If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:35)
Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. (Mark 9:34)
Jesus’ teaching on the ways and means of the kingdom of God contradict the oft-heard rhetoric of self-care. The program the Christ has for his disciples, leads in the same direction of his own ministry: to the cross. To death.
Given the general fatigue felt by many followers of Jesus, the question needs to be asked: Did Jesus actually call us to burn out for the sake of the gospel?
Well, yes. And, no.
When the Lord called Abram in Genesis 12, he called him to bless “all the families of the earth.” And, Christians carry the same commission. Jesus sent his apostles out to bless everyone they meet with the news of the nearness of the kingdom of God, with teaching the implications thereof, and with a ministry of healing, of kindness, of effecting real positive change for real people in his name.
And most of us can agree that the need is very great. The world is a hurting place. Our families are hurting. Our selves are hurting. There is much work to be done!
However, before the Lord told Abram to bless the nations, the Lord told him that he would be blessed first: “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Gen 12:2)
Without God’s blessing, presence, and strength Abram would have burned out many times in his travels. Indeed, we read in Genesis that each time Abram forgot the habit of altar building, he made decisions that were not in line with God’s design!
We can share God’s blessing with others only in so much as we know his blessing ourselves.
Before Jesus sent his apostles out on their mission of preaching, teaching, and healing (a mission that left them tired and exhausted!), he told them first to be with him (Mark 3:14).
Jesus alone can effect salvation. Our ministry is to bear witness to what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do. And that is enough. It is a ministry we cannot do in our own strength.
And yet, when we have thoroughly emptied ourselves of any pretense that we have strength enough to live this life (let alone save it), when we learn to rest and live solely in the grace, wisdom, and mercy of the Christ, then we will begin to understand the paradox of denying ourselves for the sake of the gospel without burning out.