"Following
Jesus" based on Mark 8:34-36
Second
Sunday in Lent -
Pastor
Troy Slater, Our
"Calling the crowd to Him
with His disciples, Jesus said to them, 'If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. For whoever would save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save
it. For what does it profit a man to
gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?'"
Over the last several weeks and here
yet for probably another three, during our Sunday School
hour we've been taking a look at a study entitled, "Becoming Money
Wise". Of course that topic - money
- is something that affects us all. We
can't do much of anything without money.
And I suppose it's for that reason that money is something that has
entrapped many a soul. In 1 Timothy, the
apostle Paul writes, "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." And then with words that should serve as a
dire warning to all of us, Paul says, "some
people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs." .. Now I
suppose here we need to point out the fact that money in itself is not evil -
in fact it is a gift from God - a good gift with which we can do much
good. But it's that "love of
money" - that covetous desire of money - that greed that so easily entraps
us. In fact I think it's obvious that
our nation as a whole has fallen into that trap of "greed" or
"the love of money". I think
that's at the heart of our nation's economic problems right now.
But as Christians, we know, or at
least we ought to know that, as Jesus says elsewhere in the gospels, "a man's life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions."
Our life does not consist in the things that we fill our houses with or
even those houses themselves. Our life
does not consist in the size of our bank accounts or the performance of the
stock market. All of that can easily be
here today, but gone tomorrow - as many in our nation are finding out. None of
it has any real, eternal value. But so
easily, so often that's what we focus our thoughts and energies on - it's what
we look to for security and happiness. Much like the rich fool of Jesus' parable. The Lord blessed him with such a tremendous
harvest one year that he tore down his old barns and built new ones and then
said to himself, "I'm set. I've got all I need. I can now retire on easy street and eat,
drink and be merry." .. But he didn't have all he
needed, did he? He forgot one
thing. He forgot that his true security
was not in the gifts but in the one who had given him those gifts. He forgot that his future was not in his
abundance but in the one who had blessed him with that abundance. And so the Lord said, "You fool. This very night
your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"
We have been bought with a price. As God's baptized people we belong to Him. Through the blood of our Lord Jesus, we
belong to our God. It's to Him that we
owe our life. As Holy Scripture says, it's
"in Him that we live and move
and have our being." It's Him
whom we follow after. Not after the almighty
dollar or some elusive "lifestyle" that we think we have to achieve -
but it's Him whom we follow after.
And it is that call - this call not
to seek our security and hope and salvation in the fleeting "stuff"
of this world or to follow after the almighty dollar - it is this call to find
our life in Him - to follow Him - that Jesus issues us
this morning. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and
the gospel's will save it. For what does
it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul?"
The truth is that following Jesus - living
that baptized life - it puts you at odds with a fallen, unbelieving world. Following Jesus means you have been separated
from the world. And I'm not saying here
that means we then have to go live in a commune or ride a horse and buggy and
swear off all modern conveniences.
No. After all, we are to be the
salt of the earth, the city on a hill, the light of the world. We are to be IN the world "declaring the praises of Him who
called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light." But the fact is that the darkness hates the
light. Jesus says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love
you as its own. As it is, you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." We follow a crucified Lord, we
shouldn't expect anything different. And
so "take up your cross," Jesus
says, and follow
me."
But that pull is just awfully tough
to resist, isn't it? We want to be
liked, accepted and respected. We want
out children to be successful in the world's eyes. But what we often fail to realize or maybe
even just plain ignore is the fact that a fallen world wants to destroy our's and our children's faith in Christ. Now we may say, "No, no, that's not
true. The world is very tolerant of
those who hold to the Christian faith."
"Oh yea," I say to that.
"You obviously haven't stood up in a public forum lately and taken
a stand on the Word of God which confesses Jesus Christ as the way, the truth
and the life." For do so and I
guarantee you, you will see the hate come - the arrows will come flying. The truth is the world wants to destroy our
Christian faith - wants to destroy the faith of our children.
Brian Young, the creation speaker who
was here with us last spring, he has a video entitled,
"The Godly Family". And in
that video he says some words that I think we would all agree with, but in
reality these words go so very opposite of how we actually live - it goes
opposite of what kind of priorities - in reality - we tend to teach our kids as
we strive to raise them to be successful in the world's eyes. But Mr. Young says in this video: "I would
rather my child be a ditch digger and go to heaven, than a doctor and go to
hell."
"I would rather my child
be a ditch digger and go to heaven, than a doctor and go to hell."
