Matthew 16:24-28
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
In this paragraph, as much as anywhere in Matthew’s Gospel, the inverse logic of the kingdom Jesus proclaims is demonstrated most fully. How can we lose our life to find it?
The answer hinges on what we define as “life.” If we go along with the culture and decide that “life” equals “stuff,” then all we can do is hope to acquire more – more things, more money, more influence, more power, more time, more youth…whatever. From this point of view, Jesus’ statement isn’t just incomprehensible, it’s down right offense. Why would you ever give something up when the whole goal of life is to get more.
But if we imagine that the life Jesus is talking about isn’t a quantifiable thing but rather a quality of existence – an existence of relationship and love and trust – then suddenly everything looks different. Sacrifice for the sake of others brings life; service to neighbor brings life; giving away what you have that others may have enough to live brings life. Life, it turns out, like love and forgiveness, can’t be quantified or demanded or bought. They can only be gained as you enter into them yourself. As you love others, you experience love. And as you give life, you find life.
Conversely, by trying to grab hold of life – accumulating things, influence, wealth, whatever, not as means to an end but as ends in and of themselves – leads to the death of the spirit, soul, and person. Some things – again like love and life – can’t be owned, only shared and received as gifts, and pursuing them can ultimately make them more elusive.
So what if “taking up your cross” was less a thing you do – and certainly not a call to suffer abuse or be self-abasing! – but rather was more an openness to this inverse logic of the kingdom whereby we discover that as we give ourselves away to each other in love we regularly and reliable discover our true selves and far more abundant life.
It really doesn’t make much sense…until you try it. And then it still doesn’t make much sense…it just changes your life!
Prayer: Dear God, open us to the peculiar logic of your Kingdom where those who give their lives find so much more. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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