Jesus responded to this news by saying, “It is time. It is time for the Messiah to be
honored. Listen carefully: A kernel of
corn has to be torn from it’s life, thrown to the ground and allowed to die, or
it will always be by itself. But if it
dies, then it will be transformed into many more. Even so, whoever grasps onto his own life
will lose it. But whoever hates his life
in this age will find that it is preserved by God for the next age, which is
eternal. The one who wants to be to be
in my government, must follow me through death and beyond. Wherever I am my follower will be as
well. The faithful servant will be
honored by God. So now I am in anguish,
because of the difficulty I must face.
But should I ask God to save me from this fate? But because it is my fate, it is my
purpose. Father, in my death, glorify
Your name.” John 12:23-27
He sat them down and
began to lecture them about the doctrinal necessity of the suffering of the Son
of Man of Daniel. That the Son of Man
would be declared guilty by the judges and bishops and the seminary professors
and he would be sentenced to death, killed and after a three day appeal would
be resurrected. He spoke to them without
metaphor, but straightforwardly. After
he was done, Peter gently took him aside and told him that such things could
not happen to him, the Messiah. Jesus
turned toward all his disciples and raised his voice for all to hear, “Get away
from me! You are not Peter, but Satan!
Stop tempting me to take the easy route!
You are speaking of God’s plan, but of human achievement!”
Then Jesus called the
crowd to gather around him, beside his disciples, then he addressed them all:
“Do you think that I have the way to life, the way to enter into God’s
kingdom? Then listen here: If you want to
be a part of my school, you must give up on all the things that make up your
life, accept that you will be killed as a revolutionary and go where I go.
Since I am going to die, you must accept that for yourself as well. If you want to preserve your life, then you
will lose it. If you lose your life for
Me and my school, then you will retain your life. If you surrender your life, you will obtain
resurrection. Sure, you could gain everything in the world you want—happiness,
security, wealth, fame—but what good is any of that if you lose your life in
the long run? Suppose someone had a gun
to your head and wanted all you had for your life? Isn’t it better to give all of that up, so
you could live and obtain your stuff and happiness another day? If anyone is fearful of speaking about Me
before this sinning and faithless people, then the Messiah will dare not speak
his name on the final day when he comes to rule the Father’s kingdom with all
of God’s power behind him. Mark 8:31-38
Eternal Life
Jesus’ goal was not to die,
although it may seem like it in the above passages. Rather, Jesus’ goal was what is called
“eternal life”. This eternal life is not
life in heaven, as spirits floating around singing. It is a second chance on life.
In our current life, we are compromised from doing
all we could for God. We live in a
corrupted world which strives to encourage us to do evil, to disobey God. We have corrupted bodies which have corrupted
desires and illnesses and weaknesses that the body encourages us to sidestep by
doing more evil. We live in a context of
temptation and injustice and weakness.
God is offering resurrection. This means that we will come back after death
into bodies that are uncorrupted and incorruptible. We will be living in a context without
injustice, and temptation is kept to a minimum.
We will be given an opportunity to live for God without weakness, in
full strength and spiritual authority.
And
some will be chosen to rule over this utopia.
The Messiah will be chosen among people to rule over God’s kingdom and
He will chose many to rule with Him. The
ones whom He will chose will create justice for all, provide the context of
life for everyone. This is the dream of
the New Testament. It is the goal of
Jesus.
God’s Justice
But God doesn’t give this
kind of resurrection, this opportunity to everyone. Not everyone deserves to rule, not everyone
can handle the power that will be given to people to rule. Not everyone is prepared to deal with people
as they are. God is careful to choose
the people who will create His utopia, and these will be given a second chance
on life.
Who are these people that God chooses? God’s selection process begins first of all
with those who didn’t really have a life to begin with. This doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a
chance of a good life. Perhaps they
surrendered the chance of a good life.
But God is looking for those who suffered injustice in their lives. They did good for themselves, for their
neighbors, for God’s kingdom, but they received shame and punishment for the
good they did. God will not look for the
rich and powerful, the famous and lauded.
They have already had their life.
God will be looking for those who gave up their life and give them
another chance.
Jesus’ Example
Jesus is the one who
surrendered his chance at life for others.
He could have lived a quiet, but happy existence as a carpenter in Nazareth
And this is exactly what Jesus is calling us to. If we want to have a better life, we have to
give up on the one the world offers us.
Yes, for some of us, perhaps we could have a solid job, a quiet
existence, a good family, the American dream.
But for many, this life is out of reach.
Jesus is asking us to give up the good life, so we could give an
opportunity for a better life for others.
·
Just like Jesus,
we are called to give up the pursuit of the “good life”, the American Dream.
·
Just like Jesus,
we are called to live in rebellion against the world political system which
denies peace and justice for so many.
·
Just like Jesus,
we are to allow ourselves to be persecuted, to be punished for doing good.
·
Just like Jesus, we
are called to even die in our innocence, to die because of our life in God’s
compassion.
These who give up their shots at the good life to
live and die for others, they will be given the second chance. They will be God’s rulers in the coming
revolution.
As It Was Prophecied
This is also nothing
new. There are only a few places in the
Old Testament that talks about the resurrection of God’s people, and every passage
speaks of God giving a second chance to those who didn’t have a life to begin
with:
- Psalm 22—The author of this Psalm is surrounded
by enemies and killed, but he relies on God for deliverance. God then gives him a second chance at
life, which is happy and good.
- Psalm 37—The people of God suffer under
oppression because the wealthy wicked are causing them to live in
poverty. The point of the psalm is
that God will give the poor who wait for God a second chance at life
without such oppression.
- Daniel 12—The people of God are under a terrible
trial and oppression. They are
surrounded and destroyed and killed by their enemies. God destroys their enemies and
resurrects the killed, giving them a second chance to live under God’s
rule.
Jesus sees the fulfillment of
these prophecies, but he adds one more factor.
There are some who will choose to suffer, who will chose to die for the
sake of God’s kingdom and righteousness.
These will also gain resurrection with those who had no choice to
suffer. And some of them will rule in
God’s kingdom.
Who get resurrected? The
rejected by the world.
