Finding Life by Losing it
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.”
Matthew 16: 24-25 (CSB)
What a command given by Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 16. After revealing to His disciples that He is the Son of the living God(V. 16), and making known to them that it is necessary for him to suffer many things and be killed(V. 21), He gives them these directions. That if anyone wants to follow after Him, they would have to go through their own kind of death.
This is not an easy ask. As I’m sure dying on a cross was not an easy ask for Jesus. In my experience, denying myself and taking up my cross feels like the most unnatural and uncomfortable thing ever. It does not come easy nor was it ever supposed to come easy. Following Jesus is living a life of constantly letting go of things that I want to hold so tightly to. Things like caring so much about how people think of me, the constant urge to want to be right, comparing other people’s struggles to my own, keeping my deep brokenness to myself, being shy about sharing the truth of His gospel and so much more. These things I hold onto with clinched fists.
But Jesus wants us to let go of these things. I just recently read of a metaphor that compares these things to a seed. If I were to hold a seed in my hand, not wanting to let it go, it would simply stay a seed. But when I let go of this seed and bury it, I free it up to be what it was always meant to be. A beautiful plant. When I finally give up the things that I hold onto so tightly. When I finally deny myself, take up my cross, and follow him, it is there that I find the very life I always thought I was losing. And in finding that life, I have felt the deepest of joys through all circumstances because of the goodness and kindness of a Father who cares a lot about me. One who went to a cross for me. And for you, too.
Jesus commands a different way than this world: Finding life by losing it. The beautiful paradox of the cross.
