“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From time to time in the Gospels, we encounter shocking statements from the Lord. Here is an example from the Gospel of John, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.” (John 12:25-26) Another example is found in Luke’s Gospel, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) Jesus is not indicating that we should literally hate our parents nor that we should hate this world with all its blessings and opportunities. Rather, in the words of D. A. Carson, “The love/hate contrast reflects a semitic idiom [a Jewish way of speaking] that articulates fundamental preference” and is “not to be understood literally.” (PNTC, 439) To follow Jesus is to so set your heart on loving him that all other loves seem like hate in comparison. To serve Jesus is to follow him and to be where he is. And where is he in John 12? He is on his way to the cross.
Jesus calls out to the crowd and lays down the demands of discipleship: “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35) What then should the disciple lose? If someone follows Christ, then what is on the chopping block? I want to suggest that the following categories are in play:
- Status and significance: the servants of Christ are to follow their master right into John 13—the washing of the disciples’ feet. There the king of glory humbles himself to do the most menial of tasks, washing the feet of another.
- Rights and entitlement: the servants of Christ live lives of deep humility and pattern themselves after Jesus who humbled himself even to the point of death. (See Philippians 2:1-11)
- Agendas and aspirations: the servants of Christ do not have their own agendas other than to go where he sends and speak what he commands. Their aspirations do not include seeking glory for themselves but rather making sure that Jesus is honored and is the central character in the story which God has allowed them to participate in.
Are you living life with a fundamental preference that has been shifted to Jesus Christ? Are you a disciple of Christ? Have you repented of sin, even the sin of an idolatrous life, one where you are the sole focus? Trust Christ today. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. Have a blessed week and we will see many of you on Sunday.
Unto Him be glory,
Pastor Dale
