A man was driving down the street in a bit of a panic as he was minutes away from a very important meeting and could not find a parking spot anywhere. Frantic, he looked up to heaven and prayed, “Lord, if you will have mercy on me and allow me to find a parking spot, I promise that I will come to worship every single Sunday and will give up drinking beer.” At that moment a parking spot right next to the building opened up. The man looked up to heaven and said, “Never mind. I found one.”
It is easy for us to want to live life according to our own way, and our own wants and desires. After all, if you look through the ads in a newspaper or on TV this is certainly the view that they perpetuate. So we make our own plans and pursue our own wants and desires as we live out our lives. The issue with this is when we, like the man in the previous story, try to do the same thing in our discipleship. The problem comes up when we try to apply those principals to how we follow Jesus.
Today we conclude our series on Four Pictures of Jesus with a picture of Jesus calling his disciples, us and anyone else who would follow him, to pick up their cross and follow him. The scene is the very next scene from last week’s story. Even though a week has passed for us, for Peter and Jesus and the disciples it has only been a matter of moments. We pick up with the very next verse.
We hear Peter as he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah; the Son of the living God. Remember though, I said that last week Peter did not understand what this meant. Here we see just how much that is the case. Jesus lays out for his disciples exactly what it means that he is the Messiah; the Son of the living God. He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, be killed and on the third day be raised.
He probably lost Peter at be killed. And Peter not fully understanding, and not wanting anything bad to happen to Jesus says, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus rebukes him. Get behind me Satan. These are certainly harsh words. But what Peter does not realize is that if his words came true, if Jesus did not suffer, die and be raised, than his purpose for coming would not be fulfilled. If these things did not happen, salvation would not have been accomplished.
In a moment Peter goes from giving the confession that is the rock upon which the church will be built, to being a stumbling block, or hindrance. Why? He is choosing to do discipleship his way. He is choosing to go according to his will, standards, wants and desires. It is not that Peter is bad for not wanting harm to come to Jesus. But what he wants here, would prevent what God wants to happen in the bigger picture.
It is at this moment that Jesus teaches a lesson about what it means to follow him. He teaches a lesson about what it means to be a disciple. If any would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.
It is a call to discipleship that is quite costly. Denying ourselves seems to go against our very nature. It goes against the ways that our world tells us, and encourages us to live. Taking up our cross is willing allowing ourselves to suffer for the sake of the gospel. This is not saying, “give up your material possessions.” It is much more and deeper than that. What it means is that following Jesus isn’t always a cake walk. It isn’t always a making me happy walk. Following Jesus is a cross walk.
You see God loves his creation and has gone through great lengths to restore and bring his creation back to himself. He has done this for you and me. Since Jesus did go to Jerusalem, suffer, die and rise again, you and I have forgiveness, everlasting life and salvation; God’s gift to us, given graciously, freely because he loves us so very much. This is yours. You have it. You can count on it. You can count on it because it is from Jesus.
Since this is the case, and indeed it is; when we hear the words of Jesus calling us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him, we hear an invitation to experience life that is rich, full, abundant, and better than anything we could imagine. From the perspective of the world it may look like we our losing our lives, but in reality it is life that is better than anything we could ask for or imagine.
This is life that is marked by the things that we see in the Epistle lesson from Romans. This is life that we are able to live right now, here in this very place where God has placed us. Each and every one of you has different gifts that God has given us to be used in this place in order that through us and the way we live our lives, the people in this area would know that God loves them, and they would know of his love, mercy and forgiveness in Jesus.
Today we are going to hear from three people who answer this call in different ways. They are going to invite you to join them in the work that they do in this place. They are going to invite you to walk with them along this cross walk in serving God by serving others. As you listen to them, I pray that you would allow yourself to be challenged to step out of your comfort zone and explore some ways of denying yourself taking up your cross and following Jesus. We do this not because we have to. We do this not because it makes God love us more. We does this because in so doing we find life; real, true and abundant.
May you find great joy in this life, now and always. Amen.
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