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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection vii
True Life and the Way of the Cross ...
Thursday, March 12, 2015. What does faith mean? Is it some ideal which we accept, on top of our usual life? Is it some opinion we have? Is it some private thing, which does not touch the rest of our life? All that would be far from the New Testament understanding of faith!
True life …
Faith is about true life. Faith is about living in a way as creation was meant in the first place. Faith is about living in community with the creator, with the father, with the eternal living God. All this is deep. It is touching the very heart of our life. It is a revolution when we compare it to the usual way we live.
Often, we are caught in our daily business. Do understand me right: it is ok to do our daily busines with care and engagement. Usually, God wants people to continue to work in their jobs, to care for their families, to be a loving mother or father, a good friend, a reliable worker etc etc. But all this needs to be done in faith. It needs to be done in freedom. It needs to be part of another, deeper and more important thing!
If our daily business, even the relationships we have, define our existence, then they are very wrong! If our profession, or our possessions, or our relationships to other humans such as our family define us, we are following false Gods! In the following text, Jesus calls us to clarify the role which all the parts of our life have when it comes to true life, to faith, to discipleship. Let us have a look at a very challenging text, which can lead us right into the heart of faith.
The way of the cross …
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14, 25-33)
When Jesus says, we should hate our own mother and father and wife and children - what does he mean? Does he, who talks about love a lot, who calls us to love our neighbor and our enemy, contradict himself strongly? What does he tell us by this very straight and strong words? He calls us to the way of the cross. When he died at the cross, he put priority to his mission, priority in contrast to the need for care and teaching and support and company which his disciples and friends needed. He put priority to God over his own life, over his own health. This is what he calls “hate” here. And it is hate. These type of priorities put things or even people into the second or third row when it comes to eternal life.
We need to keep in mind what the death of Jesus meant for his disciples. Through it, he loved them strongly. His body was replaced by the resurrection body, it was transformed, changed, renewed. Love wins. When Jesus talks about hate, he talks about priorities, he talks about the right fundament for life, which is the eternal God. God is love, truth, wisdom and strength. And he will not forget anyone! There is blessing over blessing for all when someone follows the way of the cross … (RWEP) ... more texts