HoHum:
To be, or not to be; that is the question- whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them? Few lines of Shakespeare are better known that these. If I had understood Shakespeare, I’d have been better prepared later when studying the works of the French existentialist Albert Camus. After staring hard at what he considered the absurdities of human existence, he concluded that there is only one really serious problem a human being must solve. He must decide whether life is or is not worth living. Should I or should I not commit suicide? “To be or not to be; that is the question.” In popular media suicide has been so glorified that it is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 14 year olds. How sad!
WBTU:
Jesus raises similar issues in John 12, although from a different point of view. Suicide is not the question, but the meaning of life and its relation to death is. He turns a request for a visit from some Greeks into a probe of the reasons for His imminent death. He doesn’t have time for a cordial visit right now, because He is too busy getting ready to die. Jesus does not speak of death as a defeat but as a supreme honor. “Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” John 12:23, NIV. With a reversal of human expectations, Jesus transforms apparent failure into a triumph. Jesus claims that His upcoming crucifixion is victory. In these verses, the Lord provides the divine rationale for his death. Jesus said earlier in John 10:10 that “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (more abundantly).”
Thesis: To succeed, to live, to love, and to serve we must...
For instances:
To succeed we must lose
We can hardly think of execution on a cross, a fate for criminals, as a way for the Lord to be “glorified.” “Glory” conjures up visions of a royal coronation or of soldiers coming home to a ticker tape parade down main street after a victorious campaign. In the minds of the Jews, “Glory” should have referred to the overthrowing of the hated Roman overlords by someone like Jesus. Until Jesus’ day, no one became a success by the way of the cross. Yet crucifixion is exactly what Jesus is talking about. He must die in order to succeed. What is more important this is the natural sequence of God’s economy? In what really matters, to succeed we must lose.
For this to make any sense we must decide what we mean by success. Gary Bettenhausen will help us to decide it. Some years ago, in an Indianapolis 500 race, veteran driver Al Unser lost control of his race car, which then skidded into the track wall and exploded into flames. Seconds later, another driver slammed his vehicle to a stop and rushed to pull Unser out of danger. That driver, Gary Bettenhausen, had been giving everything he had for months so that he would be ready to compete in the 500, but in a split second, he chose to let his chances die to save Unser. He failed as a driver. He succeeded as a man and friend.
Read a book by Pat Conroy entitled My Losing Season. In that book Conroy recounts the season in 1967 when he played point guard for the Citadel college basketball team. In his book Conroy contrasts the lessons from winning from those learned from losing. “Winning,” he writes, “makes you think you will always get the girl, land the job, deposit the million dollar check, win the promotion, and you grow accustomed to a life of answered prayers.” “Losing,” he writes, “is a fiercer, more uncompromising teacher, cold-hearted, but clear-eyed in its understanding that life is more dilemma than game, and more trial than free pass.” Conroy also says, “Though I learned some things from the games we won that year, I learned much, much more from loss.” Jesus says something similar in John 12:25, get to in a minute, but look at a parallel verse in Mark 8:35- “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:35. Lose our lives in something beyond ourselves.
We love to be around winners. They exude a vitality and optimism that is contagious. They seem to have excess energy; being in their company is like a battery recharge. There is something we need to learn from them though. All the winners have lost at one time or another in their past. And, if necessary, they are prepared to lose again. Success is not so dear to them that they will sacrifice everything for it. They are ready to lay down their achievements, if they have to, for the sake of what is even more important to them. They’ll lose a race to save a friend.
Many are so afraid to lose that they lose out on real life. Timid souls who tiptoe through their days on earth exist by the millions but who can call that living? Far better to give the soul wings, to feel the thrill of challenge, and to run the risk of defeat.
Henry David Thoreau said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Jim Conway, in a work of fiction, talks about a dentist. The dentist feels trapped in his profession, and he deeply resents the 18 year old kid he once was for making the decision to become a dentist. Conway writes, “He goes to the office every day, curses his fate, and slowly dies.” Then I am reminded of a dental hygienist who went to India and worked on people’s teeth for the cause of Christ. She lives in America but is often going back to do what she can in India. She is living life to full
To live, we must die
“I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24, NIV. Jesus doesn’t blink at the fact that He must give up His life. Jesus is not just speaking about himself here. What is true of Him is true of all humanity. For us to live, to live as God means us to live, we must die. Die to self
Dr. Albert Schweitzer was a famous musician, writer and teacher. He gave up all of this to become a medical doctor. When on October 13,1906, he sent letters to his parents and closest acquaintances announcing that he would enter Strasbourg University as a medical student to prepare for his missionary career, they were appalled. What a waste many of them said. Yet Schweitzer persevered. His correspondence shows that he was not blind to the possible consequences. There was every possibility that the diseases he was going to treat in Africa could attack and kill him. Then his long years in medical school would have been in vain. But he was ready to die. God rewarded him with a life that has been celebrated all over the world.
Schweitzer must have identified with Jesus’ words: ““Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”” John 12:27, 28, NIV. Again, Jesus refers to His death as a means of brining glory. This time it is to God’s honor. Vs. 31 explains Jesus words. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” John 12:31, NIV. God has chosen Jesus’ death (and apparent failure) to defeat His chief enemy. When Jesus dies on the cross, Satan appears to win. But appearance is not reality. God raises Jesus from the dead to prove that to die in the will of God is to live.
To love, we must hate
Many of these verses in John 12 are different ways of saying the same thing: To succeed, we must lose; to live, we must die; to love, we must hate. Each one forces a choice; it presses for a decision. Each requires a willingness to deny oneself to find oneself. “The man who loves his life (puts himself first) will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world (puts his interests last) will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25, NIV. This is a hard saying, but only because we misunderstand His meaning. “Hate” does not connote self contempt or self loathing; it is anything but suicidal. Jesus means that we need something or someone outside ourselves that means so much to us we forget all about ourselves, becoming indifferent to questions of personal comfort or security in our concern for another.
Jesus is the supreme example. He cares so much about completing His mission on earth that he lets himself be killed. That total commitment to God’s will literally costs Him His life. It also saves it, as the resurrection proves. There are many examples from history of persons who have proved Jesus true. One of my favorites is William Wilberforce, a British Parliamentarian of the 18th century. As a youngster, Wilberforce was an indifferent student, wasting his way through grade school, then college. Upon the completion of his formal studies, he plunged into London’s social whirl and entertained himself for 3 years in ways that he later regretted. To his peers, he seemed quite the successful young man about town. In 1784, he went to Nice, France, with Isaac Milner, an old friend who cared enough about him to ask what he was going to do with his life. Milner hated seeing a person of such potential wasting it the way he thought Wilberforce was. He admired the talents God had given his friend and wanted him to use them. When they returned to England, through the influence of John Newton, Wilberforce handed himself over to God, for whatever purposes God could use him. Within 3 years, Wilberforce knew what God wanted of him. He would bring an end to England’s slave trade. It was an enormously expensive decision. He was single-handedly taking on England’s most powerful businessmen and politicians. The leaders of the British empire sincerely believed it would not survive without slave labor. The animosity Wilberforce received took him to the brink of death. No one was more devoutly hated. He could very well die in his struggle to free the slaves. Then die he must. God had called him. It took 46 years, but God gave Wilberforce the victory when the British Parliament declared every slave in the Empire free. It happened because one man was ready to die. Because he was indifferent to his own fate. Because he loved. And, like Jesus, he has found glory.
To serve, we must follow
“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” John 12:26
Jesus died to himself (only the cross of Jesus can give forgiveness of sin), was buried and rose again. We also need die to ourselves, bury the old person, and rise to newness of life.
