The spiritual and emotional journey of Jesus’ disciples could veritably be considered epic—from uneducated laborers, their society’s nobodies and rejects, to intimate friendship with the Creator of the Universe!  Though they did not initially comprehend just who He was, they grew in their understanding of His identity and mission through spending time with Him.  They did not grasp the significance or purpose for His death until after the cross; and they had varying responses to His cautioning them of things to come.  All, except for one of Jesus’ closest friends, were confronted with the death of the cross and came out, after encountering the resurrected Messiah, dynamically changed.

When I started this post, I planned on going a different direction with my writing.  But since then, several friends and acquaintances have died, and my heart was pierced with grief. 

These words come to mind when I am faced with the grief of death: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55) And my immediate response is “it’s in my heart!” …and the hearts of all those who are grieving, that’s where!

However, death has no sting nor victory for those who have left us, who placed their lives and their hope in Jesus Christ!

“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:53, 54)

We don’t deny grief because we know Jesus grieved; the best-known instance is when he wept with Mary and Martha over the death of their brother.  He knew that He had resurrection life within Himself, yet in those moments His heart grieved with them.

Jesus also knew that in coming days He would endure a tortured death.  To His disciples He disclosed, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem.  And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” (Matthew 20:18-19)

No hidden messages, just straight forward, “this is what is going to happen.”  They couldn’t grasp what He was saying, though; in fact, they were “greatly distressed” (Matthew 17:23) They couldn’t see beyond the immediate or the cross.  They were either rejecting the death or resigned to its finality … “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” (John 11:16)

There is a personal death that we wrestle with on and off throughout our lives; it is not an inevitable death, rather, a voluntary one.  Jesus taught, “…if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Self-denial in a self-indulgent society does not come easily!  In a time when people are demanding “personal rights,” a willingness to give up any perceived entitlements for the sake of the gospel is threatened by what society considers necessary for one’s emotional or physical well-being.

Sometimes we, like the disciples, cannot see beyond the cross; and surrendering our hopes, our dreams, our time, and the things we want or think we need, to “Thy will be done,” seems to present a landscape of certain death with no hope of life to follow.

I am quite sure the enemy of our souls heightens our fear of losing possessions, of giving up particular lifestyles or relationships, or reliance on anything or anyone other than Jesus, by emphasizing loss and clouding our perspective about what we gain in following Jesus—life that won’t end (John 3:16), peace (Isaiah 26:3), joy (Romans 15:13), provision (Matthew 6:25-33), community (1 John 1:7), and love (1 John 3:1-3).

There was a time when I (mistakenly) thought that when one initially decides to become a Christian, the battle was over, the giving up was done and now we could peacefully sail off into the sunset of our salvation.  Not so!  The Holy Spirit persistently challenges us to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;” and often that means deeper trust in and intimacy with Jesus—and turning away from things that hinder our spiritual growth.

The Holy Spirit admonishes and encourages us through the apostle Paul, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:7-9)