From
that time on, Jesus began to show 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him,
saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are
a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things.”
Then
Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For
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 if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what
will they give in return for their life?
“For
the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father,
and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly
I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death
before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Just
a few verses before this – Peter is praised by Jesus for his
response to the question “Who do YOU say that I am?” When Peter
proclaims without hesitation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of
the Living God...Jesus blesses him. He says that he knows he didn't
learn that from books or from teachers, but that knowledge came
straight from God. He declares that Simon is Peter – the rock that
his church will be built on.
Now
we find Peter with his foot in his mouth again. When Jesus gets
serious and begins to make it clear to the disciples what is ahead
for him: going to Jerusalem, being tried by the religious leaders,
death...but then resurrection – well, Peter is his usual passionate
self. He protests and swears that this is impossible, that this
should never happen to Jesus. I can almost hear Jesus banging his
head quietly on a nearby wall... “Peter, Peter, Peter...I thought
you had it for a minute there.” And he starts laying out what being
the Messiah means. And what following the Messiah is going to mean
for Peter and the rest of the disciples.
It's
going to mean getting out of the driver's seat. Letting the Lord take
the lead. If you're going to follow Jesus he wants to be perfectly
clear about the expectations...“If
any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves
and take
up their cross
and follow me.
For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake will find it.” Deny
themselves. Let go of self and open yourself up to whatever God has
in store.
That
is a tall order for a control freak like me. I am used to being in
the driver's seat. I like relying on my own understanding. I am
stubbornly independent. I'm the first to say, “it's okay God, I got
this. You've got more serious things to worry about.” Let go of
self? Perish the thought. But that is what we have to do in order to
be a follower of Jesus. I've got to let go of my plans and be ready
to accept God's plan. That isn't easy but we are promised that he'll
be with us and show us how.
The
second sentence is the twist – those
who want to save their life will lose it, those who lose their life
for my sake will find it.
For a long time I read that passage quite literally. Perhaps because
I know what happens in Jerusalem or can picture the oppression of the
Roman occupation – or maybe I've seen the movie Gladiator one too
many times...I've always thought about that verse as LIFE or DEATH.
Breathing vs. not. And that's not something I relate to, thank God.
Probably few of us have had our life threatened for Jesus' sake. We
live in a society where we can freely worship. So when I read that
“those who lose their life for my sake will find it” - I don't
feel a personal call to sacrifice my mortal life.
Then
I thought about the definition of life in a different way. Instead of
life as just not being dead – I thought about life in terms of how
I live. The choices I make. The path I travel. Now the verse takes on
a new meaning...if I sacrifice my selfish desires and instead focus
on what God desires...I will find new life. A deeper and more
meaningful life. BUT - If, instead, I hold onto the life that is
focused on what is comfortable for ME...the things that I want...then
I'll lose the prize. And that just doesn't compute! Jesus goes on to
say, “what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but
forfeit their life?” To put it another way, What kind of deal is it
to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever
trade your soul for?
I
found a great illumination of that verse when I looked at a
children's sermon – pretend you're kids...I won't even make you
come down front and sit on the floor! “Have you ever wanted
something so badly that you would give just about anything to have
it? This morning I am going to tell you a story about a little boy
and a whistle. The little boy in the story is named Ben. His full
name was Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin later grew up to be one
of the wisest men our world has ever known, but in our story today,
he was a little boy who did something very foolish.
When
Ben was seven years old some of his friends gave him some money. It
was quite a bit of money for a small boy. As Ben told it, "They
filled my pockets with coppers." That is what they used to call
pennies. With his pockets full of money, Ben headed straight for a
store where they sold toys. On the way to the store, he met a boy who
had a whistle. When Ben heard the whistle, he liked the sound of it
so much that he told the boy he would give him all of the money he
had in his pockets if he would give him the whistle. The boy gave Ben
the whistle and took the money.
Ben
headed for home and when he got there, he went all around the house
playing his whistle. His brothers, sisters, and cousins asked Ben
where he got the whistle and he told them that he had bought it with
the money he had been given. They all started to laugh at Ben and
make fun of him. They told him that he had paid four times as much as
the whistle was worth. Ben was so hurt and felt so foolish that he
began to cry, but he learned a lesson that day that he would remember
for the rest of his life. From then on, whenever he saw someone who
had made a foolish choice in life, he would say, "That man paid
too much for his whistle."
Some
boys and girls (and men and women too) want to be popular with a
certain group of kids at school (and work and the world). They may do
things that they know are wrong because they think it will make them
popular. They are paying too much for their whistle.
