The Proof's in the Pudding
By Stephen Reed|Published Date: September 28, 2009
We hear a good bit these days about the need for individuals to sacrifice for the betterment of the whole.
Whether from our government leaders, our employers, or our own families, the rallying cry of “Sacrifice!” is supposed to make us immediately bow down on bended knee in reverence.
This rallying cry still occurs today, despite the warnings given us by our libertarian friends. They sometimes smell manipulation in such pleas for self-sacrifice. And sometimes they may be right. A huckster can ask for sacrifice just as easily as someone with sincere intentions. So how to discern the genuine article from the counterfeit?
The Bible’s approach to virtuous conduct is to encourage consistency, to have the believer build on what they have with God’s help. Thus St. Paul says with what always seems to be renewed vigor with him, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). We hear that a lot in the New Testament, this never giving up, consistently confident that Jesus is always on our side, even when we let him down.
Another way to prove whether a leader calling for sacrifice is worth following comes from determining whether that leader radically identifies with those in his care—and the common cause they share.
 General George Washington had this quality in spades, and it was immortalized in the famous portrait, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” by the German-American artist, Emanuel Leutze. Washington was famous for braving all the elements his men dealt with, joining them at Valley Forge when other of his generals took shelter in warmer quarters in Philadelphia.
When a soldier sees his top leader empathizing with him like that, it stirs his morale.
Now consider Jesus. We oftentimes focus more on the climactic end of his stay here on earth, his death and resurrection, and the level of drama and pathos in those last chapters of the gospel is undeniable. But the truth is that Jesus was consistent and radically identified with us from the day He was born, and throughout His itinerant ministry.
First He comes to be with us in the most beautiful and humble of ways, identifying with each of us, as we all started off as newborns. For God to come among us was both marvelous and a sacrifice. C.S. Lewis put it humorously and well when he quipped,
“If you want to get an idea of what the incarnation must have been like for Jesus, imagine yourself waking up tomorrow as an earthworm.” So Jesus’ life begins with sacrifice. But does this continue? Does He live up to His Christmas billing?
Yes. True, He also enjoys the simple human activities of going to a wedding, spending time with children, going to the temple. But those are brief respites compared to the rest of His ministry. At nearly every turn, Jesus endures the sacrifices all teachers everywhere endure as He attempts to introduce the good news of the Kingdom of God to sometimes stubborn students.
But He presses on, dueling with the Pharisees, His own disciples, and ultimately the civil authorities. Along the way, His sacrificial life caused Him to identify with the pain of the lepers, the helplessness of the man born blind, the shame of the woman caught in adultery, the desire to count for something in Zacchaeus, the embarrassment of Peter. Consistently, he loves them all.
When you think about it, while Jesus did have moments of great joy here, His entire ministry was one gigantic sacrifice to get us to see the light. That He consummated and embodied totally this sacrificial love on the cross and in His resurrected life is fitting, amazing to us and yet consistent when one looks at the pattern of his entire life.
So how do we tell the difference between the huckster and the consistently empathetic leader? The real McCoy believes in his followers and their common cause enough to make the ultimate sacrifice of love for them. The huckster always finds a way out at the last minute, leaving it up to everyone else to cross the Delaware River alone.
Jesus is strong enough to be in the boat with us at all times, never running away, leaving us abandoned. That’s why He draws so many of us to Himself, ready now to make the crossing with Him, willing now to make our own sacrifice if necessary.
Stephen Reed, a Centurion in the 2008 class, is a former talk radio host and serves as grants and foundations specialist for PFM.
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