A Disciple's Journeyنموونە

Following Jesus Means Losing Your Life

Service and losing your life are linked together. In Mark 10:43–45 Jesus says, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Not only did Jesus tell us to serve, but He took it a step further. He modeled what it is to serve by serving us to the point of giving His life for us.

Jesus didn’t ask us to do something He wasn’t willing to do. He asked us to do something that He was in the process of doing, to a greater degree and in a greater way than we can even fathom. As Paul explained in Philippians 2, Jesus did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but He willingly took on the form of a servant and poured Himself out for us by suffering and dying for our sins.

Jesus says the same thing in Mark 8, specifically about bearing the weight of the cross. He told His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Taking up the cross meant taking a death march. There is a high cost to following Jesus. It’s going to take everything you have—your entire life.