Come, follow me, and die

We live in a world where the assertion and realisation of our individual rights is paramount. A woman’s choice over her body is absolute. She decides what enters and exits. Consequently, taking this choice from her, is rendering her a powerless individual, and insinuating that she cannot be trusted to make the right decision for her own body. The woman knows best and should not be dictated to - or forced by repressive laws - to undertake a life altering pregnancy, which she neither planned nor desired.

Today, in this same world, a King who died to everything he was entitled to and deserved, calls us to come follow Him. He calls us to follow His example. And He calls us to die with Him. Does it mean letting go of the self-determination of life choices and submitting to His way? Yes. Does it mean a life of single minded self-seeking pleasure is over? Yes. Does it mean an outward focus on the well-being of others, even at times to the perceived detriment of our own interests? Yes.

What if a horrible wrong was done to you by a man, and your body was invaded outside of your will. Could this King be asking you to suffer the invasion of another life attaching itself and growing inside of your body? Could this King be asking the married couple who are not financially stable and just aren’t ready to support a child, to assume responsibility for a financial and time-consuming burden? Could this King be asking the girl whose boyfriend got her pregnant and left her, to carry a child, bearing the financial, social and mental burden alone?

How could this King be demanding such a great injustice, how could He be so lacking in compassion for the poor and vulnerable? But what if this King was compassionate and just in all His ways? What if His compassion is expressed, in a way we would not expect, in His own selfless giving, of everything he was, and had.

This King of whom I speak enjoyed eternal life. He was in existence from before the very beginning. He enjoyed power and ultimate authority. He held all knowledge and wisdom. He enjoyed the greatest wealth. And yet, he chose to give up position, power, privilege, understanding and riches. Instead, he assumed a place of weakness. He entered the world that He had created, not as a human king, but as a helpless child. He was not recognised or celebrated by his own creation as a king of power and wealth. How did it all end? A shameful, public and excruciating death by slow suffocation.

Yet, in choosing to give up His very life, He rendered death powerless. He nullified the power of shame, sickness and sin. His very suffering bought eternal life to everyone who chooses to acknowledge Him.  This act revealed to a confused world, the true nature of love; sacrifice for others who don’t deserve it.

What if a life of self-determination is not equivalent to freedom? What if a life of self-focus and self-preservation is in reality, slavery? What if in losing our lives, we find absolute freedom? In choosing to follow this King we are able to enter into an understanding of who we really are. In following Him, our identity is established by His love and sacrifice for us. He chose to die because he desired above all else to enter into a passionate, freedom giving and eternally committed relationship with us. He knows our hearts’ desires, and can satisfy them in greater measure than any attempt we ourselves can make to fill them. He promises to work out every single messed up and broken situation in our lives, for our good.

What if preserving the life of an innocent third party was a sacrifice that could bring redemption to a hopeless situation.

Over 2000 years ago, a young woman said yes. She said yes to the possibility of social rejection, shame and criticism, for a pregnancy acquired outside of marriage. A young girl, not secured yet to a husband, in a society where women were not financially independent of men. She said yes to bear a child. Yet somehow, in the complete and utter apparent weakness and shame of that situation, the Salvation of the world was born. The King, Jesus, chose to enter this world in the weakest form possible, a helpless child whose foster father was a carpenter. Yet, that King demonstrated a love that the world has never seen and struggles to comprehend. And because of His death, you and I can live a joy, love, and freedom filled life, adopted as children of God himself.

Dear woman, you never know the difference your sacrifice is making to the world. Your yes to the seeming impossible. Your death to your own desires and comfort. Is this easy? No. Will it cost you everything? Yes. Yet, when we follow His way, when we choose to die, we paradoxically receive a life beyond our imagination. A love beyond anything we have ever known. A partnership with a perfect Husband which is enduring and never failing. He promises to never leave us, to never forsake us. He places the lonely in families. He is the defender of the orphan and the widow. He specialises in advocating for the unprotected and marginalised. He is perfect justice, perfect mercy and perfect love. And His desire is to pick up the broken pieces of your life and make something beautiful.

Come, follow Jesus, and lose your life, so that you can find it.