Living for Others

Jesus frees us from the need to live for others so that we can live for the sake of others.  It is a confusing idea because this formula suggests that others are both our problem, and also that others are our destiny.  How can this be?  The only solution is that what Jesus is engaged in is new creation.  Our new loyalty is to Christ alone, as our Savior and Lord.  He reserves the right to re-establish the grounds of our relation to the world.  If we know others, it is through knowing him.  If others know us, it is in knowing him.  Paul’s gospel is ours: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20) 

 

Our tribulations and trials are now seen through the lens of the cross of Jesus Christ, for his experience is now the closest to us.  As Americans, this is surprising because normally training gives way at some point to full responsibility.  At some point, the boss stops doing your job for you and expects you as a fully trained employee to do the work all by yourself.  But maturity always corresponds to deeper resemblance to the life of God rather than cohering to some cultural norm of our society.  The life of God is mutuality, inter-dependence, creative collaboration, and endless love.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-authors of a work of creation, and also of a work of redemption.  Jesus leads us not only to himself, but to a new relationship with his Father which is fashioned after his own relationship.  The Holy Spirit likewise points us to himself, and also beyond himself, to Jesus.  Our center of gravity is not in ourselves but in God, and his whole story as we find it unveiled to us in Scripture. 

 

This is the source of our identity, and its fruit is this: that we each become less brittle, less prone to wilt beneath the burdens of loving one another well.  Christ has established our lives so firmly in himself that we no longer need to manipulate one another, coerce one another, or compete with one another for exclusive prizes and elite recognition.  Nor do we discover what we shall become by looking at menus provided by marketers skilled in catering to the sovereign self.  Instead, we look to Christ, who does not cater to us, does not recognize our own selves as sovereign, and does not relate to us as a vendor happy to have our business. 

 

He has saved us from the other stories which threaten to overwhelm the story that he tells about us: that we are sheep, and that he is our shepherd.  He is the one who loves us, who knows our needs better than we do, and prepares for our future better than we can worry about it.  He turns nuisances, threats, and enemies into neighbors.  He frees us from the need to serve others so that we can freely live to serve others.