Give it Away

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Mark 8:34b, NIV

The Way of the Cross
³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38, NIV)

It is the natural tendency of a child to be focussed on self. This tendency can be trained out of a child to some extent (at least superficially), but that tendency still exists, no matter how hard we try to remove it. It will take different forms but it’s all the same desire for self, even though it may appear to be something different. The hard thing to realize is that it continues into adulthood and throughout life.

While I as working on my bachelor’s degree there was a time when I got very discouraged and mentioned it to another student. She gave me the advice “think about where you’ll be in 5 years and decide where that will be.” Even though it can be seen as good advice, it also has that “me” factor to it. We live in a world that is “all about me.” It’s in our songs, our advertisement, it’s every where and is impossible to escape.

With today’s verse in mind, everything seems hopeless. If we are “all about me,” how am I to do as Jesus said? Jesus also said, quoting Leviticus 19:18c, “love your neighbor as yourself.” He knew that the human was created with this sense of self preservation, it is necessary to survive, but he also knew that, when taken too far, it has very detrimental effects. It was a fine line that he was walking when he talked about us denying ourselves to be his disciples.

The truth behind this is that the only way to do this is through the power of the Holy Spirit living within you. We are prone to self, yet Jesus calls us to give that up, he wouldn’t have told us to do it if it weren’t possible. It is also a self preservation action as well, though not obviously so. If we are to live with him eternally, we must do these things that he commands.

So, where does it leave us. We must love God first, without that love no other love is possible. Then we must love others as we love ourselves, a definite must for the follower of Jesus. Doing this will lead us to sacrifice ourselves for God and others, that’s what love is, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13, NIV)

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:13, NIV