Death and Life?
Luke 9:51-52
What would you do if you only had one month to live? Would any of your priorities change? These are the questions that pastor Kerry and Chris Shook ask in their book, One Month to Live: 30 Days to a No-Regrets Life. The catalyst for the book was encountering people who were dying and noticing that their attitudes and priorities often changed when they knew the end was near. “They would do the things they always wanted to do, and say things they had always wanted to say. They’d ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness more freely. They took more risks. It seemed like they had this whole new clarity on their priorities. Kerry and Chris began to ask, ‘Why wait? Why can’t we live this way all the time?’” What they found was that really uncluttered their overcrowded schedule and helped them clarify things that are important. And then he says, “We’ve found that there are so many people that are glad to tell you what’s important and what needs to be done. If you don’t decide what’s important from the Lord, everyone else will tell you.”
In our Scripture passage today, Jesus realizes he has just a few months to live. Luke 9 to the end of the gospel covers the last 3 months of his life and ministry. And so Jesus begins the journey toward Jerusalem and the cross and it impacts how he spends his days and ministry. It changed his priorities. Jesus begins to prepare the disciples for His eventual death by speaking to his disciples about his eventual death.
Death, it’s not something we think about very often but it’s something that we spend the majority of our lives trying to deny and to postpone. But the reality is it’s always looming over us. When my son Luke was born, one of the things we decorated his room with was a bedtime prayer. Say it with me if you know it: "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." What a prayer, huh? Praying about death over a newborn and yet it names a fact of life: Life is limited. The Bible often talks about the importance of being aware of our own mortality. The Lenten season reminds us to keep a right perspective about our own death. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday as we mark ourselves with ashes reminding us that God created us out of the dust of the earth, and it is to the dust we will return.
We must be aware of our own mortality. That’s what Lent is about…to remind us we’re all dying. "From dust you come and dust you will return." When we’re aware of our own mortality, we’re more focused on committing our limited days to the right priority, no not priorities, priority. Singular. The name of this series is Crux which is Latin for the word, cross. When we talk about the crux of the matter, we’re getting down to the one thing that matters in life. The Crux or the cross is the one thing that matters in life. It is the call of Jesus to follow Him. In ancient Rome, when generals led their armies to war, one servant repeated a phrase behind the general leading his troops into battle. "Memento Mori, Memento Mori, Memento Mori” Remember you’re going to die! In other words, don’t hold back. Put it all out there. Lay it all on the line because you can’t save it. When we remember we’re going to die, then we can risk living and giving our lives for a great God purpose. The problem is that even though we know we’re going to die, we put off the thought because we think we have more time. Thus, we need to be reminded of the next lesson.
We have limited time. Scripture continually reminds us about the limitations of our days. Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Each of us has a limited number of days so don’t take today for granted. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. So that leads us to the main question of life: “Why am I here?” Life is not about what you want to get or what you want to do; we need to be asking, “Why am I here?” When you can answer that question, it changes everything. When Jesus realized the cross was his fate and it was the reason he came, he “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” That was a common Jewish expression which meant, "He resolutely set his face." Look at Isaiah 50:7-8 to gain a better understanding, "Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint." In other words, he had made a commitment set in stone. So when Jesus realized the cross was his fate, he made a commitment set in stone. It could not be changed. He burnt the bridges behind him so there is no turning back. When Jesus realized it was his time to be taken up to heaven, what did he do? He resolutely set his face like flint toward God’s big, single-minded purpose. Why? Because his desire was to fulfill the Father’s will.
Death provides clarity and focus. In 2005, less than six years before he died, Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford. He said some powerful things about remembering your death being a great tool for your life toolbox. He said, "Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything…all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
Jesus teaches us the way of the cross is the best way to live life. The best way to find life is to give it away. “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 It would have been easy for Jesus not to set his face toward Jerusalem. That was a scary prospect for him. The night before his death, Jesus kept praying, "Father, if it’s possible, deliver me from this, but not my will, your will be done." Jesus could have backed out of the whole deal and lived another 30 or 40 years, but he’d have missed out on his life as God intended it.
Death changes your outlook. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by one of the most successful and wealthiest individuals of his time. He knew what it was to collect a bunch of stuff in life. But when he gets to the end of his life, he comes to another conclusion: everything is meaningless, "What does anyone gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?" Here he speaks about the meaninglessness of material things on earth. When you give all of your life to collecting things and experiences, it’s like chasing the wind. And then in the last verse of Ecclesiastes, he says what is important: "Fear God. Keep his commandments. For this is the duty of every human being." Ecclesiastes 12:13–14
Lent is about considering what it means to really follow Jesus. That means being a radical disciples of Jesus. The institutional church has minimized what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus wants everything of you, much of the church today will take anything and say that’s enough. They say all you have to do is come to worship, say a prayer, sing a few songs and then go on about your life and you’ll miss hell. But eternal life doesn’t come from these things. It comes from faith in Jesus Christ and accepting His call to give every bit of your life to Him. Eternal life means a radical commitment to be a disciple. It is total life surrender. Jesus said, "If anyone wants to be my disciple, (Not church attendee, not believer) they must deny themselves." Oh that is so hard because so much of our world centers on self-interest and selfishness, right? The Gospel of Mark adds, Deny yourselves “daily and follow me." You can never follow Jesus without the daily denial of self and dying to self. It’s a continual practice of saying no to self.
We are to do the will of God. When Jesus is talking to his disciples about his death, it makes them uncomfortable. They say stuff like, "Jesus, no, you’re our leader. How would this movement continue? You’re the Messiah. A Messiah can’t die humiliated on the cross? Here’s how Jesus responds, "Guys, you don’t get it. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me." John 4:34 Don’t you love that? My food…my sustenance, my purpose is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work. Jim Elliot died in the late 1950s at the end of an Auca Indian spear in Ecuador. Jim and four of his college buddies from Wheaton College in Illinois went there to win the Aucatribe to Jesus. All ended up being murdered. The most amazing thing was that their wives and young children stayed in Ecuador, went to the tribe and eventually won the very men who murdered their husbands and their fathers to Christ. As a matter of fact, when Jim Elliot’s son grew up, he baptized the man who killed his dad. In Jim Elliot’s journal, they found he had written this, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." I can’t keep my life…right? What did the servant say to the general leading his troops to war? Remember you’re going to die. Remember you’re going to die, so put it all out there. Lay it down! When Jesus remembered his mortality, he resolutely set his face, made a commitment, set in cement, burned bridges behind him and left no room for retreat.
"And he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him." The word, "messengers" in the Greek means, "angels." When the scripture talks about angels, it is always referring to messengers from heaven. In this case, Mark is not talking about celestial beings. Who’s he talking about? The disciples. What is the work that he has sent you and me to do? Our food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work. We are the messengers of God’s gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God in the world. When Jesus left this planet, he gave this mission to us. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matt. 28:19-20 We are God’s messengers to take the Good News of Jesus Christ and the power of Holy Spirit into the world. You’re the messengers.
If you were going to die, what would you do differently? What would you give up and what would you commit to do with all that you have and everything that you are? You are going to die, so what’s the remainder of your life going to be committed to ad consumed by? When we realize our mortality, only then can we resolutely set our face toward God’s big purpose.
