For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

 

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."  

And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power."

 

- Mark 8:34—9:1 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."  Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, "Who do men say that I am?"  So they answered, "John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ."  Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.   And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He spoke this word openly.  Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

 

 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."  My study Bible reminds us that the cross was a dreaded instrument of Roman punishment, yet through Christ's life and Passion, it's also a symbol of suffering by Christians in imitation of Him.  We practice self-denial for the sake of the love of God and the gospel.  To accept this kind of suffering is not a punishment -- and neither is it an end in itself.  But it is a means to overcome the fallen world for the sake of the Kingdom and to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).  

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."  My study Bible comments that this is the central paradox of Christian living:  in grasping for temporal things, we lose the eternal; but in sacrificing everything in this world, we gain eternal riches that are unimaginable (1 Corinthians 2:9). 

 

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."   Here we're asked to examine the foolishness of striving to attain and accumulate worldly wealth and power -- only to lose everything we are.  My study Bible notes that none of this can redeem man's fallen soul, nor benefit a person in the life to come.

 

And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power."  My study Bible says that this is a reference to those who would witness the Transfiguration (upcoming in tomorrow's reading), as well as those in every generation who will experience the presence of God's kingdom.

 

 It's interesting that Jesus speaks of the soul and its loss, because in our recent readings and commentary, we've been discussing the soul.  That is, in yesterday's commentary, we spoke of the creation of humankind in Genesis 2:7, and how God's spirit, breathed into our form, created the living soul.  Here, Christ speaks of the eternal promise of our soul, and how that is destroyed through a life in which the spiritual realities of God are cast aside in favor of the striving to gain even "the whole world."  Christ's image of the Cross, and our lives in choosing to follow Him, is not simply an image of self-sacrifice.  It's not even a simple image of choice.  Rather, it's a teaching to us about the supreme importance of recognizing what we, as living souls created of both flesh and the spirit of God, must do in order to nurture that soul even into a promise of eternal life.  For if our living soul is created from flesh and the spirit, then pursuing only the material and being blind to the things of God is depriving us of the very oxygen ("breath") we need to sustain ourselves as a creation of God.  We cannot neglect the spirit and vivify the soul, because this is what we are made from.  Therefore, to "crucify" the passions and desires of the flesh, to "deny ourselves" and take up our own crosses, is to fortify the true life within us -- body, soul, and spirit.  In the Orthodox tradition of fasting and prayers, it is said that this is for the body, the body equally necessary to the soul, for we are created of both flesh and spirit -- unified through God's creation into the soul, the "living being" that we are.  If we look at Christ's teachings properly, they are not the kind of denial we might associate with painful deprivation.  They are rather the discipline, exercise, teaching, and fundamental nurturing that we need in order to grow into this promise of eternal life -- in the same way we understand the nurturing and discipline of the body to be healthy physically, and not deprivation.  To be a truly healthy living being (a soul), we need to understand Christ's way for us.  If we're true to what we know, it's understood that "gaining the whole world" takes some sacrifices.  One has to be prepared to support any ambition.  But what Christ is teaching us is to place our hearts on what is truly worth the effort, something that feeds, sustains, and builds all that we truly are, even into a life to come, which we cannot lose.  Let us work for what is truly worthwhile, and timeless.