Are you Dying to Live?

It has occurred to me recently that everywhere I turn I see reminders of the Cross, subtle hints that act as signposts pointing to what Jesus has done for us. Take eating for example. Has it every occurred to you that every time you eat, in order for you to continue living, something had to have died? Even something as basic as a salad – each tomato or lettuce had to have been disconnected from its life source in order for you to continue living. There seems to be something in the way that the world is set up that means that in order for life to come about, things need to die. Another example is the wonderful world of skin. Did you know that as you sit here reading this article your skin cells are dying at a rate of 2 million per hour, and are depositing themselves around the room? But at the same time 2 million new cells are being produced. In fact it happens in every cell in your body (apart from brain cells) – in order for you to stay alive, your cells are dying and being replaced. In nature, things die in order for other things to live.

Going a bit deeper, in the midst of all the tragedy of 9/11, we saw inspiring and moving pictures of firefighters giving up their lives, dying, so that those they were saving could live. Death gives way to life. There is something incredibly beautiful about such sacrifice.

How amazing that the early Christians, when describing how God had brought them life, said that it was through the death of Jesus – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). How does God bring about life? How does God save us? Does he snap his fingers? No, he does it the way that all life comes about, through a death. By the sacrifice of Himself in Christ.

Could it be that everytime you eat, God is saying “do you see the cross now?” Or everytime you read of a moving sacrifice that someone has made, or see firefighters get crushed under the rubble of building whilst saving someone else’s life, could it be hat God is saying, “do you see what I’ve done for you now?”

This kind of thinking reminds me of Jesus’ saying in Luke 9:23-24 where he says "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it”. Could it be that in order to live, we’ve got to die? In order to save our lives, we’ve got to lose them? I know what you’re thinking! He said what!

But I think Jesus is making a profound point that has much to teach us about life today in the 21st Century. Here are three things I reckon it means:

Firstly, on the extreme, when Jesus’ disciples first heard this, literal death would have been a constant reality for them. By following Jesus they would have been saying ‘Jesus is Lord’, and by saying that there were saying ‘Caesar is not Lord’, and as a result would have been viewed as enemies of the state. In modern times we hear stories of Cassie Bernell being shot for bearing faith, and 9 year old boys in the Philippines being slaughtered for refusing to deny that they believe in Jesus. Such stories send a tingle down my spine because it makes me think – ‘Oh dear, what would I do? Would I die for what I believe?’ Such stories allow us to question just how deep our faith goes and show us the extent of our commitment. As one man once said, “people are like teabags – you only find out what’s inside when you put them in hot water”. Jesus’ call to deny ourselves encourages us to count the cost of following, and makes us wonder ‘am I dying to live?’

Secondly, dying in order to live means putting to death the parts of our lives or behaviours that are destructive. As Colossians 3:5 says “put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry”. Like a scratched CD, there are parts of our lives which are out of sync, they’re not playing right and need to be sorted. There are things that we are living for that are screwed up, and we need to die to. Why? Because God is mean and loves giving us lots of rules to keep? No, because death produces life. If we wanna live more fully, we’ve gotta die.

What is it that you need to die to? Maybe you’re life is all about just trying trying to be cool – you’ve just got to die to that way of living and just be yourself. Maybe your life is about being comfortable and avoiding anything that is hard – you’ve just gotta die to that.

Lastly, we die to ourselves whenever we “submit to one another” (Ephesians 5:21). So often in our relationships the order goes ‘ME then you’. We chose ourselves first, then maybe we’ll do something for someone else after, (if we feel like it). Every time we reverse that so that our attitude is ‘YOU then me’, and we submit to one another, a part of us dies. Everytime we think ‘YOU then me’ when it comes to our relationships to others, we take up our cross.

Jack washes up the plates for his parents instead of going upstairs to play his Playstation, and a part of him dies, but instead he experiences what life is all about. Claire gives away her wages to someone in need from a weekend of work, and a part of her dies, but as she does so, she feels truly alive. Harry sees a friend who is down and rather than thinking about his own problems, encourages his friend and builds her up, and as he speaks words of love, a part of him dies, but as it does, a part of him begins to live!

So, whenever you ask me what Christianity is all about, I will simple say ‘well, it’s all about dying’. Or if you asked me what our church has to offer you, then I’d say ‘well, we’ll tell you every week to die’ because that is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. So the question is, ‘are you dying to live?’

Simon Cragg, 01/04/2008