Richard Bandler tells about visiting a psychiatric hospital and dealing with a man who believed that he was Jesus Christ. He did not believe it in a spiritual sense, but literally. Bandler walked in to the room to meet this man, and said: “Are you Jesus?” “Yes, my son,” came the reply. Bandler said, “Wait here. I’ll be back in just a minute.” The man was a little confused by his sudden departure, but Bandler returned in a few minutes with a measuring tape. He asked the man to hold out his arms, and as he did so Bandler measured the width of his outstretched arms and his height from head to toe. As soon as he was done measuring, he suddenly left again. The man claiming to be Jesus didn’t know what to think. But it was not long until Bandler came back. He was carrying a hammer, some large spiked nails, and two long boards. He began pounding the nails into the boards to form a cross — exactly the right size for the man who was claiming to be Jesus. “What are you doing?” the man asked, as his voice began to rise. As Bandler was putting the last nail in the cross, he asked, “Are you Jesus?” Once again the man replied, “Yes, my son.” Bandler said, “Then you know why I’m here.” Somehow, the man suddenly remembered who he really was. He began yelling: “I’m not Jesus! I’m not Jesus!” He was not nearly so interested in being Jesus at that point.
A lot of people would like to think they could be Jesus. They are amazed at his ability to heal. They are awestruck at his wisdom. They are attracted by his power. They think they would be like him, until they understand what he did and the sacrifices he made. They would like to live his life, but they would not like to die his death. But there is a very real sense in which he is asking all of us to exactly that.
I want to begin today by saying: Jesus invites us to share in his death. Jesus is asking all of us to join him in his death. It is not a literal death on a cross, or any other kind of physical death necessarily, but in a sense it is just as drastic and painful. We see this as he described his death and said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel 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). Farmers know that a seed that does not die is no good at all. If it just lays on the ground and never germinates, it remains a seed and never becomes the plant it was intended to be. When the right kind of seed lies in the ground and comes into contact with moisture, it looks like it is rotting, but as it dies a green shoot of life begins to protrude from it. It is being transformed. Death has transformed it. It dies to what it was, to become something else — something greater than its former self. Because of the death of that one seed, a plant will live which will produce a great deal of fruit, as well as many more seeds.
Like the seed, Jesus knew that his death would lead to life for many. It would also lead to life for himself. Think of what would have happened if Jesus had clung to his life and not been willing to die. There would have been no resurrection for him, or us. There would be no salvation from our sins. There would be no Savior to whom we could go for forgiveness. Jesus would have still been roaming the earth, instead of sitting at the right hand of the Father in glory interceding for us. If he were still here he would have continued to heal and teach, but we would still be in our sin. There would be no grace, only law.
Jesus knew that his death was necessary in order to bring eternal life to those who believed in him. Only by dying could they live. Jesus quickly followed by saying, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be” (John 12:25-26). If we are to follow Christ we must join him in a death like his.
What kind of death are we talking about? It is a death to self. It is dying to the life we want to live in order to live the life he wants us to live. If we hold on to our lives, our plans, our sin, then we will die spiritually. If we lay down our lives then we discover a life that we never knew was possible. I must die to what I was, to become something else — something greater than my former self. I must die to those plans that are not a part of his plan for me. I must die to the desire to control my life. I must die to pride, to demanding my own way, to stubbornness, to selfishness and to sin, if I am ever to come alive to God. But what I discover is that when I die to those things, I come alive for the first time. We say with the apostle Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). I only thought I was living before. There was no real contentment or fulfillment. I was just existing. In order to live I must die to anything that I am depending on for meaning, purpose and happiness other than God. There is no other way. But if I lose my life, I will find it. If I hold on to it, I will lose it. There are many people here today who could tell you that they have found life only by dying to their old life. They could also tell you that it was more than worth it.
That leads me to the second thing I want to say on this Easter Sunday: Jesus invites us to share his life. Buddhism also teaches that there must be a death to self, but the death they speak of ends in nothingness. They call it Nirvana — a state where there is no suffering, but only because there is no desire or sense of self. There is nothing. The death Jesus invites us to die results in life. The Bible says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
Some of you are familiar with the first law of Thermodynamics. It says that mass or energy is never destroyed — it merely changes form. For example, if a piece of wood is burned, its basic elements are not destroyed. Heat releases the gases in the wood and they are turned into energy. Carbon, in the form of ash, is left — but the energy and mass of the wood are not gone, they have merely changed form. When water evaporates, it is not gone, it merely changes form until it returns to the earth one day. When we die to ourselves, we do not cease to exist or go into the great Nothingness. We are changed. Transformed. Jesus said, “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).
