Come and Die

The Greeks wanted to see Jesus. We do not know why. It may have been a sincere desire to see and believe in Him. It may have been the novelty of asking for his autograph. We do not come to God in worship, or in our devotions, for the novelty of it. We are not here to see what miracle He might do this week, or what the preacher might say about the 7^th commandment. We are here to see Jesus, and when we come that way, He directs us to His sacrifice, giving up His life, and how we are to follow that pattern. As Bonhoffer famously said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” This is the point in our worship service where we die. We lay ourselves down on the altar, we submit to God’s work - cutting away and killing our sinful nature. We confess our sins. We do not cling to our life, to our desires, or to our sins, but bury them. Then God raises our new life as He wants it, with us forgiven and ready to be fruitful.

2/26/12