Good morning,
I have always loved the song that begins “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” I’m surrounded by familiar places and faces and a life full of patterns and preferences that tempts me to think of home as what I know and not where I have yet to go. Our Enemy does his best to chain us to things we can not possibly keep in order for us to live out our lives dreading their eventual loss. Now that we are coming to another Easter season we naturally think of the cross and the empty tomb, but have we thought deeply about how our Lord faced his time of trial and loss 2000 years ago. This world was never home for Jesus. He had always lived with the Father and the Holy Spirit in eternity past, surrounded with the glories of heaven and the singing of the heavenly hosts. It was only for thirty three years that he had lived in a body like ours being tempted like we are. Jesus had come to accomplish something that only he could do to make eternity with God a reality for those of us who were created in his image.
In the final days before his death and resurrection, Jesus clearly defined his focus for his life here on earth. Jesus had come to lose his life for those of us who had been born and raised in sin. He knew that he had to carry out God’s plan for buying us back from the penalty of the sin we had learned to enjoy. He warned his followers that if they kept loving their life here on earth, they would lose the eternal life God longed to give them. Jesus warned them that the only way to have eternal life was for them to care nothing for their lives here on earth. Jesus came to die in our place, not to be a powerful king ruling over defiant rebels. Jesus made it plain that if we are going to be genuine disciples we had to follow his example of losing his life for others. Jesus longs for disciples who are more concerned about being obedient servants than being honored by our friends and family and enemies. Jesus was focused on the honor of finishing his work assigned by his Father for us, not being surrounded by people who would honor him one day and be willing to kill him the next. May we, like Jesus, live our lives focused on the obedience required for disciples who lose our lives for Him.
John 12:25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
Roy Wisner
