Finding Life (Matthew 10:24-39)

There is a scene in the original Cars animated movie where the main character, Lightning McQueen, is trying to turn a corner on a dirt race-track just outside of the town of Radiator Springs. Every time he tries to turn the corner, his wheels lose their grip in the gravel, and he ends up off the track. At that point, Doc Hudson Hornet, who McQueen doesn’t know was a former racing champion, advises the younger racer that sometimes you need to ‘turn right to go left.’ McQueen laughs at the advice and ignores it until later in the movie he sees Doc go around the same corner by doing what he said – turning right to go left.

Doc’s advice to McQueen sounds similar to what Jesus taught his disciples before he sent them out on their first missionary journey in this week’s Gospel reading from Matthew 10:24-39. Jesus warned them that there would be opposition to his message, and it would cause division in even their closest relationships. With the possibility of the Disciples being rejected or persecuted for publicly acknowledging Jesus, he said to them,

‘Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.’ (Matthew 10:39 NIV)

From a human point of view, these words make about as little sense as ‘turn right to go left.’ Losing life when we find it, and finding life when we lose it, sounds like the exact opposite of the way to find a good and fulfilling life. To understand what Jesus meant, first it would be good to look at how Jesus lived this teaching out in his own life, and then briefly examine some examples of how it works in ours.

Self-preservation is usually a natural human instinct when we are faced with a threatening situation. One of the amazing things about Jesus is that when he knew that going to Jerusalem would result in his arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion, he still continued down that path. Jesus knew that he would lose his life by going to Jerusalem. However, his main concern wasn’t self-preservation. Instead, he deliberately and intentionally continued towards that goal. There are two main reasons why he did that.

The first was faith. Jesus trusted that, not matter what happened, his life was in the hands of this heavenly Father who loved him and was pleased with him (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11). Jesus knew the prophesies of the Old Testament such as Psalm 16:10 which said that God would not let his Chosen One decay in the grave. Jesus gave up his life trusting in his Father’s promise to resurrect him. His faith was justified as the Father raised him to new life on the third day!

The second reason Jesus continued down the road to Jerusalem, even though his was going to lose his life, was because of his love for us. He knew that giving his life up on the cross was the only way for our relationship with our heavenly Father to be restored, for our sins to be forgiven, and for us to be saved. Jesus losing his life on the cross was the ultimate act of love for us. Jesus losing his life for us means that we can now find a life that is full of God’s infinite and powerful love for us. This is a life which is stronger than death and anything else which might try to take life from us.

Jesus found life for himself and for us by losing it as he went to the cross and died. He found life in the Father’s resurrection power who raised him from the dead. Jesus found life for us which we receive through faith in him. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, he embodied this teaching that we find life when we lose it for his sake, and he teaches us to do the same by taking up our cross and following him (Matthew 10:38).

We can find life by losing it in a number of ways:

If we try to find eternal life with God in heaven by trying to do good or keeping religious rules, we actually break Jesus’ command to love God and love others because our works are motivated by wanting something good for ourselves, not for God or others. We lose eternal life when we try to find it in the things we do. We find eternal life by giving up our efforts to earn our way in, and by trusting God’s promises of eternal life and loving others instead, just like Jesus did.

We find what life in this world is all about when we give up trying to find it for ourselves in the shallow and self-serving places our society tells us to look for life, and instead give our lives over to Jesus in faith and to others in love. When, like the Apostle Paul, we count everything that is important to our culture and society as loss, and look for life in relationship with Jesus through faith (Philippians 3:7-9), we find a greater sense of purpose, joy, and hope which sustains us through our entire lives.

We can also find life by following Jesus’ teaching as our communities of faith face an uncertain future because of declining numbers and aging membership. The more we try to work for our own self-preservation, the more our future becomes uncertain because our focus is on finding ourselves and our survival, instead of focusing on others and how we can extend God’s grace and love in Jesus to them. When we hand over the future of our congregations to God, trusting him with them and dedicating ourselves to loving others in faith, no matter what it might cost us, maybe we will find that the Holy Spirit will breathe new life into us.

It didn’t make sense to Lightning McQueen to ‘turn right to go left.’ Firstly, it took a lot of faith for him to give it a go, and then it took practice for him to do it well. At the end of the movie, however, McQueen did what he had learned, and it saved his championship race. It’s not easy for us to hear Jesus teach us that we will find life by losing it either. When we look at Jesus, we see that when he lost his life on the cross, trusting his Father in heaven and as the ultimate act of love for us, he found eternal life for himself and won eternal life for us. In all the various situations of life, for us as individuals and as communities of faith, instead of taking the corners which we come across the way we usually do, maybe Jesus is teaching us that losing it all and giving up our efforts to save ourselves by trusting him and loving others is the way we find the life God intends for us, now and forever.

More to think about or discuss:

• How would you react if someone told you that you can ‘turn right to go left’? Can you think of any other examples in life where you can achieve something by doing the opposite?
• What is your reaction to Jesus’ teaching that when we find life, we actually lose it, and when we lose our life for his sake, we find it? What questions do you have about his teaching?
• What do you think it might look like for you to lose your life for Jesus’ sake? How might that make a difference to you? Your relationships?