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TL;DR:
Jesus calls His followers to reject the world's pursuit of wealth, comfort, and status in favor of self-denial, sacrificial service, and Kingdom values. Through Scripture and a personal missionary story, this devotional challenges believers to examine their priorities and live with an eternal perspective.
A devotional reflection on related passages in Luke 9, Luke 17, and Matthew 16
9 23 Then [Jesus] said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?"
17 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
16 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
Jesus' words in Luke 9 reveal that life's true value is not measured by our monetary worth but by our willingness to follow Him. That contrast between worldly and eternal values is vividly illustrated in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.
She was blond. She was cute, and she was in two of my high school classes in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Unfortunately, too many years have passed for me to remember her name.
In the summer before my senior year, we moved to Guthrie, where my father became the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene. There, in my last year of high school, I met my blond classmate.
I was a little sweet on her. I'm not sure she ever was sweet on me. But at least we did get to know each other. One day, she found out I was planning to be a missionary.
"A missionary?" she exclaimed. "Oh, Howard, don't throw your life away!"
Throw it away? That stunned me. Growing up as a pastor's kid, I thought missionaries were people you looked up to. You read their books. You prayed for them. You loaded up cars and went to zone rallies where they spoke. Missionaries, to me, were heroes.
That day in Guthrie, I ran head-on into values different from my own. My classmate and I measured life by two entirely different sets of values. And that day, our value systems collided.
Jesus, through His story of the rich man and Lazarus, highlighted this difference in values. The rich man was not guilty of great crimes. But he apparently regarded life as one continuous party. He didn't seem to understand what truly matters or what is ultimately at stake in life. As he came face-to-face with his grave miscalculation, the rich man pleaded with Abraham to help his brothers see the truth.
It is easy for us to see some of the applications of this parable in the extremes of human life. But we should also ask ourselves: What does the story of the rich man and Lazarus say to me and to my lifestyle?
Far too often, the devil successfully tempts good Christians to accept worldly values rather than godly ones.
For instance, during one Home Assignment period, I met a young Nazarene pastor who said to me: "If you haven't made it in the church by the time you're 40, you never will."
Make it? What kind of language is that? Where does that kind of thinking fit into Kingdom values? This is not a corporate ladder we're trying to climb, is it?
Once in a while, the devil comes around to me and whispers, “Hey, you could be making a lot more money in a U.S. church. You could have a much nicer home and drive a much better car.”
In those moments, I have to remember which value system guides my life. My standard of living is a good deal above that of Lazarus, and he, not the rich man, knew the true values in life.
—Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
I wrote this devotional blog post while Barbara and I were missionaries in Italy. It is one of a series of 52 brief devotionals written for The Standard, a weekly Faith Connections take-home resource for adult Sunday school classes published by The Foundry.
Jesus' words in Luke 9:23–25, Luke 17:33, and Matthew 16:24–27 remain deeply relevant today. In these passages, Jesus emphasizes self-denial and the willingness to lose one's life for His sake. In a world often consumed by self-gratification and fleeting desires, His words remind us to practice spiritual discipline and prioritize eternal values over earthly pleasures. They call us to examine our priorities. They urge us to embrace a life of sacrificial love and service that mirrors Christ's example. In cultures marked by materialism and instant gratification, Jesus' words challenge people to live with an eternal perspective. He calls us to recognize that true fulfillment and significance come from wholeheartedly following Him, even if it means surrendering our desires and comforts. Jesus invites us to embrace the cost of discipleship and consider the profound joy to be found in losing oneself in service to others and to the Kingdom of God.
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