| Things to Live For |
Chapter 22 |
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It seemed a waste of precious life when Jesus died so young, and in such shame. No doubt his friends spoke together on those days, when he was lying in the grave, of the great loss to the world his dying was. Perhaps they thought he had been imprudent and reckless–almost throwing away his life. Peter may have referred to the time he had spoke so earnestly to his Master, begging him not to go up to Jerusalem to meet death. It seemed to them all that his early death was a sad loss to the world, a wasting of most precious life. But it was not a loss, not a waste. He lost his life, but it became the seed of the world’s hope and joy. We understand it now. Christianity is the outcome of that waste. Heaven is the fruit of the Redeemer’s sacrifice.
There is more of the lesson. It carries in it the law of life for all of us. Jesus went on to say, “He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” All true life must bear the brand of the cross. If we love our life and try to save it, we shall lose it. If we keep ourselves from the hard service or the costly sacrifice to which duty calls us, we may seem to be gaining by it. We spare ourselves much toil. We have more time for ease, for leisure, for pleasure. We have the money in bank which we might have paid out in helping others. We have saved our life. Yes; but it is a saving which is losing.
There are many applications of this lesson. One has written:–
“If I should come to high renown,
And compass things divinely great,
And stand a pillar of the state,
And count an empire all my own,
“And miss myself–I were a child
That sold himself to slavery
In that fair castle by the sea
That glimmered toward his mountain wild.”
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