For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. — Matthew 16:25
I continue to be amazed by the depth of holy wisdom from Oswald Chambers. The first line of the July 11th devo from My Utmost for His Highest reads, “The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ.”
We need this word today. We must internalize this word today.
The contemporary scene marked by hyper-charged social media creates an unprecedented environment that cultivates individuals to be bent inward upon themselves. Consumerism and capitalism has worked itself into our DNA thereby making the thought that says, “if I can get it, it’s mine” the default mode of operation. The world is out there for us, the consumer, the client, the buyer. Everything is mine to conquer, own, win, and consume. It’s all about us. To add incentive to this, if you serve yourself then it will automatically create a healthy economy around you. In other words, want to serve others? Then give into all your desires as a consumer and it will take care of itself.
Not only capitalism and consumerism, but also the core tenets of evolution and natural selection (which undoubtedly undergird and are complimentary towards thinking about capitalism and consumerism). It’s all about the survival of the fittest. We’re geared towards the goal of being more fit than those around us as individuals, cultures, and even countries. Moving forward and staying on top is a matter of not only being the best, but survival.
All of this creates an environment of competition and especially inflated ego to the point where even the Christian comes to Christ because Christ can help us reach the goal of self-realization. With this, Christ is a means to the ends of the individual.
This is wrong.
Before coming to Christ myself, I wrongly interpreted Jesus’ words from Matthew 16:25. My thinking was along the lines of, “If I want to be my best, then Jesus can help me get there.” In other words, Jesus was a means to my ends of self-realization. I understood that if I wanted to be an authentic, intelligent, fulfilled person, then Jesus could help me get there. This is true, however, the orientation of the thought, the point of reference for the idea, is flat-out wrong.
Christ died to put to death the self as the point of reference for doing all of life. He is not to be a means to our ends, we are to be a means to his.
Jesus’ life was so set a part, so different because of the fact that his default MO was the other. Every breath, every behavior, every emotion, was motivated by his desire to serve his Father. This is all wrapped up in the symbol of the cross. Redemption comes to the self-centered world through self-sacrifice and living for the other.
This is the correct interpretation of Matthew 16:25.
Contemporary Christianity needs a strong dose of this. We must remember that our goal, our ultimate goal is knowing Jesus Christ.
I like this paragraph: “Jesus life was so set apart, so different, because of the fact that his default MO was the other. Every breath, every behaviour, every emotion, was motivated by his desire to serve his Father….. Redemption comes to the self-centred world through self-sacrifice and living for the other”. Ah, so true, and so easy to not focus on. Everything Jesus did was for His Father and for us. Everything. To the point of suffering beyond the conception of any human being, for nothing that He was guilty of. This is SO different from our human impulse to deny responsibility (and resent suffering) for anything not “our fault”.- but even this, the suffering for others’ sins, is covered by the grace of the Atonement. And God is so patient with us in our own sufferings, though so much smaller than Christ’s, but so encompassing to us. Thanks for the reminder.