Why losing is always better, according to this message from Jesus
By Dean Collins
No one likes to lose. If you look at what we read, watch, and do daily you can tell that getting the W is often the main objective. Conversely, if your team gets the L, there is disappointment at a minimum and for some, shame and depression. Winning has become an obsession. Parents want their children to be on winning teams. We all want a winning portfolio for our investments. Marketers want a winning slogan that produces a product that wins shelf space along with the hearts and wallets of shoppers. Politicians work to secure the winning vote to be elected or to remain in office.
Winning wasn’t his goal
When we read the Gospels we are confronted with the words of Jesus that cut against our drive to win. Daily Jesus and the disciples dealt with larger and larger crowds. The sitting Jewish political and religious leaders were increasingly concerned about the crowds Jesus was attracting. Power was in the balance, and there was concern by some of losing influence, status, and control. First-century culture may not have had our current level of obsession when it came to winning, but those who controlled political and social and even religious authority took note. Maintaining control was equal to winning.
We know of the many times Jesus escaped from the crowd to be alone with his Father, but on this day Jesus faced the crowds, even beckoning them to come and hear him. When the crowd settled in to listen or to watch for a miracle or another free meal, Jesus delivered a short and powerful lesson. He opened with this: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is not a winning marketing message. It is not the catchy phrase or jingle we are used to hearing. It’s the kind of message that might make a person look for the hole in the crowd so they could slip away. Self-denial and self-crucifixion have little appeal.
Winning by losing
Jesus continued: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” We are conditioned to think about saving. We save for retirement and for a rainy day. We save our energy for the things we value and want or need to do. Yet Jesus suggests that saving results in losing, and no one wants to lose. But our curiosity grows with the balance of Jesus’ words. If we want to save our life and secure our ultimate future, then we must surrender to the good news and make it central to our existence.
The crowd may have thinned a little as Jesus continued, but we sense that some were riveted by his teaching. It might be worth our giving these words a second look. We must consider the question Jesus posed: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” We like profit. It feels like a win. You don’t lose your investment when there is profit. But Jesus makes us ponder the value of the profit. What happens if you have a world’s worth of profit but the result is you lose your very essence? Is popularity, status, or a large portfolio worth losing what makes us human?
A costly decision
Many in current culture think following Jesus results in a rigid and oppressive way of life. Some will likely think us irrelevant if we insist on choosing the way of Jesus over the way of the world. But Jesus said the cost of choosing the world is ultimate rejection when he returns in his final act of worldwide transformation. It is a costly decision to choose the world over choosing Jesus.
In this short and direct message, Jesus calls us to make a daily decision. What we did yesterday is old news. But the decision we make today could not only give us our life back; it might just be the decision that gives someone else access to the greatest treasure ever known. Our decision to focus on Jesus and his kingdom will give us meaning and purpose and result in the seed of the gospel being planted in the minds and hearts of another generation to bring glory to God. Losing our life in the move and grace of God will bring life to more than we can ever imagine.
Your time with God’s Word
Mark 8:34-38 ESV
Photo by Joshua Golde at Unsplash
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