We all try to save. But have you ever thought you had the best deal ever to find out in the end that the deal cost you more than you wanted to pay?? More time, more money! More, more, more!!
Dan and I had a night like that this past winter. We had a coupon for a free pizza at a local restaurant. After a hard day of work, we looked forward to our free meal. I was going to go pick up the free pizza, take it home and Dan was going to meet me at home. Wrong! You had to dine in. I called Dan. He said he would meet me at the restaurant. We would have to buy drinks, but at least the pizza would be free.
After I was seated, I began to look over the menu only to find that the free pizza was actually a gyro pizza with goat cheese!?! Can you even call that pizza?? It was the only choice for the free pizza. No mention of that on the coupon that brought me to the restaurant.
Dan arrived and I explained to him that our deal was not the super deal we had expected. A gyro pizza? Can you leave off the gyro meat and goat cheese and replace it with tomato sauce, pepperoni, sausage and mozzarella please??? We were both starving. We decided NOT to use the coupon and just order our favorite - a thin crust pepperoni, sausage and mushroom pizza. It was delicious, but there was nothing free about this meal. And the nightmare continued. . .
I walked out to get in my car and someone had backed into my front bumper. The person was honest and had actually sat outside waiting for me to arrive to make things right. So that part was good, but it did take more time. More, more, more!!
Dan and I have laughed about this night many times since. “Let’s save some time and money and go pick up some free pizza?” Right?!?
And the parallel to our Chrisitan life? Seeking to save ourselves will never work. The world, the flesh and the devil have no super deals. We will never save, and we will always have more to lose. We’ll end up groveling through life in our human attempt at some lasting legacy that will fade over time like an illegible inscription on an ancient tombstone in an overgrown graveyard. It truly is just more to lose.
Four times in Luke 9 you find the Greek word apollymi which means to fully destroy. It is found twice in our verse for today.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”
Luke 9:24
This is a sister verse to our theme verse for the Loser2021 Bible Study series.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated “lose” in Luke 9:24a, our verse for today.