YOUTH MATTERS: Where does Jesus lead us?

By Sam Clear, Director of the Office of Youth Evangelisation

Have you ever wondered why Jesus died on the cross for us? And what I mean by that is, why didn’t Jesus simply say, “Touch that tree over there and pray this specific prayer seven times and you’ll go to heaven.” Or why not simply give us the ground rules of, “Love one another,” and then ascend into heaven? Why did the story of salvation culminate on the cross?

Most of us know the explanation about the need for an unblemished lamb to be sacrificed, which Jesus fulfils, but I have often overlooked a particular element in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, that Jesus exemplified what he taught. Calvary is the perfect example.

Jesus wasn’t in the habit of telling us to do one thing and then excusing himself to do another. He led through example. Jesus implored us to love one another to the extent that he himself has loved us (John 5:12). In order to follow Jesus we are asked to carry our own cross; “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).

On Calvary, on the cross, Jesus shows us how to live. It is in pouring ourselves out for one another that we truly live. Following Jesus, living life to the full, means following to Calvary.

We don’t follow Jesus to riches and fame, nor to great relationships and comfort. We follow to selflessness, to love. We are blessed if our journey does indeed contain great relationships and comfort, perhaps even riches, but they are not our destination.

Our fulfilment is found in pouring ourselves out in love for one another, in being lifted up alongside Jesus while trusting in the resurrection. “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it,” (Matthew 10:39).

Jesus came to redeem us from sin in order that we might enter into love, not by a magic wave of the wand, but by the only way possible, by following and uniting ourselves to Christ. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory,” (Romans 8:17).

In our speech, in our everyday encounters, through our desires and hopes, through our opportunities to forgive and reconcile, through our opportunities to give, every moment is shaped by the destination we are called to follow Him to.