Losing Your Life

In reading about the upcoming text in this week's lectionary, which is about Jesus telling his disciples that he's destined to die on a cross, I had one of those moments where I was remembering or realizing something I'd already known. Jesus says: "those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."

We talked some about how people can view things like serious illness, or difficulties with relatives as their cross to bear. But those sufferings don't necessarily mean losing your life for the sake of the gospel. To me, what that means is suffering that comes about in the course of following God's call to build a new way of life - suffering that happens because we forgive, trust, show mercy - suffering that comes from love.

Is all suffering redemptive? I would say no - the vast majority of it is not. But some suffering is done for a greater good. Maybe that's one of the meanings of this particular thought-puzzle by Jesus.