Mark 8:35-36
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
One of the characteristics that makes the Gospel story, and the Christian faith, beautifully compelling is its penchant for paradox. Often intertwined with the motif of “divine reversal” (first will become last and the last first, etc.), the Gospel paradox is emblematic in the saying of these verses: life is found in the loss of life, those who seek to gain the whole world truly forfeit their lives.
While the gravity of this teaching for its original audience is difficult for us to grasp and relate to, its spirit no doubt speaks to our human desire to accumulate, protect, and advance ourselves and our power—and how that often puts us at odds with the Way of compassion, justice, and self-sacrifice.
Gospel logic so often upends logics of the world.
How would your life, and relationships, be changed if they were shaped by this paradox?