Since my name begins with "W" I know what it means to be at the end of the line. All through school I was either near or at the end, always with the Youngs and the Zimmermans. At every graduation I was in the last group to cross the stage and receive my diploma. In the classroom I always sat in the last row near the back of the room. I never knew what it meant to be first until I became a pastor. Now, I am always permitted to eat first at potluck dinners.

I must confess it's rather nice to be the first one to go through the line. You get to choose from all the best dishes and you have first choice on dessert. I wonder sometimes if I would have a different outlook on life if my name began with an "A."

We live in a society where being "first" means everything. Everyone wants to be number one or be part of a group that is number one. Competition is the name of the game. Our motto is "win, win, win, me, me, me." To find ourselves at the end of the line in anything is absolutely tragic. None of us wants to come in last. No one wants to wait.

Then, along comes Jesus. He totally ruins our winning formula by saying the phrase, "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." What? Lose instead of win? This does not compute. This is illogical. This is now how we were conditioned to believe. Surely this must be a mistake.

Jesus, however promotes an ethic of "end of the lineness." Not only are we to lose to win, we are to "deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him." For Jesus it's even worse. He is to suffer, be rejected, and killed by a hostile world.