This Lent: Eliminating, Imitating or Mirroring?

Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:5b

Can we live like Jesus lived? I have been intrigued by this question for quite some time.

Jesus came to earth as a human. Scriptures point to the fact that in every respect he was like us.  Which means as a human being He had also inherited a “flesh” with a tendency towards sin (Hebrews 2:14). Though similar in everything there is a big difference between us and Jesus.   Jesus didn’t sin (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus dying for us on the cross is what the Lenten season is all about. But it wasn’t an easy journey towards the cross.  It was possible for Jesus to bear the cross because of the life He lived.

Jesus knew the human condition not only as a theory but from the first-hand experience. Every day of His life Jesus used the “cross”. This was the place where He said “No” to the demands of His flesh and by the strength given to Him by God, He endured and won the victory.

Dallas Willard in his book The Spirit of Disciplines says that we suffer from the “gopher hole syndrome”: every time we close up one hole then another pops up! The holes are just symptoms. The real problem that we need to deal with is the gopher. We need to dig down deep and keep digging till we find that and remove it. When the gopher is gone then the holes will go away.

We still try to fill the holes instead of removing the gopher in us.
How can we remove the gopher and live and be like Jesus?

We cannot live and be like Jesus by eliminating or imitating but by mirroring.

We try to give up many things during the lent. But elimination doesn’t deal with the root, in the same way, pruning a tree doesn’t change its nature.
Just imitating the way Jesus lived makes us like artificial plastic flowers.

So how then can we have the mindset of Jesus? Charles Spurgeon in his meditation on the above verse tells us that we can have the mindset of Jesus and live like Jesus by Mirroring.

Charles Spurgeon further says, “When you become a mirror you are transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ by receiving, retaining and reflecting Jesus in your life.”
A mirror never creates an image. It only receives one. The image is preserved until the person is in front. When we receive Jesus, there is a change in our inner self and Christ’s image is retained in us. And finally, you reflect the image. This is different from imitation. Imitation is mechanical and occasional. But a mirror doesn’t have to work to reflect. You start to reflect Jesus because now it has become your second nature.

So let us together journey to live and be like Jesus by receiving what Jesus said and did in his life on this earth. Once we have received his teachings let us pray that it be retained in our hearts and minds. And once it is retained the third process comes in naturally of reflecting him since it becomes our nature.

This Lenten Season let this be our song

Yeshuve pole aakuvan (to be like Jesus)
Yeshuvin vaaku kaakuvan (to discern and hold his Word)
Yeshuve nokki jeevippan (to look unto Him and live)
Ivaye kamshikyunnu njan (this is my desire, this is my longing)

Can we take up the challenge this Lent season to stop living the way we are living and choose to be and live like Jesus?