The gospels upend every human notion of power.
The cosmos—superclusters of galaxies, delicate wildflowers in countless meadows, every ocean that teams with life—thrives on one source of energy: a hidden force of charity that does not seek its own, a Person with an unremarkable face who came not to be served by his creation but to serve.
When I talk about this personal force that John calls Love I often describe it as some of the first Christians did. They name his passion for everyone and everything in creation extreme humility.
The biggest challenge presented to humanity by Humility’s gospel is our mistaken bedrock projection that what drives the universe is an unbridled might that rules by fiat.
This is after all the only form of power we humans recognize and so we make our gods in its despotic image: brute force, cunning strategy, ruthless competition, and, above all else, "winning."
It goes against everything that man has ventured and everything that man has built to accept the idea that the authentic power that sustains all movement and all life, that binds all things together—from subatomic particles to intergalactic distances—is measureless self-sacrificial Love.
"If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it."
Jesus is not just talking about your mortal existence but is describing how *everything* works.
The losers in Christ’s scenario do not "win" but instead come to participate forever in the life of him who lays down his life for the life of the world and in so doing—by a great humility—redeems the cosmos and makes all things new.
This trust—that to give your life away is to keep your life—is not going to get you anywhere in the world humanity has made. If you live and act on this trust you will be crucified.
You can serve the crucifying world—this world that Christ loved before it loved him—by embracing his sacred path of humility and by renouncing all other ways and means and kinds of power.
All of them.
Political. Military. Intellectual. Physical. Artistic. Genetic. Technological.
All.
It is telling that almost every news story that compels the urgent attention of Christians these days can only do so because we have denied that we serve a Lord that rules by a mysterious humility that conquers all hearts by self-giving.
We are concerned about losing our “life” in this world. We fear the way of the cross.
Christians do not trust that we will be rescued from the cross but that after enduring it we will be resurrected.
The real power that holds everything in movement and life is an indestructible Love in human flesh that has no beginning and no end precisely because it has been crucified.
And this is how in the face of all our crucifixions he has the authority in the face of death—his enemy and ours—to give us his favorite commandment: do not be afraid.