Self-denial, Restlessness and the Meaning of Life

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Mat 11:28 

Few subjects stir the heart of humankind like the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ Certainly it is not a question which comes up in every day conversation, but certain occasions force it upon the lips, like when the pitcher in the home has broken (or where the daughters of music have gone silent), and where the feelings of worthlessness and failure ran amok. But without doubt this famishment starts in childhood and it doesn’t stop until we breathe our last, ‘Where did I come from?’ asks the restless child, ‘And where did God come from?’ he asks next. And now we are breathless about where Corona came from and when it will end.  Something burns inside the heart – and since we can’t reach the heart through the visible eye – we usually lend the eyes to the mind – and there it keeps us awake in a flame of scalding questions. We are starved. And we can only end that hunger through knowledge... But who will give us the answers?

But we need not grapple, and we need not be anxious, all we need do is believe that old, old God of the Bible again. For it is in him that Jesus offers this timeless comfort, ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And Augustus the theologian and Bishop grunted, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

The queen of Sheba was a great woman ‘from the south’, and she heard the fame of Solomon, but she didn’t rest there, she embarked on a journey to far Jerusalem to find out the truth for herself. How far have you gone in your search for the truth? And this was her testimony after she met and saw Solomon herself: ‘It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard’ (1Ki 10:6-7). No doubt you are restless about what this present life portends, for who isn’t? And no doubt you have heard the fame of Jesus Christ since you were born, but now why don’t you go to him ‘personally’ to find out the truth for yourself? For ‘behold, a greater than Solomon is here’, he says. And now you don’t need to go very far to Jerusalem to meet him, for he is right here where you are right now, and ‘even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.’ Open that Book and you will meet him. The answer lies in me, says Jesus. The answer lies in self-denial, self-denial, and self-denial. ‘Deny what you know, and I will teach you things you have never known.’ But you cry this is very painful! And he says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit’ (Joh 12:24). 

 

·      Do I worry about life? He says ‘I am life.’

·      Do I worry which way to go? He says “I am the way.’

·      Do I wonder like Pilate ‘What is truth?’ Jesus says, ‘I am the truth.’

·      Do I worry what I will eat? He says ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever…’

·      Do I worry about what I will eat? He says, ‘Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?’ 

·      Do I worry about children? He says, ‘Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.’

·      Do I worry where I will live in future? He says ‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.’

·      Do I worry that I have nothing? He says ‘Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’ 

·      Am I sick? He says ‘I am the LORD that healeth thee’.

·      Do I worry how I should believe all these? He says, ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’ 

·      Do I worry that I am thirsty still? He says, ‘But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’ 

Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come I hither to draw!