Now let me be
clear here. Heaven has been secured for
us by Jesus and His cross. It is by
grace and grace alone that we are saved - not by works. By Jesus and His cross alone is heaven
secured for us. And yes, money and
possessions and knowledge, they are gifts from God - good gifts from God. But don't let that fool you into thinking you
can take your eyes off of the cross of our Lord Jesus. We like to fool ourselves into thinking that
we can have our cake and eat it to. We
let Satan fool us into thinking that we can live in the world and be of
the world. We can look at all the filth
that is out there, that we can pursue the same passions and be filled with the
same greed of the unbelieving world. We deceive
ourselves into thinking that we can let our children be filled with all the
humanistic, self-centered, God-forsaken ideologies of this world which they do
get bombarded with 24/7. We think we and
our children can be just as carnal, just as worldly as the atheist down the
street. "After all I go to church
for ONE hour a week, I make sure my children go to Sunday school or mid-week
for that hour on Sunday morning or on Wednesday evening - at least for a few
years." We'll drive two hours just
to watch a basketball game or sit all evening watching television but God
forbid if I'm asked to sit in a Sunday School class
for an hour one day a week. But that is
not the life we are called to! "Take up your cross and follow
me!" Jesus says. "Take up your cross" - quit
flirting with an unbelieving and damned world - "and follow me," Jesus says.
For yes many, "eager for money, have wandered from the faith." And certainly we could substitute in
there, "many, eager for fame, for
position, for lust, for an emotional high or for an adrenaline rush; many eager
for a good-paying, respected job; many eager for a few hours of entertainment, many
have wandered from the faith."
To follow Jesus does put you at odds
with the world. It means you are marked
with a cross. It means you carry a
cross.
In speaking of this cross one Lutheran commentator says: "Jesus
will bear His cross, one which He alone can bear. But of His disciples He
says that each is to bear his cross, i.e., the particular one allotted to
him. But this word has grown too familiar. For it is a mistake to call all suffering a cross. After all, the wicked have many sorrows but we
would not say they bear a cross. Rather the cross that the believer bears
is that suffering alone which results from our faithful connection with
Christ. And so the thought is: Christ with His cross leads, and all
His disciples, each loaded with his cross, follows in one immense procession,
like men who are led away to be crucified. The earthly prospects of a
disciple are not alluring." No,
it's not very attractive - at least in the world's eyes, to be a disciple of
Jesus.
To follow Jesus is a break from this
fleeting, dying world. Where the world says, "Get what you can." Christ says, "Give what you
can." Where the world says, "Make
sure your children get a good education so they can be rich and successful." Christ says, "Teach your children to use
their God-given gifts in service in my kingdom." Where the world says, "Eat, drink and be
merry - pursue the passions and desires of your heart." Christ says, "Follow me, take up your
cross and follow me wherever I lead."
To follow Jesus does put us at odds with the world. It does mean we will have crosses to bear as
"in Him we live and move and
have our being." We will have
our crosses to bear as we faithfully follow our Lord.
But we must always remember - and
this is vitally important for this is really what it all comes down to. But we must always remember that to take up
our cross and to follow Jesus means to daily, really almost constantly, return
to THE cross of our Lord Jesus. For
without His cross, nothing that we bear means anything. And so we constantly,
continually return to the cross of our Lord Jesus by confessing our tendency to
run after the world and its riches; confessing the waywardness of our hearts
and of our minds and our misplaced priorities. To take up our cross means to first go to
Jesus' cross and receive the forgiveness, the life, the hope, the heaven that
He gives to us there. To take up our
cross means to first go to Jesus' cross and receive what He gives us there.
This week I was reading a magazine
and it had an interview of a man some of you might have heard of before - Bill Moyers - he's a journalist who has done a lot of work for
PBS and CBS and also served as a special assistant for President Lyndon
Johnson. But it's not so important who
he is but what he says in this interview.
For to begin with what he says reflects so very well the thoughts of so
many people who really don't have a clue what the Christian faith is all
about. But also, his words highlight
that great need to keep returning to Jesus' cross for life and forgiveness as
we daily take up our crosses and follow Jesus.
But here Mr. Moyers, in speaking of his faith
says, "Someone recently asked me what the moment was when I became a
Christian. And I told them, I never did
become a Christian. I can't turn the other
cheek. I can't sell all my possessions
and give them away. I can't love my
enemy. I am not a Christian because I
can't do what Jesus asks.
So I can't legitimately claim to be a
Christian."
Well I guess he's got it half right
there, doesn't he? He's got it right in
that he can't, that we can't "do what Jesus asks." The shameful truth is I drop that cross that
Jesus calls me to bear all the time. The
shameful truth is I fall into that trap of greed and covetousness. You fall into those traps. We struggle to leave behind the ways of the
world and to bear our crosses as we struggle to point our eyes heavenward in a
world of darkness and temptation.
But that's why Jesus came, isn't
it? You see Mr. Moyers
is right in part, but he's missing something here. He's missing the cross. He's missing the cross upon which Jesus died
for sinners. He's missing the cross that
Jesus bore for the sin of the world.
He's missing the forgiveness and the life that Jesus gives to us by His
cross.
"Take up your cross and follow me." Jesus says. Yes with His strength and forgiveness, let us
indeed pick back up those crosses He calls us to bear. Let us follow our crucified Lord who bore His
cross that we might bear ours - that we might have
life. Let us follow our Savior, the Lord
Jesus who grants us eternal life. Yes
let us take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Amen.