Loving Jesus--and Life

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 18, 2022.  The Bible verses are John 12:20-29.

            Jesus was not like everybody else.  And you say, well, duh, but think about it.  There has never been, and there will never be, anyone who lives on earth who was like Jesus.  

            For us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die.  We learn about some of the things that happened before we were born, but there’s an extent to which they don’t seem real to us.  I mean, no matter how much I might read about the Civil War, there’s no way I can really understand what it was like to live through it.  And that’s something relatively recent.  When we read about Biblical times, things that happened two to three thousand years ago, it’s utterly impossible to understand what life was like in those times, no matter how much we might try.

            And the future is even more of a closed book to us.  At most, I might live another forty years, and that’s pretty unlikely.  I cannot imagine what the world’s going to be like in 2062.  And to try to imagine what the world might be like two to three thousand years from now, assuming that the world is still around then–well, again, that’s utterly impossible.  

We have the promise of heaven, of course.  And we believe that, and we think about it.  But we have no real idea what that’s like, either.  We have no idea what we’ll be like when we’re there.  So that’s why I say that, for us, life begins when we’re born and ends when we die–because our lives on earth are the only life we can really relate to.

But none of that is true for Jesus.  Jesus was there when the world was created.  And Jesus will exist when the world is gone.  Jesus’ life on earth was extremely short when you compare it with eternity.  And that gives Jesus a different perspective for life on earth than you or I could ever have.

And that brings me to the statement Jesus made in our reading for today.  Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

That’s a tough one for me.  Maybe it is for you, too.  Because, for the most part, I do love my life.  Not always, of course–we all have parts of our lives that we’re not that fond of.  Things we have to do that we’d rather not have to do.  Things that we have to deal with that we wish we did not have to deal with.  But for the most part, I do love my life.  I have an awesome wife.  I have my Mom in town with me now.  I have a great job and work with great people.  I get to do some fun things like sing and do public address announcing.  I really enjoy my life on earth.

And then I think, did Jesus love his life on earth?  I have no way to know, but I suspect He really did not.  I mean, I hope He enjoyed some of it.  I hope it was not just sheer misery for Him to be on earth.  But think about it.  Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity–God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  And while He was on earth, Jesus was separated from that.  He was, in a sense, separated from Himself.  That had to be really hard on Him.

And then, too, think of the life Jesus led once He started His ministry.  As He said, he had no place to call home.  He was constantly traveling, and when He did try to go back to Nazareth, people rejected Him.  He tried to teach people, but He was dealing with people who, for the most part, did not understand and never would understand.  Who sometimes did not even want to understand.  There were His constant battles with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, who had no desire to learn anything from Him but were just trying to find a way to trap Him.  

Even His closest friends on earth, the twelve disciples, really did not understand Him.  Some of them, like Peter, were always trying to tell Him what He should or should not do.  And none of them could really understand what it was like to be Jesus.  How could they?  Jesus was utterly unique while He was on earth–fully divine and fully human, in a way that we still don’t really understand.  And then, when you add in the cruel and painful way in which he died–well, I have to conclude that there was not a whole lot for Jesus to love about His life on earth.

So it’s not surprising that Jesus said what he said.  But where does that leave us?  Are those of us who do love our lives on earth in the wrong?  Are we truly in danger of losing our eternal lives if we love our lives on earth?

Well, let’s think about it.  As we said a few weeks ago, Jesus said several times that salvation can be found only through faith in Him as the Savior.  He did not put qualifications on that.  He did not add anything to that.  Salvation can be found through faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Period.

Jesus’ statement that those who love their lives will lose it does not put an extra qualification on salvation.  What it does is explain what faith in Jesus means.  And so does the statement Jesus made right after that:  “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant will also be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

What Jesus is saying is not that it’s wrong to love our lives on earth.  It’s not a sin, and it won’t cost us salvation.  Salvation does, in fact, come through faith in Jesus Christ.  But if we do have faith in Jesus Christ, then we need to serve Jesus Christ.  And if we are going to serve Jesus Christ, we must follow Jesus Christ.

We’re tempted to think, well, I follow Jesus Christ.  But do we?  Do we really?  How far are we willing to follow Him?

While Jesus was on earth, there were lots of people who claimed to follow Jesus.  And then, Jesus started saying things they did not want to hear.  Jesus started saying things that were going to be hard.  Jesus started saying things that challenged people to make real changes in their lives.  And when Jesus did that, a lot of those stopped following.

“Whoever serves me must follow me.”  That’s a serious statement.  Because–think about it–where did Jesus go?  He went to the cross.  Jesus died a horrible, painful death.  That’s where Jesus went.

Does that mean we are all required to follow Him there?  Are we all required to die the way Jesus did to prove our faith?

Well, not necessarily.  As we’ve said before, Jesus calls different people to do different things.  We are not all called to die for our faith in Jesus.  In fact, I don’t know that very many of us are called to do that.

But we could be.  Following Jesus means following Him wherever He leads us.  And it means not trying to control where Jesus may lead us, but simply following, obediently, willingly, no matter where He may lead us to go.

That’s a hard thing to do.  Because Jesus could lead us anywhere.  Even if Jesus does not lead us to risk death for Him, he may lead us to do things that make us uncomfortable.  He may lead us to do things that scare us.  He may lead us to do things that require us to give up our current lifestyle.  He may lead us to do things that take us way out of our comfort zones, to do things we really don’t want to do or go places we really don’t want to go.

I don’t know whether Jesus is calling you to do that right now.  I know Jesus is calling you to do something, but whether Jesus is calling you to make a major change in your life, I don’t know.  But the question is, if Jesus did call you to do that, would you say yes?  

It’s hard.  Most of us do love our current lives.  And if we don’t love them, at least we like them.  And even if we don’t like them, we’re comfortable with them.  It’s what we know.  Would we be willing to follow Jesus into a different sort of life?  Into a different job?  Into a different place?  Into being with different people?  Into an entirely different lifestyle?  

If we say no, we’re saying we’re more interested in keeping our lives the way they are than we are in following Jesus.  We’re saying we love our lives more than we love Jesus.  And as Christians, there is nothing in this life that we should love more than we love Jesus.

It may seem like Jesus is asking a lot.  But think of it this way.  If you’ve ever been married, or even if you’ve ever been in a serious relationship, have you given up things for the person you love?  Of course you have.  Did you think it was worth it?  You probably did, or you would not have done it.  You may have liked your life the way it was, but you changed it out of love for someone else.  One of the things that makes a loving relationship work is that we make sacrifices for each other.  

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us–He gave up His life on earth.  But Jesus asks us to make sacrifices, too.  Jesus asks us to give up things to follow Him.  There may be times when it’s hard to do that.  But it will be worth it.  If we want our relationship with Jesus to work, there will be times we need to make sacrifices for Him, just as He made sacrifices for us.

It’s okay to love our lives on earth.  But let’s not love our life on earth more than we love Jesus.  Because loving Jesus is the way to eternal life.  And that’s the life we really need to love.