When self-preservation is our central aim, we are never safe. However, when we are committed to surrender to the disturbances that Godly compassion produces we are never in danger.So Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."
We can be dumped into the most precarious situations but if God is with us we are not in danger. The worst that can happen to us is dislocation from Christ.
Hence, as long as we are with the eternal divine logos, the infinite "Word become flesh" in the Lord Jesus, our thoughts come from God, not from man.
But as we see in the lesson, this eternal relationship with the "Word become flesh" is easily tarnished.
"Jesus rebuked Peter, 'Get away from me Satan,' he said, 'Your thoughts don't come from God but from men!' "
Peter did not yet have the spiritual perception to see that the by-product of Jesus' suffering and death would be resurrection power and growth.
And so Jesus uses this experience as an opportunity to teach the disciples a lesson. Notice how Jesus took Peter aside but looked at the other disciples while he rebuked Peter. This was a pedagogical moment for Jesus. An opportunity to both give the disciples an idea of suffering servanthood and to challenge them to discern a deeper spiritual perspective. That life is in giving, not getting.
Even after his confession, "You are the Messiah," Peter continued to live in the human world of illusion. He could not yet see beyond his shadow.
There is a fable about a man who lived in the desert. He would wake up every morning and follow his shadow. So as the sun moved across the sky from east to west the man essentially walked in a large oval. At sundown he ended up where he had started. This continued for years. The man walked in circles day after day, following his shadow. One night the man heard the voice of God in a dream while he slept. The voice told him to stop following his shadow. Instead, "Follow the sun," the voice challenged, "And you will experience life as you have never dreamed it could be."
The man thought for many days about his vision of God while he continued to walk around in circles in the desert. But one day he mustered up enough courage to break away from his shadow. Little by little, step by step, the man began to follow the sun. And he discovered a kingdom that was, heretofore, way beyond his wildest dreams and imagination. Ultimately, he became friends with the Son.
"For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it."
Alfred Delp says it this way, just prior to his execution by the Nazis for his participation in the "Kreisau Circle," a moderate resistance group dedicated to the reconstruction of Germany along Christian lines after the war: "Up to now the Lord has helped me wonderfully. I am not yet scared and not yet beaten. The hour of human weakness will no doubt come and sometimes I am depressed when I think of all the things I hoped to do. But I am now a man internally free and far more genuine and realized than I was before. Only now have I sufficient insight to see the thing as a whole."1
Thus Jesus proposes his mathematics, his economics: Save life = lose life; Lose life = save it.
It is my mother-in-law who helped me understand the above equation. On June 6, 1970, the day I was married to her only daughter, she said to me: "I have been so blessed by God! If I were to die today I would have received the greatest gifts that anyone could have received: a gracious and loving family and caring friends and a God who has redeemed me."
The irony of this (not so ironic when you consider it from God's perspective: lose life = save life) is that she was the one who was always giving. She was the one who was always losing her life. She was the one who was always dying for the sake of others. And hence she was the one who was joy-filled!
Today, my mother-in-law lives at an Alzheimer's center. She cannot remember what she ate for lunch five minutes ago nor can she remember what day it is. But there is a twinkle in her eyes. A twinkle that tells of God's economy. Namely, lose life = save it.
The twinkle says it loud and clear. Happiness and joy come with losing one's life in service. And that is real power. Power that transforms resides in the generous and compassionate person. The person who practices dying, for others, during their lifetime.
A tribute: Such a normal, almost banal day. Justin thought as he sluggishly climbed into the family's white Trans Am to go to work. He worked on the grounds crew at a golf course. A summer job, between semesters at the university, which he kind of liked except for the early 5 a.m. time he was required to pull out of his driveway in order to make it to work on time. He wouldn't be doing this for very long anyway, he thought, as he considered that in only six weeks he would be back in school. The day's date was June 29 and on August 18 he would be sitting in his dorm room counting the many books he would be required to read the following fall semester. He had great expectations of being an engineer just like his father.
Suddenly and startlingly Justin's musings and broodings were cut short by an oncoming vehicle rounding a sharp curve in the road and crossing over into his lane. The pickup truck was coming toward him head on. Justin needed a place to go so he quickly swerved onto the shoulder of the road. The Trans Am hit a jagged edge of the berm, blowing a tire. The car flipped over, end over end. The last thing Justin remembered was being upside down before he blacked out.
