28.05 | The Prize
Philippians 3:1-4:1
‘Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’
Philippians 3:13-14
Every year, our primary school was invited to a garden party at Lady Bird’s house. Lady Bird, of Bird’s Bakery, whose bakeries were scattered around the East Midlands, lived near our school. Her house and garden were beautiful and expansive, and so simply being there was memorable. But it was also the place where awards were given for this annual art competition.
This year, the theme was ‘Gardens,’ and I’d spent hours painting a picture of the most beautiful garden I could imagine. Trying to give it a competitive edge, I’d painted two hands, opening windows that framed the picture, onto this lush scene.
I won first prize.
The prize was crayons—but of a quality that I’d not seen or used before. I remember well how much I treasured those crayons, and the very real joy of receiving them.
There’s been a trend in the church in the West, in recent years, to emphasise how much Jesus will do for you in following Him. The Gospel message we have preached has so often been the (biblical) invitation to ‘life in all its fullness’—meaning and purpose and freedom and dignity.
It’s true.
But it’s also missing something.
Because, we can end up hearing such words, and bringing an assumption to our Christianity.
Jesus will help me fulfil my dreams.
My career. My relationships. My health. My finances. My holiday budget. My reputation.
I get this. I’ve been a Christian for twenty years, and the presence and lead of Jesus in my life has been the single greatest part of my every year since. I can think of no fuller Way of being and living.
And yet, Paul wants to draw us to a greater aspiration today. One that looks at his own life, and names every single place of prominence and platform and privilege as worthless in comparison to the simple knowing of Jesus. The word he uses is the Greek word skubalon—a word that literally means ‘what is thrown to the dogs’, and metaphorically means ‘excrement.’ Were these details of his life a real part of his story? For sure. Did they in many ways prepare him for ministry? Absolutely. And yet, he places no confidence in them. They are not his joy. They are not his prize.
The call of Jesus is not to the accumulation of Western comforts. It is far greater than this. It is to the death and resurrection of your very soul, being liberated from every lesser desire unto the single longing for the greatest desire in all the universe—the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through resurrection moments and through crucifixion moments, through death and glory, through honour and indignity.
Comfortable? Not exactly.
And yet, my friends, it is the way of far greater beauty. When we start to grasp that the comfort and peace and fullness and glory that we desire is good, and yet it is only found when the faithful weld their lives to Jesus so permanently, that all circumstances—good and difficult—become an opportunity for intimacy, and every situation of life becomes an opportunity to walk, limp, and dance towards the upward call of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Stand firm, my friends.
The prize is greater than all your wildest imaginings.
Your citizenship is secure in heaven.
And the upward journey continues today.
Reflect:
Hold before Him your places of joy.
Hold before Him your places of heartache.
In each of these, point your heart afresh, in the presence of the Spirit, to the unflinching aim of knowing Jesus in each and every scenario.
Pray:
Father,
I want to know Christ—
To know His thoughts and ideas,
His feelings and His vision,
His heart and His voice and His Way.
I want my life to be animated by His smile and His tears,
His longings and His plans.
I want to live out from the ambitions that He has,
Giving all things for His cause.
Father,
I want to know the power of His resurrection—
Seeing and experiencing the outpouring of the power that shook that tomb
And crushed death and all hell before His wounded feet.
I want to see His healing and life overspill in me and through me
Into this hurting world.
And Father,
I want to know the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings—
In those very places of my greatest pain and lack,
That these places for me
Not be examples of my abandonment,
But be unto the curation of heavenly longings in my heart,
And an inhabitation of the greater way of love.
For He, my Lord Jesus, is my prize,
And the call I answer leads upward:
Through the privilege and pain and glory and tears,
And the abounding, laughing, exhilarating joy
Of your eternity before me.
May your Spirit cultivate this heart in me,
Unto the glory of the Name of Jesus.
In His Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
1 Kings 10:14-11:43 | Proverbs 15:19-27