For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”
Mark 8:34-37
Mark 8:34-37
The assigned scripture reading for this Sunday service re-awoke a reflection on the age old question of “how then shall we live?” What does it mean to “live life” fully? It’s a question that can be approached in many different ways, but there is no single answer that seems to satisfy. Jesus’ saying touches on the idea of not trying to “gain” life by your own means, and seems to suggest we should “lose” life. That somehow by losing life we will find life. Is this about suicide, becoming a self-made martyr (like a suicide bomber) or having a death-wish that seeks death through trill-seeking and reckless living? What a strange thing to say.
Some of the most fanatical adherents of religion take Jesus’ saying of “taking up their cross” as a call to martyrdom though self sacrifice, and throughout the ages there have been those who have actively sought out situations where they can “give their life” for their faith—and have succeeded. The history of the early Church is filled with the life and death of martyrs—many who become Saints by their final act of piety, their death. This support of martyrdom is also common in other religions, in our own life time, have seen how in Islam there is still a high value given to martyrs who by their death gain their way to paradise. Such values are not restricted to religion, culture also values such deaths. In World War II Japanese kamikaze pilots would fly their planes into ships as living bombs, and by their sacrifice would gain honor for themselves and their families. Fanatics did the same thing on 9/11 when they sacrificed their lives and killed thousands in the name of a cause. Jesus’ certainly didn’t mean this type of losing of one’s life.
Some people live life recklessly as if they had a death-wish. I know two types who find life on the edge: those who seek it through pleasure and those who seek it through trill—and many mix both. For those who seek it through pleasure, they are trying to fill life’s void. For many who seek meaning through pleasure, it’s a life of meaningless sexual encounters, one night stands, drunken parties where you try to forget and drown you sorrows in a chemical romance, and drugs that help you become who you wish you were. My step dad always said he liked himself best when he was high—and I’ve heard that from other potheads, they can do more, be more and are most talented when high. I know friends who say that the best sex comes when you have a bit of help with drugs like Ecstasy or Meth—drugs that make you “feel” every touch, and awakens the world of sense to a whole new world of reality. Unfortunately, you’ll get hooked, and normal sex will be dull. Your addiction can lead to your own death, ask my brother Joshua, oh, you can’t, he was murdered—and the world is full of walking-dead who just don’t know it due to the drugged stupor in which they live. I have a friend who was once a sex worker. He came to see the human body like a thing, sex was simply a biological function that had no spirit, no soul. For him sex had lost all meaning, was no longer the expression of love and commitment, it had lost human value. He cried out for love beyond sex—now he has to undo years of training his body in the wrong way and fears he has lost the ability to love completely. He struggles to have a long term relationship, and has no idea what is “normal.” I know many youth on that same path—sex is just a thing done with little thought of value or meaning…soon they will share my friend’s problems and when they try to “love” they will find they have trained themselves no to. They are sabotaging their ability to remain in a single committed relationship. Their illusion of pleasure will unfortunately fade only after it is done its damage to their very soul.
The second type I spoke of the thrill-seekers, who live life on the edge. Many of us want to be superman or wonder woman—well, actually I’d like to be Auqaman. To fill that trill of life we might try extreme sports and other daring-to-do. When I ask those who practice extreme sports and wild activities “why they do it?” They tell me it is a way to “feel alive.” They know they are alive when they “fear” and feel their heart beating and adrenaline rushing. It’s a “natural high.” For the most part this seems harmless enough. Unfortunately, there are too many stories of youth who have died every year by living-on-the-edge. There is also post-modern problem, too many of us are seeking life and meaning in adventure and see life as re-bootable as one of their video games where you can fall out of buildings, get shot, stabbed and even killed—just to restart at the last saved level of the game. Hollywood and video games have taught them that they are indestructible and the sad thing is for five to ten years life in this mode seems to work—then their knees give out, their stomachs are rotten, their backs fragile, their minds wasted…life is greatly diminished and soon they can barely walk let along bungee jump. But, that’s too far away for them to worry about, and since our culture is a youth culture, we rarely see the consequence of extreme living, it’s the dark side of a reality we are missing in our media. The youth of today have a mindset of always being youth and little awareness of how quick their youth will pass—this has been a common problem throughout time—but it is one that is greatly magnified in our present times.
So how then shall we live? For it seems many seek to live and only lose their life. They might even gain the whole world and not be living. I have some millionaire friends who can buy whatever they want, do whatever they want and think they can be whatever they want. They tell me that they are constantly approached by people trying to use them, who seek to be their friends because of their money—not because of the humanity. We know the old story of those who try to buy friendship, to buy happiness and who only end up with fair-weather friends who leave them as soon as there is trouble. Society is full of shallow friends and relationships. Society is full of material values that give immense worth to an object today, only to count it as trash tomorrow—you don’t have to look very far to see this reality, just look at that fashion you paid for at Macy’s which will be in the Salvation Army in a year or two. I had a millionaire friend who “lost it all” and with the loss of his million, he lost not only his business, but his friends… you can gain the whole world…only to lose it. Unfortunately, there are many who have “gained the whole world” and still don’t know that they have nothing. Their life is only an illusion and they walk about in a shadow of existence that they think is life.
So how then shall we live? Life came into being in relationship: a relationship between God and two human beings. We live by living for others, loving God and loving our neighbors has been what I have been taught and what I teach. Jesus’ saying however is more proactive. It’s about intentionally “following” him. Now it would seem that this is to the cross—and we return to the theme of martyrdom. For some that might be the case, in some countries it is the case, people still really do die for a cause. But that’s the exception. Most of us will not see that level of difficulty or be tested by the actual threat of death. Our test is much more subtle, its materialism, religiosity, self-righteousness, self-determination and selfishness, it’s the seeking of success at the cost of others, it’s the seeking of pleasure without relationship or meaning, it’s the seeking of the thrill without understanding the consequence. Unfortunately, we have been lulled to sleep to the threat, we are blind to the pitfalls created by our very culture which values those things that kill meaning and life. So we too become victim of a self-destructive lure. How can we turn this around? How then shall we live?
I know I am still trying to fully answer that question, but here are some guidelines that I reflect on and try to live by.
Life is a journey, a following after, a seeking. Seek to be defined by those who love you, and seek to love them with all your being. Seek to follow after becoming a better human being, not by laws, rules and regulations, but out of the revelation of love. Seek to build a better you by fully developing relationships and follow after heroes who lives exemplify all that you want to be. Live for a better life, not just a better moment: though we live fully engaged in life moment-to-moment it should be with a vision of tomorrow. Risk being devoted in what you would “die” for—in what your believe, in someone you love; share our faith not your rules; work to develop your relationships not just your passions*; promote the well being of all with gentle grace and charity; become the best you can become… and leave the rest on the cross.
*NOTE: lest you think I go too far and have become as unbalanced as some prude. I assure you that I believe in passion, the celebration of life, even the momentary fun and pleasures of life. However, I believe we should not be defined or controlled by them. Pleasures greatest danger is its tendency to become a primary motivator rather than the side benefit or fruit.