A passer-by saw what happened and immediately summoned a state trooper and an ambulance on his radio. Recognizing Justin, the eyewitness also went to a neighbor and called his father. Jim, Justin's father, was at the scene in a matter of minutes, arriving shortly after the trooper. The officer briskly walked over to Jim's car, "You must be the boy's father. I'm Trooper A.A. Michael. The paramedics are working on your son, but I'm sorry, I think it's too late. He was gone when we arrived on the scene." Tears welled up in Jim's eyes. Trooper Michael continued, "But I'm here to ask you for a favor, Jim. As I told you before, my name is A.A. Michael, that is, Arch Angel Michael and I'm stationed at the barracks in the kingdom."
Haltingly, Jim stammered, "Please continue." Sobbing, he said, "You said something about wanting a favor."
Trooper Michael said, "Yes, I did. But it's more like a trade. I have orders to ask you to trade your life here on earth for your son's life."
Jim looked bewildered. "What do you mean, trade my life for his?"
Michael continued, "I mean that Gabriel, our football coach was asked to be Saint Peter's full time coach. Pete never could play golf very well. We are in desperate need of a good football coach. The Lord wants you, Jim. Only you! He told me to get you whatever it takes, so here I am."
Jim looked at Trooper Michael as if he were nuttier than a fruit cake. Jim was stunned. "What kind of setup was this?" he thought.
Trooper Michael continued, "I told the Lord that we would never be able to get you because of your important commitments in your church, community, family and school, especially your football coaching responsibilities. But the Lord grew quite impatient because he wanted only you, just you. He says you're the only man with the right stuff - you know - the right kind of integrity to be our new head football coach. The Lord reminded me that the team has never lost a national championship and he does not intend to start losing to the dark forces of the universe now. So when this happened," Trooper Michael pointed to the overturned car, "I came right away because I thought you would agree to a trade. Justin gets to finish living out his life here on earth, you get to be head coach of the greatest football team in the cosmos, the Lord gets the head coach he desires and everybody is happy, everyone wins!"
Jim was bewildered by all of this, but he knew he didn't have a choice. He wanted, in the worst way, for Justin to experience the same fulfilling life on earth that he had had. "You said nobody loses, but what about my wife, Karen, and my other children?"
Trooper Michael spoke softly and tenderly now, "Your engineering business is in good hands with your two oldest sons. Yes, I agree that it is not quite fair for Karen and your one daughter who still lives at home, but remember they will not sorrow too long. Oh yes, they will sorrow for a little while because they will miss you. But let me remind you that you will all be reunited again in the future.
Then without hesitation, Jim said, "When do you want me?"
Michael considered this for a moment and then said, "Summer football camp starts the first of August, but we can give you a few extra days to get your affairs in order. How does August fifth sound to you? That way you can be at camp on Monday, the sixth."
"Okay," Jim said.
An exhilarating yell came from one of the paramedics, "He's going to make it! I don't believe it. A miracle! He's going to make it! I can't believe we resuscitated him."
Jim never really finalized things. The last 36 days of his life were loved like all the rest. He didn't need to change the way in which he lived and gave to his family. He didn't have to change the way in which he served his community. He didn't need to change the way in which he was committed to the church. He didn't have to change the way he coached football and was a friend, and for some a father, to the players. He didn't have to change the way he ran his business. He didn't have to change the way in which everyone he related with he made feel special and loved because of the interest and concern he showed. He didn't need to change the way in which he gave of himself; the way in which he daily lost his life in service to others.
Jim didn't do anything different. So he didn't tell anyone. He just lived his life the way he had always lived it - with integrity - and on August 5, he was simply enveloped by the Lord's Spirit. He had a heart attack and died instantly. Jim is now serving the Lord as a coach for the greatest team in all of history. The team's legacy is even more spectacular than the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On August 7 hundreds of people came to pay their respects to this very gracious man and coach. On August 8, the Lord held a going away party for Jim at his church; Emmanuel Church, God with us! And what a party it was!2
1. Alfred Delp, "After The Verdict," Weavings, Volume IV, Number 3, May/June (1989), 28-29.
2. This story is told in the memory of Jim Trettle, a friend and one who knew God's mathematics: Lose life = save it. Jim's son Justin, was in fact, pulled from a near fatal automobile accident just weeks before his father's death.