Commentary on Luke 9 and Matthew 16
9 23 Then [Jesus] said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?"
17 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
16 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
She was blonde. She was cute, and she was in two of my high school classes in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Unfortunately, I have to confess that I don't remember her name. Too many years have gone by for me to remember.
In the summer before my senior year, we moved to Guthrie, where my father became the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene. There, in my last year of high school, I met the little blonde.
I was a little sweet on her. I'm not sure she ever was sweet on me. But at least we did get to know each other. One day, she found out I was planning to be a missionary.
"A missionary?" she exclaimed. "Oh, Howard, don't throw your life away!"
Throw it away? That stunned me. Growing up as a pastor's kid, I thought missionaries were people you looked up to. You read their books. You prayed for them. You loaded up cars and went to zone rallies where they spoke. Missionaries, to me, were heroes.
That day in Guthrie, I ran head-on into values different from my own. That little blonde and I weighed life with two totally different sets of scales. And that day, our value systems collided.
Jesus, through His story of the rich man and Lazarus, pointed up this difference in values. The rich man was not guilty of great crimes. But he apparently regarded life as one continuous party. He didn't seem to understand the real values, the high stakes we play for in life. As he came face-to-face with his grave miscalculation, the rich man pleaded with Abraham to aid his brothers in seeing the light.
It is easy for us to see some of the applications of this parable in the extremes of human life. But we also should be asking ourselves: What does the story of the rich man and Lazarus say to me, to my lifestyle?
Far too often, the devil successfully tempts good Christians to accept worldly values rather than godly ones.
For instance, during one Home Assignment period, I met a young Nazarene pastor who said to me: "If you don't make it in the church by the time you're 40, you don't make it."
Make it? What kind of language is that? Where does that kind of thinking fit into kingdom values? This is not a corporate ladder we're trying to climb, is it?
Once in a while, the devil comes around to me and whispers, "Hey, you could be making a lot more money in a U.S. church. You could have a much nicer home and drive a much better car."
It's those moments that I have to remember what value system guides my life. My standard of living is a good deal above that of Lazarus, and he, not the rich man, knew the true values in life.
-- Howard Culbertson,
I wrote this devotional article while Barbara and I were missionaries in Italy. It originally appeared in Standard, a weekly Faith Connections take-home curriculum piece for adult Sunday school classes published by The Foundry.
Jesus' words in Luke 9:23-25, Luke 17:33, and Matthew 16:24-27 resonate with profound relevance in our contemporary context. In these passages, Jesus emphasizes self-denial and losing one's life for His sake. In a world often consumed by self-gratification and the pursuit of fleeting desires, these passages remind us of the importance of spiritual discipline and prioritizing eternal values over earthly pleasures. They call us to examine our priorities. They urge us to embrace a life of sacrificial love and service that mirrors Christ's example. In cultures marked by materialism and instant gratification, Jesus' words challenge people to live with an eternal perspective. He asks us to recognize that true fulfillment and significance come from wholeheartedly following Him, even if it means surrendering our desires and comforts. Jesus invites us to embrace the cost of discipleship and consider the profound joy to be found in losing oneself in the service of others and the Kingdom of God.
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