Thursday, November 12

In Matthew 20:26, Jesus says that whoever wants to become great, must become a servant. Theologian and Philosopher Dallas Willard has called this the “Law of Inversion”. He means that Jesus takes the values and accepted principles of life in our world and flips them upside down (inverts them) when He talks about what it means to live in His kingdom. We see Jesus referring to this law in various ways throughout the Gospels. 

Matthew 19:30 - But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Matthew 20:16 – “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Mark 9:35 - Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said,  “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Luke 13:30 - Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.

Matthew 10:39 - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

John 12:25 - The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Losing your life? Dying in order to live? Putting yourself last? Last? Who wants to be last? Becoming a servant or even a slave? Who can live this way? Clearly Jesus doesn’t understand life in our fast paced and competitive world today. Oh yes He does! Jesus knows all about our lives and our world, more specifically, He knows all about your life and your world!

The fact that this sounds crazy, or at least unrealistic, to us says far more about our lack of understanding of Jesus than it does about Jesus’ lack of understanding of the “real world”. 

I flipped on the TV the other day and watched a well-known preacher from a very large church telling his congregation (and the millions watching on TV) that Jesus died so that they could be “conquerors in the world and live victorious lives.” In one sense, I agree. Jesus did conquer death and He has given us the victory over sin through His death and resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Ah, but as the preacher continued, it became quite clear that he was talking about a different kind of victory than a victory over sin and death. He was connecting the victory of Jesus to material wealth, prosperity, health and physical well-being. He talked a lot about gaining these things, but I never once heard him mention losing your life, or putting yourself last, or dying in order to live. 

Now I am not saying that Jesus wants you to be poor and sick and depressed! But, the central message of the Gospel is not about you and your success. It is about God and His glory revealed in Christ! When Jesus says that we must lose our lives in order to find them, He is telling us that we have to want Him more than we want anything in this life. He wants to bring us to the point where we can truly say that he is our life, and without Him we have nothing. 

This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Jim Elliott, the husband of author Elizabeth Elliott, who was killed by the very tribal people he was trying to reach for Christ once said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

What have you lost for the sake of Christ?  What are you willing to lose?