Thursday, March 26, 2015

Follow Me


Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
                                                                                                                  – John 12:23-26

            Those of us from middle to upper-class backgrounds, like myself, are sometimes guilty of attempting to construct stable, secure, self-sufficient lives for ourselves so that we can live independent of those around us. Moreover, we tend to look down upon the folks around us that are unable to find stability and security.

            Jesus, by calling us to follow him, calls all of this into question. It’s as if he says, “That life you’ve built for yourself that you love—yeah, the “self-sufficient” life you take pride in—well, if you want life with me, I’m going to need you to give all that up.” Jesus calls us out of the stability we pretend to have, into life in and with him, a life where we are, together, in complete dependence on God. In which case, those we can sometimes look down upon might have something to teach us about trusting God.

            Jesus exposes our security and self-sufficiency for what they are—a lie. However, in so doing, we witness the good news. The good news is that Jesus calls us renounce our former ways of life so that we can live life as it was intended to lived—in union with God and the rest of creation.
 
~ Chris Agoranos

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