A Message of Hope

Jesus says, “Whoever serves me must follow me”  (John 12:26).   Where was Jesus going?  What direction was he heading?  He was heading toward the cross, and if we’re going to be his disciples, we have follow him there.

But where is there, exactly, in our lives today?  What does it mean for us today to go to the cross?  Well, first, we have to go there in our hearts.  We have to, in our heart of hearts, surrender everything to him.  We have to make a decision that our lives are no longer about us, about our happiness, about our comfort, about our selves – our lives are about honoring the Father.  That was the focus of Jesus’ life, and that’s got to be the focus of our hearts.

If we follow Jesus completely in our hearts, then it will show up in our lives.  It will affect our priorities and the choices we make about everything from our daily schedules to our family budgets to how we treat the people we really don’t like. 

This doesn’t sound easy, does it?  It wasn’t easy for Jesus, either.

²⁷“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name!”  (John 12:27-28a)

Even though Jesus’ heart was troubled, he knew that it was something that he couldn’t avoid.  On a much smaller scale, we are all called to act this courageously. I remember this verse coming to mind when I first moved to Africa – I had spent years preparing, but when the time came, I wanted to say, “Father, save me from this hour!”  But the only way the Father could be glorified was by me going through with what he had prepared me for.  

There are times that we plan and prepare for something, sometimes for years, but when the time comes to go through with it, it’s very scary.  Maybe it’s going to college or getting married, or starting a family, or starting a business.  Maybe it’s sharing Jesus with someone – someone who’s as different from you as the Greeks were to Philip and Andrew.  Maybe it’s that decision that you’re not going to live for yourself anymore, that you are going to be baptized into Christ and die to yourself and live for him.  It’s scary, but God has brought you to this point, and now he calls you to act courageously.

And when you do, you make your Father so proud.

 Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.   

³⁰Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. ³¹Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. ³²But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” ³³He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.  (John 12:28b-33)

The death that Jesus had to die is both repulsive and attractive.  It was certainly repulsive to Satan, to the prince of this world, who was defeated on the cross.  It’s repulsive to those who are too proud to admit that they need someone to take their place, to bear the load of their sin.  But it’s attractive to those of us who recognize that there is no other way, who are overwhelmed by the love of Jesus that gave him the courage to obey his Father, and who pray that we, too, may live courageously – with the courage to lose our own lives, so that we may find new life in him.

In these next couple of posts, I’d like to focus on John 12:23-33.  The first few verses say,

²³Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

Just before Jesus said these words, Philip and Andrew had brought a group of Greeks who had asked to see  Jesus, to him.  Jesus realized that their arrival signaled that it was time for the gospel to go out to all peoples.  But before that cold happen, he would have to be “lifted up.”

Jesus says that, for him, the path to glory must lead through death.  The plant cannot grow, bear fruit, and produce more seeds, unless that first seed dies.  Jesus’ own life was that first seed, and he knew that he had to die in order for the kingdom to grow.  Now that was quite different from what the crowds were expecting from their Messiah.  But today, in retrospect, we can accept what he was saying.  He was saying that his death was necessary in order to accomplish a greater good. 

That’s a harsh reality, but we experience it in other dimensions as well.  Last week we celebrated Veterans Day as a way of saying thank you to those who put their lives on the line so that others may have freedom.  On Memorial Day we remember those who lost their lives for what they saw as a greater cause.  And as horrible as war is, we as a society dare to ask our men and women of the armed forces to be willing to make that sacrifice.  We expect it, not just of our soldiers, but of our law enforcement and firemen as well.  Wives and children expect it, and rightfully so, of husbands and fathers.  We know that, sometimes, some people have to sacrifice their lives so that others can live.  And most of us are willing to say, “I don’t want to die, but – if it came right down to it – if the people I love the most, if the country I love or the values that I hold dear were on the line, I’d do it.  I hope to avoid that sacrifice, but I’d make it.” 

“In the meantime, though, I’m going to get the most I can out of life, I’m going to love my life, I’m going to give myself and my family the most comfortable life I can, we’re going to enjoy ourselves; I’m going for the gusto; I’m going to get everything out of life that I can.”

And Jesus says, “Wait, wait, wait, wait.  It doesn’t work that way.”  Following me doesn’t just mean being willing to say, “I believe in Jesus” when someone is holding a gun to your head.  It’s much more difficult than that.  It’s much more difficult to say, “I believe in Jesus,” and to live that way when no one is holding a gun to your head, when you could just as easily not make that confession, when you could just as easily not live that way, as when you’re forced to take a stand one way or the other.

If you really want to live, if you really want to grab life by the horns, you’ve got to give up your right to your own life.  Not just be willing to die – really lose your life while you’re still living and breathing.

When Jesus says you have to “lose,” your life – he doesn’t mean “misplace” it, so you can find it later.  The word he uses means to destroy it.  When he says you have to “hate” your life – he’s not talking about self-loathing, he’s talking about not letting your own life distract you from following him.  In Luke 14 he says you have to “hate” your family if you’re going to follow him.  What he means is that you don’t let your relationships, you don’t even let your own self, distract you from following him.

You may well be aking, “Doesn’t Jesus care about me—about my life, my problems, my challenges?”  Of course he does!  He loves you intimately and personally and is ready to carry your burdens.  In fact, he is so focused on you, that you don’t have to be; you can be focused on him  He is much more capable of dealing with these things than you are, so let him!