Matthew 16:25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
Have you ever lost something only to find it later? This is a common occurrence for many people. The solution, they say, is to have a place for everything and everything in its place. This might work if you can remember what goes in what place.
In a workshop, I am sure you have seen boards with hooks and tracings of the outline of tools. You can look at the board and see exactly which tools are missing. But knowing which ones are missing doesn’t help you find them! It just tells you what you already know. You can’t find the pliers.
But there is a different kind of losing, a kind that is good. We lose weight when we are on a diet and working to lower our BMI. We lose the long hair when we go into the military. (Think barbershop buzz cut!) We lose inches when we work out, until of course we gain inches in the desired places to become that perfect bodybuilder. This kind of losing is a voluntary action of not yielding to our less desirable tendencies.
Jesus tells His disciples that they must lose something, something they have been holding onto that isn’t theirs to control. They have been holding onto “their” life. Small children are often heard saying “MINE!” when they first begin to learn to share. Of course the adults know that there isn’t anything in this world that is truly “mine”. We take nothing with us when we die.
I think that in the months ahead we will all have to choose what is important and what isn’t. There will be the tendency to shout “MINE!” and put up a fight. But is what we are fighting for of real importance? Is the reason for the fight going to last through eternity?
Jesus knows of His coming death, and He is trying to get His disciples to realize that everything they hold dear, everything of this world, is passing away. The Kingdom has a very different currency from this earthly kingdom. Its values are different. Its rewards are different.
And it is into this mix that Jesus brings this verse. If we value this physical life to the exclusion of eternal life, or as a priority over the Kingdom, then we have lost everything of value. What our heart seeks can’t be found in this life alone. We must give up everything that passes through our fingers and grasp that which our fingers can’t grasp.
When we give up our hold on this life, then we can gain a life “for me” that outlasts and out performs this life. We must give up what we hold so tightly in order to gain a life that holds us tightly. Jesus’ grip will never fail.
So to what are you holding tightly? Are you living in fear of COVID and death that you are missing out of a life that will last beyond death? Have your political hopes been dashed or fulfilled, leading to despair or jubilation? Believe me, this is ‘this life’ and must be abandoned. There is no hope in politics.
And what has its grip on you? And to what are you holding? Only His life will be secure, because He does the holding.
The Arnold Journey 