Choose or Lose

Choosing eternal life instead of earthly life

02/18/2021

Luke 9:22-25 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all,  “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

Today’s scriptures suggest an intriguing irony that revolves around the word “life.” In the Old Testament in Deut. 30:19, Moses says: “Choose life,” but in the New Testament, Lk. 9:24, Jesus says: “Lose life.” The Old Testament commands us to “choose life” while the New Testament asks us to “lose life.” Which Testament is right: Moses or Jesus? The answer hinges on which kind of "life" we want to choose or lose.

The Old Testament offers us earthly life: land, livestock and legacy. Moses urged the people on the verge of entering the Promised Land: “For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land.” The New Testament suggests we seek heavenly life: marriage to Jesus the Lamb (Rev. 19:9), being seated on heavenly thrones (Eph. 2:6), and enjoy the Father’s mansion with many rooms (Jn. 14:2). Ironically, the scriptures invite us to both “choose life” and then surprisingly, to “lose life.”

It took me a long time to understand how the Old and New Testaments relate to each other. Have you ever wondered about that relationship? On the one hand, they work in harmony and wholeness, like one book in two volumes, or two chapters of the same book. The Old and New Testaments cut cleanly like two blades of the same scissors or fly smoothly like the two wings of one plane. The Testaments work in tandem; they always go together. St. Augustine put it perfectly saying: “The New Testament is concealed in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.” In other words, the New Testament would not make sense without the Old; it would be like a tree without roots.

And yet, on the other hand, we find a very distinct and dark line drawn between the Old and the New Testament that demands a decision on our part. Christians are called to relinquish the hopes of the Old Testament in order to inherit the promises of the New Testament. That is, we must not only compare the Old and the New Testaments to see what they have in common; we must also contrast the Old and New Testaments to discover where they conflict.

Think of it like this: it helps to study Isaac Newton’s law of gravity but we should not stay stuck in Newtonian physics but move forward and discover Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a better explanation of reality. Newton is like the Old Testament while Einstein is like the New Testament. Once you have learned the new physics (how the world really works), you would be foolish to go back to the old physics.

One theologian put this contrast in terms of the aphorism: “The good sometimes becomes the enemy of the best, if it keeps you from the best.” That is, don’t let the good (embodied in Moses) become the enemy of the best (incarnated in Christ), so we must let go of the good and grab hold of the best. In other words, the Old and the New Testaments have to be compared, but they also have to be contrasted. The two Testaments are both friends, but also foes.

My friends, how timely that we talk about the two Testaments at the beginning of Lent; indeed, on the second day of this sacred season. Why? Well, the very same dark dividing line between the Old and New Testaments is placed before us at Lent. On the one hand, we hear Moses command us to choose earthly life, while on the other hand, we hear our Lord beckon us to “lose earthly life” in order to gain eternal life. The day before Ash Wednesday (Mardi Gras) we "choose life," but the first day of Lent, we "lose life."

Maybe this contrast will help us make more sense of our Lenten sacrifices. When we perform extra prayer, when we give more money to church and charity, when we fast from food and drink in order to discipline our desires, we “lose life” like Jesus enjoined. But in the bargain we gain eternal life. And what’s more, we step out of the Old Testament into the New Testament, because sometimes the good can become the enemy of the best.

Praised be Jesus Christ!