Mentality shift – Jesus did not die for my spiritual convenience
Christ’s call to discipleship means that our focus as Christians is not on what we “get out” of church, but rather on how we are called to serve. Just as Christ reached his hands out to us from the cross, so too we are empowered to reach out to the world in loving service. This means that the center of our experience in church of being a Christian is not about what we want or like, but rather about how Christ calls us to give our life to others. Put most provocatively, Jesus did not die for my spiritual comfort or to make me feel better about my day to day life. Jesus’ death was much more costly and more significant than that.
The Gospels show that Jesus was put to death, because he lived the ways of God’s kingdom, and that meant putting him into conflict with the ways of the world – specifically with the religious and political institutions of his time. Jesus challenged the human ways of living, and called his disciples to do the same. Meanwhile, Paul tells us that Jesus died so that we might be freed. Jesus died so that our sins are forgiven, allowing us to be free of the baggage we carry from living the ways of this world. This freedom allows us to put that life away and be born to a new life in Christ that lives out the kingdom of God that Jesus shows us. Jesus’ death, then, was to free us from having to go about life as if none of it mattered, and freed us to live a transformed life. It was a costly act of liberating us, not an easy gift so that we need not change any about ourselves.
Jesus died so that we may truly live. To truly live means renouncing some of the ways that the world tells us are good but which go against God’s ways. It is a call to us to use our freedom to follow the ways that Jesus has shown us. This means that the focus of our life is not on getting what we want, whether that is material goods or having things be done in the church in certain ways. It also means that we are not called into the church to have our needs served, even as it is important to know that we are cared for by those around us. Finding freedom in Christ means being freed to dedicate our lives to serving the needs of others. That includes others in the community and world that are in need; it also means serving one another in our congregation. Jesus died so that we are free to devote ourselves in all we do to caring for a world in need, letting go of our own desires so that we can support and transform the lives of those around us. Jesus died so that we are free to give our lives over fully to God. When we do that, we will find the joy of what it means to truly live in God. That is a life that overcomes even the barrier of death.