Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor and theologian who would eventually die at the hands of the Nazi regime, offered up one of the most sobering summaries of the Christian faith: “When Jesus bids a man to follow him, he bids him come and die.”
Jesus pointed out that to truly follow him, his disciples were to pick up a cross. We use crosses decoratively these days: we wear them as jewelry, put them on the walls in our houses, even have them tattooed on our bodies. But for those first disciples, the cross was anything but decorative. It was a symbol of torture. Wearing a cross as jewelry in the first century would have been as out of place as an African American wearing a decorative noose around his neck in the 19th century.
Bonhoeffer was right: the demands of Jesus are total. His call to follow isn’t an offer of a different way of life, but a call to give it all, even life itself. What kind of motive would make anyone follow a call like that? Mark 8:35–38 gives us three motivations:
1. God brings life through obedience.
Obedience to Jesus sometimes feels like death. But that feeling isn’t the end of the story. As Jesus put it, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). Obedience to God may feel like death, but the result is actually life.
The forgiveness you extend will come at a cost to you; it will feel like a death. But that “death” will restore a relationship and release you from the poison of bitterness.
The sinful relationship you walk away from will feel like a death. But that “death” will open up the possibility for a healthy, life-giving relationship for you and for that other person.
The financial sacrifice you make will force you to die to some of your comforts and your ambitions. But that “death” will yield life—not only through the ministries you support, but in your own heart as well.
Obedience to God is never easy. On many days, it will feel like the cost of the sacrifice is too great, that the only outcome is a kind of death. But if we could only see clearly, we’d realize that this is actually God’s instrument of life.
2. You can’t hold on to it anyway.
There’s a subtle logic behind Jesus’ words here: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:36–37). Whatever you’re holding onto now that keeps you from full surrender to Jesus—in the end, you simply can’t keep it.
Think about it: what would you hang onto now that would be worth your soul then? I know so many college students who won’t consider the lordship of Jesus because they want to keep their sexual freedom. Jesus is asking, “Is that really worth the trade?” Do you really think a few sexual escapades now are worth more than your eternal soul?
Or I think of the thousands upon thousands of people in our churches who simply won’t give Jesus control of their career or their finances. Sure, you can hang on to your money for a while in this life. But then what? When you die and the undertakers dress you up for your funeral, your death suit won’t have pockets—because you aren’t taking a dime of your life’s savings with you.
Whatever you’re holding onto now, you’re going to lose it eventually. So if you and I are both going to end up with empty pockets, why trade our soul away for those things now? As the missionary Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
3. Jesus was not ashamed of you.
“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). I’ve always read that verse as a warning for us to never deny Jesus. And that’s partially true. But we also need to read it in the context of Jesus’ life.
The irony of this verse is that Jesus, who should have been ashamed of us, wasn’t. The cross he picked up for us was voluntary. We have a lot to gain from picking up our crosses; he had nothing to gain, and everything to lose.
And yet. And yet, out of love for me, he identified with me and picked up a cross to save me. Jesus Christ is the only God who shows his greatness in this—by stooping down from heaven to take on hell. As the only perfect man in history, Jesus was the only one who had the right to avoid death. And yet, out of love for me, he endured death so that I might live. Is that not a God worth leaving everything for?
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
