Will You Lay Down Your Life for Jesus? - Part 1

Imagine you are walking along a busy road crowded with people and vehicles. Then you see a man crossing the road and at the same time notice that a heavy truck is speeding his way. The man seems oblivious of the impending accident.

Your throat dries up as you try to shout a warning. But suddenly everything freezes! The vehicles and the people all stop in their tracks, as if someone had pressed a pause button. Even the wind dies suddenly.

You are the only one affected by the great pause, and you hear a voice speaking to you. “Do you see what is going to happen? A man is going to die in that accident – and nothing can be done about it.”

As you stop to think of the impending horror, the voice interrupts your thoughts. “But there is one thing you can do.” You cheer up, willing to try anything to save the man.

“You can exchange places with him.”

You can hardly believe your ears. It becomes clear that you have been given an unbelievably strange choice. If you put yourself in the man’s shoes, you would save him by dying in his place. The scene then continues, except the man is on the sidewalk and you are in the middle of the road. The choice grips you deep down, challenging all you believe. Would you do it? Would you lay down your life for that man?

Imagine another scene that took place in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Crosses were being prepared for the criminals. Two were for thieves; one was for a bandit named Barabbas. If we were to focus on Barabbas, we would see him walking the streets of Jerusalem in a sorry state – beaten to a pulp, bleeding and publicly humiliated. He would then be crucified on the cross to die an utterly shameful, lonely and painful death.

Jesus prays in the Garden, struggling with the question: ‘Will you take his place?’ Beyond the thoughts of ending His earthly life in a gory death by crucifixion and taking His last breaths with a mocking, cruel crowd in the background, Jesus’ real struggle was with unseen realities. He would be carrying the sin of the world and be separated from His Father because of that sin – something He had never experienced in the stretch of eternity.

If the person about to have the accident in the scenario earlier was a family member, perhaps we would more readily exchange places. Or we might agree if it was for a friend – for Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Discussion Questions:

Meditate on the thought experiment described in this chapter. Would you be willing to lay down your life to save someone else? Go through a list of family, friends, acquaintances, fellow Christians and enemies. For whom among these would you be willing to die? Why? Why not the others?