Does Jesus have a right to say that? Can he really tell people that "...the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life(vs. 25)?"
I think so... I do not think that he is being morbid or mean. I think he is pointing us to something greater... namely, eternity. Jesus is saying that his time is coming. That his life is almost over. Yet, he is not upset. He knows that he will be glorified and he will be seated with his Father... now he calls us to that sort of dismissal of our lives here.
But, if you are honest, do you really hate your life? Are you really anxious about spending forever with God? Most of us are actually in love with this world and we need to have the world pried away from us. Jesus says in Luke 14 that 'anyone who doesn't renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple. (vs 33 ESV)' What that means is that Jesus needs to be more precious than our family, more precious than our health, more precious than our careers, or our friends. He should be everything and we should be able to say with the apostle Paul, 'to live is Christ, but to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20)' If I am here I can glorify Christ but if I die I get to go see Him face to face!? Win win. Don't let life be more precious than Jesus. Renounce your life. Hate it. Pray that you could say with the psalmist, "whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. (Psalm 73:25)"
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