While teaching in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus posed the following question to both his disciples, and a crowd that had gathered to listen to him. “For what will it benefit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Immediately prior to asking this question, Jesus told his disciples and the crowd that whoever wants to follow him must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. (Mark 8:34) Jesus makes it clear that becoming his follower, that is, being his disciple, will not be an easy task, and people need to make a difficult choice. That choice is between pursuing one’s own worldly desires, or pursuing a life acceptable in the eyes of God. Whilst the two are not mutually exclusive, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to successfully achieve both simultaneously.
Worldly desires are usually concentrated on gaining wealth, possessions, status, and power. In the ever increasing secular nature of society today in Australia, where fewer and fewer people have a religious faith or belief, it is desires such as those just mentioned that society truly values. To live a life acceptable in the eyes of God, is of no value to someone who doesn’t believe there is a God. In the mind of such a person, it is obviously a foolish exercise and complete waste of time.
Jesus again makes it clear to those who want to become his disciple, that to pursue and achieve one’s worldly desires, comes at the expense of one’s soul; that is, eternal life. Being a Christian, means believing there is more to life than just our earthly or mortal existence. It means believing that our souls go on living forever with God after the death of our mortal bodies.
So we have a choice to make during our mortal life: to give priority to living a life that follows the teaching and example of Jesus, or to give priority to satisfying our worldly desires. There is nothing wrong per se in wanting to achieve wealth, possessions, status or power, but the problem occurs when we give priority to the pursuit of those desires over priority to the pursuit of God.
The Lord be with you.
Reverend Michael Danaher.
