Why Should Christians Care About a Caterpillar Dying to Self?

Many Christians are familiar with the example of a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly, illustrating new birth in Christ. It’s a gentle picture, often used with children. But few of us are aware of how forceful and yes, brutal, the caterpillar’s experience really is. And even for those who are familiar with the pupation process, why should we care?

My new home has a butterfly garden. Throughout the summer I had the privilege of watching butterflies flutter and flit, and lay eggs tinier than the head of a pin. Then I watched small caterpillars voraciously devour milkweed leaves to grow large enough to pupate, aka form a chrysalis, where the magic happens and a butterfly emerges.

But this magic, although hidden from our sight, is more brutal than we may initially realize. What happens inside the chrysalis is likened to the death of the caterpillar as it transforms into something completely new. For that to happen, the caterpillar releases enzymes that literally digest most of its body. And as my friend Shelia pointed out to me, even as this happens, the caterpillar is in its most vulnerable state. When it finally exits, it does not emerge as a “better” caterpillar. It emerges as a new creation. You and I are like those caterpillars.

Better or New?

I’ve been called a lot of things, but a caterpillar has not been one of them. Jesus described us as sheep, which isn’t exactly a compliment either. But a caterpillar? Only now do I see the resemblance and can relate to the process.

Similar to a caterpillar’s transformation into new life, Christ did not come to make us better people. He came to give life to spiritually dead people. Ephesians 2:5 tells us we have been made alive in Christ even when we were dead in our sins. And 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us we are now new creations.

Much like a caterpillar, it’s not a pretty process. Christ died a violent death for us, His skin shredded and His body torn. His horrible death was necessary because sin is that horrible (and more!) to our holy God. He paid the price for you and me. And when we receive this gift, our dead spirits are brought to new life.

Yet, even as the Holy Spirit creates this change, we have to intentionally die to ourselves. Consider these verses from the ESV translation:

• Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
• Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Galatians 5:24 – And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• Romans 6:3-7 – Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

The process of surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s work can be painful, although the pain is felt mostly by our old nature. Sadly, our old nature doesn’t want to stay dead. The apostle Paul described this experience in his own life when he wrote in Romans 7:18-20, 22-25 (ESV):

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me . . . For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Friends, the process of dying to self is not easy, nor is it pretty. But if the lowly caterpillar can do it, then by the help of the Holy Spirit, so can you and I.