What would you die for? It is a simple question, but if taken seriously, it’s a whopper. Some of us might have a quick response based on training or belief, but if faced with the reality, we might have second thoughts.
If you saw the movie “Avatar”, you heard that “all energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back”. In the “The Lion King”, life is a circle that eventually unwinds. Death is nothing more than the end of the story of life. Death is not something to mourn, but something to accept, even to celebrate.
Hollywood isn’t alone in bringing us philosophical consolations for our mortality. Nearly every recorded human philosophical tradition has something poetically noble to say about the acceptance of death, and yet, when the inflight turbulence gets more than just a little bumpy, or the test result says “cancer,” all of this noble philosophy tends to fly out the window, and we cling to life with all we’ve got. If death really is just a natural part of life, you would think that millions of years of human evolution would have been enough time for us to get adjusted to the fact, but thus far, we remain horrified by death.
Why is that? Here’s something that we don’t often consider. The reason for our fear of death is not that we are in denial, or that we just have a bit more philosophizing to do; instead, it is that death is not natural. Death is not an integral part of life, it is not the beautiful close of the story: we fly from death, we rage against it, because death was never meant to be.
In the Creation story, Adam and Eve fall, through turning away from God. The problem for them is that God is the source of light, truth, beauty, justice, life, and all that is good. In turning away from God, we don’t turn toward something else but to… nothingness, emptiness, non-existence, to death.
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they turned away from being and toward non-being, and thereby ushered death into the world. Part of the price for their sin was death and is death. Death is not part of God’s creation, but its opposite: Death is, as Paul says in First Corinthians, the final enemy of God to be conquered by Christ.
This is why in today’s Gospel, when Jesus says that He must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, Peter exclaims, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to You.”
How can the Son of God, the way, the truth, the life Himself, be defeated by death? Peter sees death as the ultimate end for all of us, as the tragic unwinding of the circle of life, and he believes that Jesus is saying that He, too, will eventually be defeated by it.
But Jesus says, “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Peter imagines that death will be the end of Christ, because he does not realize that, in the Resurrection, Christ will be the end of death.
When we approach life from a human perspective, we have only two choices; on the one hand is seize the day, you only live once. Amass all the goods, all the experiences, all the happiness here and now, for that’s all that you’re going to get. On the other extreme is the Puritan ideal, remain unsullied by the joys of this life, and in the world to come you will receive infinite rewards and pleasures, usually pictured as those things not enjoyed during one’s worldly existence. Take your happiness now or defer your happiness later; in either case, it’s all about me, me, me.
But there is another perspective, the Divine perspective. Jesus Himself tells His disciples, and us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” But what does that mean?
To take the Divine perspective is neither to eke every last drop of happiness from the world nor to retreat in horror from the good things of this life so that you can have them after you’re dead. Instead, it is to entirely give up on living for yourself.
To live for ourselves is to imagine that we can buy joy for ourselves. We imagine that a perfect car, a perfect house, or a perfect vacation will transmute normal life into total perfection. To live for ourselves is to imagine that we would be perfectly content if only the right partner were to come along. To live for ourselves is to imagine that we can earn joy by working hard enough, becoming successful enough, popular enough, famous enough, but all of these are just illusions and dead ends. These are the temptations that life keeps dangling before us, which never provide true fulfillment, and the one who loves them, who loves her or his life, loses it in chasing after wind.
On the other hand, the one who takes up the cross of self-denial, who refuses to believe that revenge brings about closure, who rejects the idea that the one who dies with the most toys wins, the one who gives up on her or his life altogether… actually finds true life.
The opposite of loving your life is not hating it, the opposite of loving your life, is loving others. But we have so many definitions of love, how do we know if we are really taking up our crosses? Paul helpfully gives us a diagnostic test in today’s reading from Romans.
Paul asks, “How well do you honor others? Do you treat all with respect and kindness? In-person? In what you say about them behind their backs? In your thoughts? What about those people who really get on your nerves? Do you really honor them as living icons of God?
“How are you persevering in prayer? Do you make time each day to know and feel the love of God? To rejoice in God’s presence? Or do you have more important things to do?
“How much of your wealth do you use in the service of others? Your family, your friends, strangers, people on the other side of the globe? What percentage of your resources goes to serving them versus yourself?
“When someone mocks you, is rude to you, betrays you, or hurts you, how do you respond? An icy stare of condescension? A witty retort? Unmerciful vengeance? Do you fantasize about showing them that they’ve messed with the wrong person? Or do you bless them, feed them, love them as beloved children of our Heavenly Father?”
Do you give away your life, or are you falling down on the job of being a Christian? Failing to carry your cross? Clinging to life rather than freely giving it in the service of Christ? If so the answer to these questions is “yes”… welcome to the club.
But all is not lost, for in spite of all appearances to the contrary, Jesus’ way is actually easy, and his burden is light. Once we begin to lay down our lives, once we begin to turn our backs on all the illusions of greed, lust, anger, and selfishness, then we will genuinely begin to find rest for our souls.
Jesus said, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is calling us to take up our cross and follow Him.
What would you die for? Will you be His disciple?
Let us pray:
Give us only Your love and Your grace O Lord; and grant that with these we will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Lord Jesus, use us to carry on Your work as Your servants and disciples. Help us to take up our cross, to love with Your heart, to carry out our work with Your hands. Help us to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good, and may we be a voice for all, in all that we say and do in Your Name. All this we ask for Your love and mercy’s sake. Amen.