Is a powerful motivator. What little control we think we have, we will hold onto at all costs.
Which is part of what makes the Gospel of Jesus so hard to swallow. His “good news” is that you have to be willing to lose in order to win, to be a loser in the eyes of others in order to truly end up a winner. The very real challenge to our ego, to our desire for control, is that letting Jesus have his way means giving up our way.
“If we let him go on like this…”
What will we lose?
The Jews in Jesus’ context were fearful of losing “both [their] temple and [their] nation.” As an oppressed people living under the Roman Empire, without any true autonomy, these were symbols of what little control they had.
If you let Jesus go on like this, what do you stand to lose?
The invitation of Jesus is the invitation to give up control. To accept whatever losses may come as a result of saying “yes” to him, because the gains are so much greater. To give up whatever freedoms we think we now have, because only a life under his kingship is truly free.