Some
boys and girls want to be a winner more than anything. They are even
willing to cheat if that's what it takes to win. They are paying too
much for their whistle.
Some
boys and girls think the most important thing in life is to have fun,
so they spend all of their time playing and they never have time for
God. They are paying too much for their whistle.
Is
there something that you want so much that you are willing to do
almost anything to get it? Jesus once asked the question, "What
good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his
soul?" Are you paying too much for your whistle?
This
is where I usually give the kids at Centenary a Hershey kiss. I hope
you'll forgive me for not bringing any along.
We
don't want to pay too much for our whistle. We want to have our minds
on the things of God and not of men. We need to get out of the
part-time follower business if we are going to follow Jesus. We need
to embrace this new life in Christ, a God-focused life...
We
have only to look to today's scripture from Romans to get some really
good advice for living. Great examples of a life focused on
God-things and away from Me-things. It is quite a list and it has an
effect that I like to call the Chicken Soup Syndrome. How many of you
have read any of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? Did you know
that there are over 250 of them?
I
dearly love reading these real-life stories. The inspirational
messages are truly touching...but you can only read so many of them
in one sitting before it all begins to blur together. Goodness
overload! I have the same challenge with Romans 12:9-21. So many
powerful thoughts that they start running into each other and begin
to sound like Chinese fortune cookies. I would challenge you to
bookmark this passage and review just one or two each day for a
couple of weeks. Find ones that really speak to you. Underline them,
highlight them, put them on post-it notes and hang them on your
bathroom mirror. Keep coming back to it from time to time and refresh
your reflections.
You
may connect in different ways to these verses depending on what you
are going through in your life. Listen to these ways for living a
God-focused life as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson's The Message:
- Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.
- Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
- Be good friends who love deeply;
- Practice playing second fiddle.
- Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.
- Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
- Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
- Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down.
- Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up.
- Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
- If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.
- Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
- if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or
- if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.
- Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.
How
do you want to be remembered? What is the legacy, the impact you want
to make on the world? How will your life be measured? Are you willing
to lose your life for Jesus sake in order to find REAL life IN Jesus?
We
ask ourselves the question that Jesus asked his disciples. Who do you
say that I am? We, like Peter, are there with the right answer –
you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And, like Peter, we
have to work to grasp how that knowledge changes us.
When
Jesus started talking about the challenges that were ahead – Peter
wanted to deny that such atrocities were even possible. After all,
THIS is the Son of God! What could you be thinking, Jesus, to talk
about going to Jerusalem to be condemned by the religious leaders and
put to death? Inconceivable declares Peter!
In
one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, the bandit Vizzini
proclaims each unlikely event as “Inconceivable.” When he cuts
the rope that the man in black is climbing and he still doesn't fall,
Vizzini says “Inconceivable!” and his companion Inigo Montoya
says, “I do not think you know what this word means.”
Jesus
keeps trying to explain to his disciples the path ahead. He refers to
the scriptures and prophecies that clearly spell out what is going to
happen. And Peter either doesn't get it – or he doesn't want to
embrace it. Who can blame him? If you are living in the presence of
the Son of God...the thought of losing him in such a way is not a
concept that Peter wants to face. But he's forgetting the promise of
the resurrection. Forgetting what comes after.
Jesus
isn't patient in this case. He tells Peter exactly what he told the
devil at the end of the trial in the desert – get behind me Satan.
You are a stumbling block.
That
had to sting. To go from The Rock that the church will be built upon
to stumbling block. If I were Peter – I'd probably be thinking
“dude, that was harsh.” I might be thinking, “look...I was just
pointing out how impossible it is that the Son of God would be made
to suffer that way. I mean, it was really me honoring your power!”
But
Jesus says to Peter – and to us – get your head in the game. I
need you on board with the whole process! You need to get your mind
off human things and onto divine things.
It
isn't the first or the last time that Jesus tells his followers that
the road ahead isn't easy. But the promise is – it's worth the
effort. After the crucifixion, there is the resurrection!
New
life. Are we willing to sacrifice self in order to embrace the new
life, the potential within us? To live, truly LIVE – abundantly. To
make an impact in the world around us.
How
do you want to be remembered? When you stand before Jesus Christ, I
believe that one of the first questions Jesus may ask is: “Did you
love my children?”
Remember
Jesus’ words, “all people will know that we are His disciples if
we
have love for one another.” Love was VERY important to Jesus; it
compelled Him to give up His life for us! He wants us to imitate Him
in how we love others.
Identify
those relationships where you need to grow in love—it may be a
family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, or a person at church. Target
specific people, not just everyone in general. Then commit to begin
loving those people as Christ has commanded. Love God, Love who and
what God loves. And leave the rest up to Him.
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