Commitment and Loyalty to Christ Likened to a Trapeze Artist
John Ortberg (Faith & Doubt, p. 169-170) says the word trapeze describes the bar between the ropes of a trapeze artist in the circus. It’s a Greek word, meaning table. It’s used in the New Testament when Jesus gathers his friends around the table for what we now call the Communion table. There he tells them that he can’t continue to hang on to this life but must let go so they may receive eternal life. Then He climbed up on a cross and let go of life for that very purpose.
I never thought about it like that but I guess that is what Jesus asks us to do throughout our Christian life. Will we let go of our other loyalties and reach for Him? He comes to Abraham and asks if he will let go of everything familiar to him—home, family, culture, wealth—and go wherever God tells him to go. Would your allegiance to Christ do that?
From a sermon by Ed Sasnett, A Good Example of a Bad Example, 6/2/2010