25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
-John 12:25 (ESV)-
If ever there is to be found a “hard saying” in the Gospels, it is this: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Jesus was saying, you can keep to lose your life or you can lose to keep; the choice is ours. Jesus’ words may sound like exaggeration for the sake of effect, like hyperbole or extravagance. But their repetition in the Gospels is striking and their relevance to the realities of human experience, remarkable.
SELF-GIVING, literally “dying to oneself,” is the very essence of life that is saved, preserved, and prolonged. The Bible calls it eternal life. Self-indulgence, specifically self-centeredness, is the surest path to disappointment and even despair. In no way was and is Jesus telling people to put themselves down when he speaks of hating life. It makes a mockery of the Bible to use such teaching as a means of labeling men and women “wretches” and “worms” denigrating what God has created and called “good.” But the attachments that men and women make: these can be destructive and even dangerous to the soul.
Christ’s followers are those who make the choice of his way and truth as over against the world’s way. That includes relinquishing selfish desires and pursuing instead selfless aims. It means foregoing personal glory for the honor and glory of Christ.
It seems so hazardous to our personalities to think of renunciation and denial plus letting-go of cherished behavior patterns. Repeatedly, however, the spiritual masters tell us that release leads to freedom. Self-forgetting produces fulfillment.
So Christ assures us. And he ought to know! No one ever has made so much of life-a brief mortal life at that-as did Jesus Christ. Christ’s example is on the side of self-sacrifice, where a person ceases to be one of the world’s takers and become instead, a giver. He or she lives be bestowing, not by pushing and climbing and trying to gain everything for self. Sacrifice, it has been written, is the salvation of life as selfishness is its stultification. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” Keep to lose, lose to keep.
History tells us that 8th century emperor Charlemagne was buried, not in traditional manner, but seated on a throne in full regalia, wearing his robes of state. On his knee was an open Bible with one finger pointing to words that spoke, when he no longer could, the Gospel word that say, “For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
Any individual can gain whet seem to the world’s solid and substantial prizes yet end up throwing away life itself as well as the larger dimension of eternal life. The truly big things can be missed when attention is consumed by things temporary and transitory. Rightly, we need to ask, “How will the verdict be rendered in our situations?”
Timely to our experience are these considerations. In every real way we will find it impossible to apprehend the meaning of the cross and the Resurrection unless we accept the fact that keepers are losers and losers are keepers. There is risk entailed in acting on this insight but a greater risk in ignoring it. The Gospel confronts us with this message and urges upon us, a choice. It is the choice (as Jesus said) between darkness or light, between loving life selfishly or offering life freely. Honor means blessing and promise. It means life abundant and eternal.
Heeding that judgment and getting a grip on our own true personhood will shape us ever more surely as servants of Christ. The gift of life can be received with joy and certainty, but only as Jesus demonstrated and commanded.
Will you keep to lose or lose to keep? The choice is yours!
