To Lose Everything to Gain Everything

One of the foundational elements of the life of the Christian is to die to self, the seemingly paradoxical call to surrender one's life to save it, or from the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 16:25-26, ""If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

The teaching is a difficult one. When I was a young Christian in college, the image in my mind that helped capture this call was to picture ourselves as carrying a large box on a mountaintop which needed to be carried two hands - within the box contained all the idols and baggage of our "old life", which included our own agenda-driven perception of what life ought to be, including nice house, nice car, spouse, kids, lots of friends, well-paying job, etc. Most of these things in the box weren't bad, mind you, it's just that it represented my vision for my future based upon what I thought I was entitled to.

There was another large box to be had, and within it contained items which might be similar to the contents of the box currently held - or not. All that was certain was the the Giver of the box was perfect in love, wisdom and power. The Giver had a plan of purpose and joy which would be perfect for me in the context of redemptive history, but there were no promises around specific contents of the box.

The rub was this: If I wanted to take the box from the Giver, I needed to let go of the box I was currently carrying. The boxes were simply too big to carry simultaneously and too heavy to stack. I would need to either accept the box offered by the Giver and drop my own box down the side of the mountain or cling on to my own box at the expense of the one being offered to me. It was a mutually exclusive choice.

The choice is a hard one, and there is no sugar-coating the price. You can't accuse Jesus of deceptive sales practices here - it's not "You'll get to have you cake and eat it" or "There's no cost here worth mentioning"; your life as you know it is on the line. So you agonize and you consider the cost... is it worth it?

We get a reminder on Good Friday that the answer is yes. We see a reflection and a foreshadow of our invitation when we observe and remember Jesus Christ's journey to the cross where he endured the wrath of God, judgment and shame of our sins - the cost of everything. But on the third day, he rose again and sits in glory at the right hand of the Father having conquered death and having ransomed His people. The greatest comeback the world has ever known, and the greatest illustration that can be given around losing everything to gain everything.