This is but one of two cases where Jesus talks about hating life. The other is an even harder pill to swallow than this one. (Luke 14:25-27) Over the years I’ve seen many a minister clumsily sidestep the verses. However, maybe it’s time we take a long hard look at it, instead of glossing over it because we don’t like it at face value. In all honesty, the older I get, the more I connect with it. The simple fact is, there are many things I hate about this mortal life, and fail to understand why even Christians put so much hope into it. Just look at the nonbelievers who have no choice but to put all their hope in it, and do so with such zeal. They have some of the most fragile peace I have ever seen.
Not that this means I should hate any associated people, instead of life itself. Yet most do just that because we blame others for the poor outcome of our life since we don’t want to bear the blame or take responsibility ourselves. Why shouldn’t I hate that about this life, and long for something better?
This love-life attitude reeks of coveting and envy, which are NOT Christian virtues, but products of the American dream. No wonder American churches have largely abandoned the subjects. If the church did a better job of understanding the full depths of the truth we profess, we could live out a far better example. Instead, we just define a child-friendly version of the road most taken. This is one of the things that motivates my ministry, to inspire people to look beyond the “be a good boy” gospel that has its share of misplaced worldly idols within it. Yet it’s why many people don’t want to hear what I have to say. Virtual idols are the gods of this mortal life we cherish so much, and they fail us time after time. Why shouldn’t I hate that about this life, and long for something better?
While life, in some respects, can be seen as a gift. However, like so many other gifts of God, if we value them more than the giver, they tend to go very wrong. Which we have a habit of doing since the gifts are far more tangible than the giver. Again, this is the essence of modern idolatry, and a big contributor to most selfish choices. Which leads to actions that hurt others. When we make a habit of that, we invite payback. Yet many are too shortsighted to see the correlation. That we can be the root of our own suffering when we betray others as well as the giver for the sake of the gift. Why shouldn’t I hate that about this life, and long for something better?
Yet in another sense, our mortal life is what separates us from knowing God in his full glory, and the full beauty of his truth, unadulterated by human will, and our limited understanding. Yet, it is only through our mortal lives can we even get a chance to see God. Even Jesus seemed to hate that about his life in the flesh and went off to lonely places to disconnect from it so he may better reconnect with the Father. (Luke 5:16)
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” -1st Corinthians 13:9-12
So beyond the bleakness of the extremes, perhaps we can find the real balanced truth of the matter. That our mortal lives are not something to be loved or rejected, but merely seen as a means to an end. At the end of it all there is eternal life. How we live out this drop in the sea of destiny we call our mortal lives, will have much to say about how we experience the fullness of the rest of the ocean. Apart from that, it’s mostly irrelevant and hardly worth all the pride we take in our so-called accomplishments. Makes you wonder why we get so fixated on the microbes found in this tiny drop we are currently in, and put our heavenly glory at risk for such temporal trivialities.
Consider this, Jesus promised peace, not happiness. (John 14:27) Yet the current church, especially contemporary ones, tries to make it all about happiness. It’s so much easier to provoke a feeling than follow the cycle of holiness that leads to peace after all. However, it’s often the obsessive pursuit of happiness and the worldly things we associate with it that robs us of our peace. happiness at best is sporadic with many ups and downs. We could never function in everyday life in such a constant euphoric state. Peace however is a different story. That can last and be maintained for extended periods of time. Yet when we lack it, it often leads us to seek out shortcuts to quick and easy happiness. That often has negative side effects in the long run. We must admit that happiness can in fact be achieved outside of God. That is why it is so short-lived, and prone to crash. Especially when we look to others for happiness. That is actually a huge burden to put on people. This can lead to much misery for those on the wrong end of it. Why shouldn’t I hate that about this life, and long for something better?
If we really believe God’s full truth matters, then I would suggest you take some time to evaluate where you really put your hope. Is it in eternal life, or the temporal things we have in this mortal one? In the end, the only way out of the things we hate is by defying this world and its toxic ways, not by giving in to it. Otherwise, we are just fighting fire with fire. Yet we wonder why the whole world burns with anger. Why shouldn’t I hate that about this life, and long for something better?
I drew this over Lent, as I gave up social media. As previously mentioned, this also cut me off from my online outreach. One unexpected effect was that certain things that didn’t bother me that much, started to bother me. In essence, made me long for things that I did not have in this mortal life. In the absence of what I was “set apart” for, my peace faltered. It is those feelings of lost contentment that I poured into the drawing.
That experience is proof of the Galatians 5:16-17 concept. That it is better to replace bad things with good things, instead of just suppressing and leaving a void that leaves us vulnerable. (Luke 11:24-26) So often we can’t take hold of better things, because we fear the loss of letting go of the old, the tangible, and the familiar. We will never know the peace that transcends understanding, that leads to eternal life that way.
The Visual PARABLEist
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” -John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” -John 17:3
