The Least, the Lost, the Little, & the Dead

The good news about the Good News is that everyone, bar none, fits into one or all of the categories above. The problem is that some don't know it yet or refuse to know it. Some think they are pretty successful, morally, socially, or financially, and just might have what it takes to be pleasing to God. On the other hand, some believe they have gone too far into sin to ever reach God. The Good News is that God meets us in the desert of our death (our recognition of our leastness, littleness, and lostness), not in the garden of self-improvement.

Jesus said in Mark 9:33, “If anyone would be first, he must be last (eschatos) of all and servant (diakonos) of all”  Jesus then puts before them a child (paidion—neuter diminutive= little child) and tells his audience that unless they become like children, they will never enter the kingdom at all.  Finally, He says that whoever receives one such child in Hs name receives not only Him but the one who sent Him, and that “he who is the least (mikroteros, littlest) among you is the one who is great.” No mention of the "successful Christian life" here. Children don't have to try to be children; they just are. Man does not have to try to be childlike or humble, but just recognize that that is what man is before God.

Losing one's life is not one more thing to do

Jesus further tell us in Matt 16:24-25,  “If anyone wants to come with me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For if anyone wants to save his life, he will lose (apolesei) it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Losing one's life is not one more thing to do. It is merely the recognition that we are dead ducks without Christ and should stop trying to scrape out an existence on our own power and call it "life". Lucky for us that Faith isn't a work either-- just a trust that Christ meets us in our littleness and does everything that needs doing, now and forever. What a relief! God says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".

God is determined to move before we do. In fact, Romans 5:8 tells us,   “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. That is, lostness and death are the only tickets we need to the Supper of the Lamb. When God pardons, therefore, He does not say He understands our weakness or makes allowances for our errors; rather He disposes of and He finishes with, the whole of our dead life and raises us up with a new one.

He remembers our iniquities no more in the oblivion of Jesus’s death.  He finds us, in short, in our littleness, lostness, and death; and in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, He puts us on His shoulders rejoicing and brings us home.

If you find this concept of being the lost, the least, the little, and the dead a little distasteful, then your not alone. The people of Jesus' day expected Jesus to bring about a successful kingdom on earth during their lifetime. Even His closest disciples couldn't get a grasp of Jesus coming to die. Somehow Jesus's plan to die didn't look like it held much of a future for right-minded successful types who wanted to be a part of this new kingdom.

Christ has done what needs doing

Until that future physical kingdom, the current kingdom life looks and feels like the path to death. When you finally let youself in on the joke that you have nothing worthwhile to protect (position, wealth, power, ambition, image, being right, time, etc), it isn't such a long trip after all to your death. You're already there! You truly can sense the freedom to love God & others, not from compulsion or trying hard, but because Christ has done what needs doing, and you, my friend, begin to understand faith as childlike trust in the One who bore your sin--past, present, and future-- and is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Your life is "hid" in His (Colossians 3:3--"For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God"). The Least, the Lost, the Little, and the Dead . . . the objects of Christ's love and grace . . . no effort required . . .now that's Good News!