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Sep 19, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 12:12-26

After being hailed as the Messiah, the King of the Jews (Jn 12:12-19), Jesus is shown to be Sovereign over the Gentiles as well (Jn 12:20,21,32). Jesus did, in fact, come as the fulfillment of Old Testament promises of a king. But He did not come, the first time, to be the kind of ruler His generation expected.

His glory would come through suffering, death, and resurrection. Just days before His crucifixion, Jesus reminds His disciples of His dying. Then He instructs them of the necessity to die to themselves in order to follow Him. Jesus exhorts His followers to be steadfast, giving clear witness to His honor, sometimes at high personal cost. The call here is to value Christ more than anything or anyone else, even more than oneself. Love for Christ must exceed love for spouse or son or daughter or mother or father. We must even love Him more than we love ourselves.

The sacrifice Jesus calls us to is great, but the promises He encourages us with here are magnificent. He promises that in giving up our lives we will find life. This is the gospel paradox. The way to keep life is to lose it. It is to discover that true life is in Christ alone and to taste such life is to renounce, in heartfelt repentance, our foolish desire to rule our lives. The promise is that we will be with Christ forever … "where I am, there will my servant be also" (Jn 12:26).

And, confessing that Christ is all in all, we will find, on the great day of judgment, that God the Father, the final Judge, will honor us. "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him" (Jn 12:26). What could be more motivating to live our lives as unto Jesus than such promises as these?