Sermons · Wilson Pruitt

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descriptionA brief sermon fragment meditating on John 12:25. The pastor does a Greek word study showing the 'life' Jesus speaks of is psyche (the soul, the essence of who you are) rather than zao (mere biological living, root of our word 'zoo'), correcting a billboard on Highway 71 that misread the term. The point: the question is not whether you love being alive but whether you love being you—and loving yourself too much means losing yourself. He then applies it to the fishermen disciples, imagining that Jesus may have first called others (Fred and Larry) who clung to their nets and said no, asking whether we love what we have too much to follow.
tagssermon, theme/take-up-your-cross, theme/self-love, theme/scripture-interpretation, theme/call-to-discipleship, theme/cost-of-discipleship, theme/identity-in-christ

2 min read

Scripture: John 12:25

A brief sermon fragment meditating on John 12:25. The pastor does a Greek word study showing the ‘life’ Jesus speaks of is psyche (the soul, the essence of who you are) rather than zao (mere biological living, root of our word ‘zoo’), correcting a billboard on Highway 71 that misread the term. The point: the question is not whether you love being alive but whether you love being you—and loving yourself too much means losing yourself. He then applies it to the fishermen disciples, imagining that Jesus may have first called others (Fred and Larry) who clung to their nets and said no, asking whether we love what we have too much to follow.

Illustrations: psyche-vs-zao-greek-study, zao-modern-zoo, highway-71-billboard, fred-and-larry-refuse-call

Fragments

He also says in John 12, Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” The word translated here as ‘life’ is psyche, which more often means soul. It is not life as in living, that is Zoo, Zao. Like are brothers and sisters in Christ on 71. Their billboard definition is not accurate to the Greek of the Bible or the ancient world. Zao just means to live like a monkey or mouse. Zao has the same root as our modern Zoo. A zoo is where living things are. Jesus in John 12 isn’t talking about that kind of life but the essence of who you are. That is what psyche means. If you love yourself too much, you will lose yourself. It is not do you love being alive, but do you love being you.

John 12 could be talking about the fisherman. Do you love what you have right now so much that you can’t put down your nets? What if Andrew and Peter were not the first people Jesus came to? What if Jesus came to some other folks, Fred and Larry, who said no. They said they think things are fine and they didn’t want to put down your nets.

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