Oh, To Be Like Him

And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. "They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again." Mark 10:32-34 (New American Standard Bible)

Jesus is telling His disciples in very explicit terms what is going to transpire in His life. He leaves no details out. Betrayal, the condemnation of a death sentence, mocking, being spit on, scourging, death, and a subsequent resurrection. If I were telling someone such future difficulties I would want them to enter into my suffering with me. I would want some sympathy and a sense that they would stand by me through it all. But Jesus received none of that and quite frankly He was not looking for it. He knew the hearts of His followers, His enemies, and the whole of mankind. His sharing of His impending death and resurrection was for their sake not His. I marvel that He did not need the very things I so often crave.

My mind is being drawn to the many ways Jesus acted and reacted differently than I do. When He performed miracles He didn’t poise Himself waiting for applause and recognition. When He went against popular opinion, He didn’t fret over the loss of acceptance. When He became the recipient of people’s criticism, rejection, unbelief, and scorn, He didn’t let it bring Him down emotionally. He didn’t begrudge the fact that many followed Him merely for what He could do for them. And why?

Because every bit of His identity, direction, ministry, and life came from Who He was and Who His Father was. Although He experienced grief, heartache, disappointment, pain, and sorrow, He let none of those things change that which He stood for, on and in. He was the epitome of being in this world but not of it.

He invites each of us to learn to do the same. He calls us to identify with Him, depend upon Him, seek Him, follow Him, and place our expectations upon Him. That which I think I need and those who I think I cannot live without must give way to Him. Only then can I begin to see hints of His reflection in and through me. May He increase my ability and desire to receive all that He is offering me.

Father, loosen the grip I have on the world and the world has on me. May I dare to open my hands and my heart to You. Amen.