LIFE MEASURED DIFFERENTLY

When I was embarking on this writing project, this was one of the first sayings of Jesus that jumped to mind. It is not one of the most reassuring of the Bible’s “Do not be afraids,” assuming as it does that we may well be risking our lives by following Jesus.

Rather, it is one of His statements that challenges our assumptions about life and its purpose, urging that even life itself—as we now know it—should not be our pre-eminent value. If and when we can bring ourselves to believe this, we are truly free to live without fear, trusting our lives to the One who ultimately holds our whole being in His hand.

This is not to say that death does not matter. It matters desperately. It also serves as a test of what matters more to us. “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. . . . Only real risk tests the reality of a belief.”* The point is that there are things that matter more than death, as outrageous as this sounds. Many of the disciples to whom Jesus first addressed this statement would confront their own death because they chose to follow Him. But they had also seen Jesus overcome death in the miracles He performed and in His own resurrection.

They knew that the reality and power of Jesus had defeated death, so they could trust Him even in death. That profoundly changed the way they understood, measured, and valued their lives.

* C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (London: Faber and Faber, 1962), 20, 21.