20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 "Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!"
My thoughts -
Verse 25 always gives me trouble here. "Those who love their life will lose it" doesn't sound all that reassuring to most of us, I'm sure. But to pair that with "those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life" just seems downright depressing. So, let me see if I've got this right: If you love your life here don't get too comfortable, you don't get to keep it. If you hate it you'd better get used to it because it's eternal.
Maybe I'm missing something but I can't seem to spin that so it doesn't suck. Maybe I need to put this in a less "worldly" perspective.
There's one thing I think we all pretty much know about life in this world: it doesn't last forever. We can work, toil, steal, and whatever to get all of the stuff that we think will fulfill us but guess what... We don't get to keep it. We don't get to take any of it with us when we leave this place. Yes, that goes for my Les Paul, too.
If I place all of the "stuff", the "shiny junk" of this life above Godly things I have chosen poorly and I don't get to keep it. If I place my status in this life above all else eventually it will go away and that which I have built my existence around will be gone, leaving me nothing. This life we lose. That's just a fact. It happens to everyone eventually.
So what to make of the second part? What does it mean to say that if you hate this life you get to keep it eternally? I'm not really sure. You could spin that to mean that forsaking the traps and pitfalls in this world and not falling for the materialistic con will gain you eternal life. You could also say that an unfulfilling lifestyle here can follow you into eternity and you would then be eternally cursed with a lack of fulfillment. I am not educated enough to know what Jesus intended that to mean.
Jesus spoke in such a way that a lot of different meanings can be read into a number of his teachings, and each has a great deal of truth from a certain perspective. I think it could mean a little of both. Could hell just be a continued miserable existence apart from God in a place not unlike this one? Could hell be here on earth? Heaven too? Could heaven be the ability to shake free from our worldly vices and to seek after God's will? Could that jut be a fore taste of a heaven to come? I think verses 27-28 offer us a glimpse of how we should be, and that which would grant us peace in this life and whatever is to follow.
Jesus says, "Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
Jesus is facing death. He subverts his own will to glorify God. He has come to peace with the end of this life and understands that what God has in store will be better.
This life will end. I don't get to keep it. I don't get to take my stuff with me. I don't understand eternity. I don't have to. I trust God. Everything is going to be Ok. I don't hate my life, I love it. I will lose it. And I am Ok with that. There's really no other way to be.
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