St. Luke

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? (9:23-25)

This piece of text called my attention, mainly because when I read verse 24, I was remembered of the ‘do nothing theory’ of the Tao Te Ching. But losing your life is doing something, though I wonder how is it that you loose your life.

Perhaps it means to loose your identity. Because if it is, it would be logically connected to verse 23. What Jesus is telling is that if there were any man or women that was willing to give up his or her life and totally devote it towards him (Jesus) and God, that is, loosing his/her life for my sake, for Jesus’ sake.

Because of someone loosing an identity for Jesus and God, later on (which is, I suspect, at the end, in the Kingdom of God), that someone will receive it back, having therefore a life being dedicated to Jesus and God. So, it is either having an eternal life of dedication and 'loosing of identity', or a non-enternal life, yet original, and your own.

So, perhaps having little identity might be a bit boring, and, obviously, very imitative…I’m guessing it’s the reason why such a small amount of people decide to follow Christ; only the people that have enough faith and willingness to do it.

The people whom I’d call followers of Christ (‘losers’ of their lives and identities) would be the nuns, and all the priest and high priests, people devoted to Church, Baptism, etc.

Why can’t we be followers of Christ, and keep our own identity (life)? First we need to know for sure what is to be a follower. I am a believer, that is for sure…but as a follower I get that it would be someone following Christ, therefore, wanting to do the same things as he did; not exactly go around the world and perform miracles, but rather, take the same path he took.

So, the believers (me) believe in Christ, believe that everything he did was the right, that all his teachings were correct. But, though we trust and respect his teachings, we don’t turn into them, as that is what the believers do.

The last verse, Jesus is practically saying what a waste it is, to try to save your life and therefore be in advantage because of it. Supposedly, a man is ‘benefited’ because of keeping his own identity, thus he can have the whole world. This doesn’t really make sense, because I am sure most of us have kept our identities (and chosen to be believers), but yet don’t have the whole world.

Then, a man who has gained the world will be lost, because of having so much power, which will later surely become unmanageable. Jesus is saying that a man with such benefit and power, which will lately become desperate and crazy, is just the same as to be a cast away, or as I thought about it, a stranger in the Kingdom of God.