The Bible puts it this way: “Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life — even though invisible to spectators — is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too — the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete” (Colossians 3:3-10, The Message).
The third invitation Jesus gives is this: Jesus invites us to share his resurrection. The death that Jesus died led to his resurrection. The death he asks us to die — this death to sin and self — also leads to resurrection. We have gone from death to life. It is not a negative; it is a positive. It does not end in darkness; it ushers us into the light. We have lost nothing; we have gained everything. Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred in Equador, wrote in his journal: “A man is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The apostle Paul gave up everything to follow Christ. He lost his career, and most of his friends. But looking back, he said, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).
Paul explained it to the Romans like this: “I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing — not caring about others, not caring about God — the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom?” (Romans 6:19, The Message).
Jesus is not the spoiler of good times. He did not come to give us boredom, he came to give us life. He is the creator of joy. We cannot achieve the Christian life by our own efforts at being good. That will never do and can never work. This is not something we can accomplish, it is a life that has to come from God. It is a God thing. It happens as his Holy Spirit enters our lives and begins his transforming work.
Its sounds wonderful, but it is also frightening. “What is God going to do to me?” we wonder. “Will I lose control? Will I be strange or turn into a fanatic? Will I know how to act if I die to my old self? Will I survive this?”
Max Lucado, in his book Six Hours One Friday, tells the story of a missionary in Brazil who discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote part of the jungle near a large river. The tribe needed medical attention. A contagious disease was ravaging the population and they were desperately in need of medication. Many of them needed to be hospitalized. People were dying every day. There was a hospital not very far away, but in order to get there you had to cross the river. The people of the tribe would not cross it, because they believed that evil spirits lived in the river. They were certain that to enter the water would mean certain death — or worse. The missionary explained that he had crossed the river and nothing evil happened to him, but they were not convinced. The missionary took them to the bank and placed his hand in the water. Still they wouldn’t go in. He decided to walk into the water up to his waist; he even splashed water on his face. It made no difference. They were still afraid to enter the river. Finally, he dove into the river, swam beneath the surface until he emerged on the other side. Once there, he smiled and raised a triumphant hand into the air. He had entered the river and lived. It was then that the people of the tribe broke into a cheer and followed him across.
What will it take for you to dive in? The only thing you will lose is your sickness, and the only thing you will gain is wholeness and life. The good news is that someone has gone before you to the other side. He has lifted his hands in victory. He assures you that you will not only survive, you will have life better than you have ever known it before. He has said, “Because I live you also shall live” (John 14:19).
Jesus did not come to give us a new set of facts. He did not come to give us new rules. What he offers is not just a new way to do things, it is a whole new existence. You have lived without living for long enough. You have merely existed without ever tasting life. Why would you pass this up? Why would you miss the life that God wants to give you, to keep the life that is causing you so many problems and is so ultimately unsatisfying? The risen Christ is here today to offer you life in all its fullness.
Rodney J. Buchanan
Easter
April 20, 2003
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Crucifixion and Resurrection
Questions for Easter, April 20, 2003
1. In what ways was Jesus our model in dying to self and living a selfless life?
2. What would the world be like today if Jesus had decided to do the easy thing and avoid the cross?
3. Read John 12:24. How does this principle apply to our spiritual lives?
4. When we talk about “dying to self,” to what are we referring?
5. Not living for ourselves does not mean not living. What are the benefits to not living for ourselves?
6. What would your life would be like if you decided to live totally for yourself?
7. What would your life would be like if you decided to live totally for God and others?
8. Read 1 Peter 2:9. Why do some people choose to live in darkness? Why is it so hard to die to ourselves?
9. Read Colossians 3:3-10. Paul describes our old life and the transformation that takes place in our new life. What are the points he emphasizes?
10. Read John 11:25-26. What is the offer Jesus makes here?
