Bridge 2 Revisit As We Move To Bridge 5

[HKHaugan]

Bridge 2. Moment. Mk.8:35-36 “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” In Mark each moment of life seems saved then lost.

The emphasis on this bridge is found in Mark using the same expression as Matthew (Gk. eneken emou, for my sake) but with a slightly different flavor. Mark is more direct. He uses it to say 'for me.' He sees Jesus emphasizing how personal He can be in the moment we need Him which is every next moment. It's more exacting. Jesus is being very personal in every moment. He knows our fears and anxieties in those next moments. We are always facing the big 'if.' What if this or that happens? What if I'm in a situation I can't handle? What if I say the wrong thing, make a mistake, don't have a strong enough resume, have the wrong clothes for the occasion, everybody starts looking at me for an answer, I don't have the right answer, don't look the part, if he's bigger and stronger, she's prettier and younger, he's got more money than I do, no one knows me, I'm too big, small, dark, lighter, short, tall, bald, and on and on?. Those are all 'if' moments when you are on the spot or at least think you are. What do you do? Will you be ready? Some of those moments seem life-threatening in the social and economic sense. Those moments are when you really need a backup. Who has your back?

Have you ever a kid say, “If I don't get those shoes or that sweater, or tablet, or gimmick, I'll die!” As a youth pastor years ago I took a large group of kids to a conference. After the second day one of the girls said her new brown loafers were missing and she knew she had put them under her bunk. It so happened that they were the 'in' shoes for kids at that time. We all looked. What had happened was one of the other girls on the trip had taken them and hid them in her duffel bag. Of course she was exposed when found out but the point here was she had that moment of choice that meant if she has those shoes when she went back to school she would have social acceptance which for her was life. Fortunately, we were able to deal with it there in the context of prayer and how others had the same kinds of temptations. She was forgiven and experienced it from the other kids who, to the person. It brought her a deeper acceptance than before. However, imagine what that girl felt the moment she was caught. Death, social death, fear, isolation, images of punishment, parental hurt and ongoing rejection from others.

In this world as life goes on everyone has crisis moments far more serious. If you try and rely on books you've read, get 'expert's' advice, use pretense or a manufactured strategy to protect your every next moment, the only backup you have is fear. You may get through what's facing you in that moment and say, “Phew, made it through that!“ and take that 'sigh of relief' but what about the next and the next after that? There's a real biblical answer here. If you look closely to how the 'if' word is used in Scripture, Matthew 4, you'll find that 'if' is how the devil uses it to tempt a hungry Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread...If you are the Son of God throw yourself off this temple”...I will give you all this (referring to the rulership of the world) if you will fall down and worship me...(vss.3, 6, 9).” It was his attempt to separate Jesus from His Father.

The devil does the same to separate us from one another. It's his strategy when someone jabs you with the words or the look that says “If you were really a Christian you wouldn't”...whatever. The moment you get a challenge to prove yourself you know someone is trying to put you on spiritual thin ice to see if you are for real. It's a moment the tempter tries to separate you from God. Will you respond emotionally, defensively, intellectually? On whom do you depend at that moment?

In contrast Jesus uses 'if' when He wants to bring you to His Father, through Himself by the Holy Spirit. He wants to strengthen interpersonal relationships, “If you love one another”...”If you knew who was asking you for a drink of water..He would have given you living water” ...”If anyone is thirsty let Him come to me and drink (13:35, 4:10, 7:37).” Interesting isn't it? You can discern quickly the spirits that drive others. The worst of the 'ifs' thrown at Jesus were at the Cross from the onlookers, some of the rulers, soldiers and one of the thieves on a cross next to Jesus (Luke 23:35-39). His reactions while dying were classic in their uniqueness. The nails driven into His hands were really spiritual nails being driven into the world's concepts of life, personal identity, lifestyle, love, intellect and religion, thus signing their death warrant.

Back to 'if.' It's a subtle, hypothesizing word. It lures you to internal confusion with a question like 'What if...'' Think about this one. You are in a canoe with your mother and your wife, The canoe flips. Which one do you save? This is just the kind of argumentation the devil really enjoys. That's why spiritual subjects involving morality, ethics, doctrine and religion are such volatile subjects. Hypothesizing is the devils' playground. Think of all the hypothetical arguments we've been drawn into. In regard to faith no one has ever been hypothesized or argued into God's Kingdom.

'If' is just one of those challenges to throw you off balance so that you will try and save yourself in the moment with a defensive attitude. Emotional, witty, impetuous comments only fuel unbelief in others. One thing to always keep in the front of your mind. We know the end of the story. God wins. Quiet assured patience is being humble before God in the presence of others. The Holy Spirit is a great traffic director. Give Him those moments, those spiritual inches, while you are on your way. That's the Lord Jesus being personal in the moment of need. It's the 'for me' moment with which He gifts us. Perhaps we can see why Jesus says we need to take up our cross. It is our salvation in every next moment. As Jesus had faith in His Father and His will on His Cross so faith in Him is the cross He asks us to bear in every moment..

However, there is a second part of Jesus' call losing what we think life is for Him. He says, “Whoever loses their life for me and the Gospel will save it.” The first centers on Him as a person. The second is on what He has done to save us, the Gospel, the good news, the work He came to do on our behalf. Basically we can say the Scriptural record, the Bible, is the Gospel in detail. It is the experience of God the Son from Genesis through Revelation who has revealed God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

When we talk about the 'Good News,' the Gospel, the whole of Creation is its beginning and Jesus is the One through whom all of it began, “Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made (Jn.1:2).” Then the history of God's people beginning with Abraham and the progressive unfolding of God's plan to make a way for everyone to come to Him. The ongoing line of prophets correcting sin and evil with the hope filling message of a Messiah who would bring them back to their divine source. The whole eternal project so enormous that it is beyond our comprehension yet delivered simply in a message where personal faith in One Person, Jesus, is the gateway from being lost to found. He takes us from aloneness to being in a family, overcoming fear with faith, having a detailed manual giving us an eternal truth map as we journey from one moment to the next into forever. How to be a disciple who not only lives forever but a disciple who helps others find Jesus and themselves forever. When Jesus says He has come to give people the abundant life He meant it for right now in every moment (John 10:10).

So when Mark quotes Jesus He is emphasizing that both the Person and what He came to do, the Good News in the Word, is the Gospel. That is the image He has given us to live with, a pattern for our activity as His disciples. When we lose the false pretense of survival from one moment to another as life and receive Jesus we become conscious images of God with living substance and boundless purpose, a life saved, saved for Him into eternity.

So Bridge 2 has been found too dangerous to continue on so we make a u-turn called repentance and on the other side of that repentant exchange for forgiveness lies the vision of a new bridge, Bridge 5, the Bridge to Eternity.