciples that he wasn't going along with this nonsense that Jesus was alive. Right or wrong - he defended what he thought to be the truth. Don't be a hypocrite and judge Thomas so quickly, we do this all the time.

For a second time, Jesus hits the scene and greets the disciples. He goes right to Thomas and they go through proving that Jesus is who He says He is. Thomas now believes because it has been proven to him to be true according to the standards that He created in His own heart. Jesus gave Him what He needed to believe. Like the awesome savior He is Jesus follows this up with a brief teaching statement, "Thomas, you have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed."

Which brings me to an interesting point. 2 things that sometimes seem to stand in direct contradiction to one another. Defending the truth and believing. I don't know that I've ever seen a human being defend a truth they claimed not to understand. I've seen them defend things they think they understand mostly, or are trying desperately to understand - but not something that is hopeless for them to understand. That's the trick of it. We cannot hope to understand how it is that Jesus stood in the midst of the disciples; how it is that He rose to be seated at the right hand of the Father; how it is that He sent the Holy Spirit to us; any more than we can understand the ways of God. We believe these things by faith, because (I would argue) we cannot be shown these things. The separateness of God is so great that if He would describe to us how it worked I think we would lose Him at, "Well, you see it's like this..."

Let's stop back at the teaching statement again to finish up.

"Thomas, you have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believed."

I see a hidden challenge in this verse to Thomas from Jesus. Very clearly, it is a message to Thomas that it is better to not need to see in order to believe. In other words, your faith should not be tied to something as physical as your own sight. That being said, it begs the question...what should your faith be tied to? How to we keep on believing?

I'd like to suggest that how we choose to see our world and the circumstances that occur within our field of view greatly shapes the state of our faith. For example, do you have faith that God is with you in a difficult circumstance in your life; or is it that when God responds to your difficult situation you will praise Him because He clearly (in hindsight) is worthy? It is a subtle difference in principle, but a great chasm in practice. Your attitude through a difficult time will reflect whether your faith is tossed to and fro like a weed blowing in the wind, or whether it is founded on the cornerstone that is Christ, not shaken by all that you see - because you are assured of what is unseen.

Believe.