Going Broke for Jesus

"For whoever will save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake will gain it." Matthew 16:25

I can not think of a more daunting thought in our modern age than the thought of sacrifice. Our hearts continuously counter its actuality from forming about our lives. We withdrawal from it, cower at its mention. Closing our eyes and cringing from it's cold touch. It is unpleasant indeed, almost the most unpleasant card placed in our deck. Yet, for some great reason, we glorify its action when it's meaning has novelty. Our culture clings to the very notion of a grand sacrifice when it is offered up with willing hands for some good in any extent. All great tales told carry a glimmering hope found on the silver lining of sacrifice. We as Christians are most notable for this, and rightfully so. Our whole theology revolves around it. And seeing that the grandest of sacrifice was made by the Author of our existence and created all of mankind to orbit around the sacrificial act of Christ, it would only make sense that sacrifice would move our inner being to great heights and terrify us simultaneously. That is most curious of our nature and of sacrifice itself. It is horrifying and majestic at the same time and we are responsive to it in that fashion.
Never-the-less we are met with sacrifice daily, as we as Christian are called to die daily. This privilege is too often all but seen as such. Yet, it is a large misunderstanding to consider our own sacrifice to suffer a prerequisite for salvation. There is only one sacrifice that was the atonement for our sins and it's not ours. Yet, this does not exclude the willful surrender of our lives. So what might we gather from such scripture as "to lose your life, is to gain it"? I would say it must, not only to God but to ourselves, seem as a gift and not a curse. Yet, we are often far from valuing sacrifice in this way.
I'm not lost on the threat of forfeiting up our lives, for even for a good man one would rarely die. But I can't help but see beauty in our foyful surrender of all that one has when one is promised so much more. To give up all that you have to gain all that He has, seems like a remarkable deal. So remarkable, I've often considered going broke for Jesus. Not in the sense that if I follow Christ with such zealously I would inevitability loose all my finances. I mean more "Francis of Assisi" style, selling all you have and giving it to the poor. Much like the parable of the man who sold all he had to buy the field where the treasure lay hidden. Its pushing all your chips to the center of the table, and saying "I'm all in." However scary it is putting our lives in as the stakes the reward is so much vastly greater than what we have to offer. But I regret making this sound too much like Pascal and his wonderful wager, for our "chips" are more counterfeit than real. We must admit, by no effort on our part do we have life, so though we do have chips to play with, they were only given to us so that we could sit at the table. So if we offer up our lives as a living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, it is not because we have earned such a glorious talent pleasing to Him, but that through the transforming power of a ransom He paid, we are able to come with our borrowed life, giving it back to the only true giver of life. In all of this, we are once again given life, yet this time it is new and it is in abundance. Not a life birthed through water, but birthed through blood,which was His sacrifice.
I can't say giving ourselves up will guarantee martyrdom or even bank accounts overflowing. But what I can say is if we, like the widow, bring our lonely mite to the alter and loose ourselves, we will, without a doubt gain eternity.
If it is even possible that we might turn away from Christ sorrowfully because we could not forfeit our possessions even though we followed the law so very well, we will inevitably be unwilling to offer up our only real possession, our life, which will eventually be robbed from us anyway. Furthermore, if our understanding of gain is so very misguided, we might want to petition for a financial blessing, which in all honesty could very well be a financial loss, for all loss is gain to those who have Christ. And maybe one day, when we discover that carrying our cross is truly a privilege, we might see what really being blessed is all about.

Written on request and featured on The Reviver. TheReviver.wordpress.com