Happiness is like a Butterfly
The reason this message is called Happiness is a Butterfly is because Nathaniel Hawthorne once famously said, “Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” …
For right now, we’re going to let that idea just kind of flitter around our heads like a butterfly for a while without chasing after it. If we’re lucky, then—perhaps also like a butterfly—the reason why this message is called Happiness is Butterfly might “alight” upon us too!
But here’s where I want to begin. Let me ask you this: Was Jesus happy?
Maybe that word “happy” is too vague. How about this! Was Jesus content or fulfilled? Was he satisfied and fully engaged with the direction his life had taken? Or was he frustrated and discontent?
What do you think?
I hope there isn’t much debate or doubt that Jesus was truly content, fulfilled, and even delighted by the direction his life was taking him. Even today, when for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus informs his disciples that, “he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised,” even today Jesus seems resolved, determined, and content.
In fact, isn’t that why Jesus called Peter Satan today? Jesus felt Peter was trying to stop or prevent Jesus from reaching his life’s goal?
Jesus was determined and passionate to do what was before him. And, even though it would involve tortuous suffering, there is a sense that Jesus really was content or even happy to do it! And he didn’t want Peter trying to stop him!
Now, I admit that different gospels depict Jesus’ attitude toward his life’s goal differently. The Gospel of Mark, for instance, portrays Jesus’ walk to the cross as a sorrowful progression toward increasing loss and betrayal.
In the Gospel of Mark, then, I don’t think we could say that Jesus was particularly content or satisfied with what was happening to him. But he was unwavering.
The other gospels, however—including Matthew, which is our focus this year—show Jesus as both accepting and content with the path he needs to take. As he announces for the first time today, “he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering … and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
But, rather than be sad or seek a shoulder to cry on, Jesus seems resolved and content to be underway! In that sense, I think we even can say that Jesus was happy about it. He wanted to get going!
Ok. What we’ve been talking about so far is the question of whether Jesus was happy or content with the direction his life was taking. And I hope you agree that we’ve found that, yes, despite facing inevitable suffering and opposition, Jesus was determined, content, and even passionate about fulfilling his task. In that sense, Jesus was happy!
Now, however, I want to shift to another question. What do you think? Does Jesus also want you to be happy, content, fulfilled, and even delighted by the life you’re living?
I hope, without hesitation, you say, “Yes!”
“I came that you may have life,” Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “and have it abundantly!” But, to return to that Nathanael Hawthorne quotation, I think Jesus is saying we need to pursue contentment, happiness, fulfillment, and delight like a butterfly!
“Happiness is a butterfly,”Hawthorne wrote, “which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Or, as Jesus puts it, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them,” he adds, “if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?”
Hawthorne is suggesting that happiness is something that, like chasing after butterflies, the more you run after it, the more it tends to be above and beyond your grasp.
It’s like a butterfly. But, he says, if you find contentment in who and what you are and what you’re doing, maybe, just maybe, the elusive butterfly of happiness will alight on you!
That’s Hawthorne. What about Jesus?
I think Jesus is saying something similar. Peter has just tried to stop Jesus from doing what Jesus wants and needs to do because Peter doesn’t want Jesus to suffer and die. It’s as if Peter is saying, “You need to save your life, Lord, no matter what. And if you won’t do it, I will!”
Jesus responds by saying no. To try and save your life by holding on to it and avoiding suffering and grief is like chasing after butterflies. What you seek will always elude your grasp.
Instead, Jesus says, you will save your life by losing it. By pouring it out, as he does, in love and service toward others. That, Jesus says, is how you save your life.
And, I believe, that’s how you—like Jesus—will find contentment, fulfillment, delight, and yes, true happiness in this life. And in the life to come!
Those who want to save their life—trying to catch and hold on to it, like catching and holding on to a butterfly—will lose it. Those who lose their life—forgetting about themselves and instead looking outward toward others—will find it.
Like Jesus, we will find happiness and contentment, even in the midst of sorrow and suffering!
“Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” In Jesus' name. Amen.
