Tag: cross

Counting the Cost of Carrying the Cross

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(Luke 14:25-35)

Ask anyone looking for employment right now and you’ll find that getting hired is not as easy as one may think. There are many factors involved in the process that employers have to consider, as hiring someone new isn’t cheap. The cost of hiring involves much more than just determining the wages. Is health insurance offered or required? Is there any sort of retirement? Is the employee required to be in the office or can she work from home, or some sort of hybrid arrangement? Can AI carry out the work that some employees used to be responsible for? The hiring process is a lot more involved than it used to be.

Jesus’ teaching in Luke 14 almost sounds as if he’s sitting down one-on-one with potential hires, interviewing them to determine their qualifications and whether or not they’re well-suited to for the job. Honestly, if that were the case, his words would be much easier for us to handle – if only! If it was just a potential job, we would have the option of saying no to his ridiculously lofty expectations and continuing our job search elsewhere. 

But Jesus is actually addressing a matter of far greater importance than simply getting hired for a job. He’s forcing us to wrestle with a much more serious question: how much is your salvation worth to you? This is a hugely important matter for us to consider! Because when you don’t value something, you don’t take care of it. When something isn’t worth much to you, you don’t really care what happens to it. So when Jesus invites us to count the cost of carrying the cross, what he’s asking is this: how much does your salvation really matter to you? How much do I really matter to you?

What hits home about Jesus’ teaching is that he’s refusing to let us off the hook by just paying him lip service. We can fool an awful lot of people with what we say, including ourselves. But we can’t fool Jesus. We can tell others how much he matters to us. We can say all the right things. But then when the sacrifices surface – and they will always show up for the Christian, because Jesus promised the crosses would come – is Jesus worth it or not?

Jesus’ pictures about a builder planning to construct a tower or a king planning for battle emphasize the point he’s making: think before you proceed. Did you do that before you signed up for this thing called Christianity? Do you still do it on a daily basis? As helpful as Jesus’ examples are, sometimes we’re so dull and slow that I think we need even more concrete examples of counting the cost of carrying the cross.

For practical purposes, let’s take that a step further and consider it in light of membership in a Christian congregation. When you became a Christian/member of a congregation, did you give much thought to what types of crosses you’d have to bear or what it might cost you? People will typically ask what sort of class or requirements are necessary to become a member, but Jesus pushes us to give much more thought to the matter than that.

For starters, did you know that you’d be expected to actually be involved in carrying out your church’s mission (ours is “Seeking the Lost, Serving the Found”)? Did you consider that disciples should actually read the Bible and study it? Did you know what you signed up for when you married an unbeliever? Were you aware how heavy that cross would be at times? When you took at job that you knew would involve working on Sundays, did you anticipate how heavy that cross would be over time without regular worship? When you racked up a mountain of debt and hear the words of Scripture calling God’s people to grow in the grace of giving, did you factor in the cross of how debilitating that debt would be? The cross of permitting kids’ schedules to put church activities on the back burner – did you count that cost? Friends choosing alternative lifestyles or just rejecting your beliefs in general – did you count that cost? 

Our answers to those questions, and so many others like them, take on huge significance when we look back at the conclusion Jesus drew in his illustrations. What did he finally say about being the builder who blundered on the cost of his tower or the king who carried out a war without considering how the size of his army compares to the enemy’s? He said, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (v.33). Jesus didn’t say it would be tough or an uphill battle or the chances are slim; he said you cannot be my disciple! As in, it is not even possible! You cannot be unwilling to give up everything and call yourself a disciple at the same time. It doesn’t work.

And, if you didn’t notice, when it comes to counting the cost of carrying the cross, those examples weren’t the only ones Jesus used. Look at the whole list of disqualifications that Jesus provides to vet potential disciples. Look at the requirements. Don’t hate family? Can’t be his disciple. Don’t hate your own life? Can’t be his disciple. Don’t want to carry your cross? Can’t be his disciple. Not willing to give up everything you have? Can’t be his disciple. At this rate, it’s a wonder Jesus has any disciples! 

Actually, something just like that happened during Jesus’ ministry. Luke introduced this section of his Gospel by pointing out that “[l]arge crowds were traveling with Jesus” (v.25). That was also the case in John 6, where Jesus gave what has become known as his “Bread of Life” discourse. Jesus had just fed the 5,000. Then he turned the concept of physical feeding into a spiritual teaching that essentially told the crowds if they didn’t fill up on Jesus and his Word, they would be lost.

Guess what happened once Jesus used his physical miracle as an introduction to a deeper spiritual truth? “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). The crowds dwindled. The followers said farewell. It would have been a noticeable difference, too, going from a crush of crowds to just a trickle of disciples.

But it isn’t as noticeable today, is it? Because today it’s much easier for us to fake it without making any real sacrifice. Today we know how to look the part well enough for others, and the more we focus on looking the part instead of genuinely carrying the cross, we actually start to deceive ourselves as well. So who is worse off – the crowds who visibly demonstrated their decision to no longer follow Jesus by turning away, or those today who are good at giving the external appearance of following, but are unwilling to make any real sacrifice (and only end up fooling themselves)?

We can pop in at church occasionally, which of course looks the churchgoing part. Or, we can be sure to let others know our “thoughts and prayers” are with them, which sounds spiritual enough. We can slap a few Bible passages and spiritual-sounding stuff on our social media here and there. We make sure to sign up or participate in stuff at church once in a blue moon, just enough to add to the appearance of being active and engaged. We do these things and “Voila!” – we look just like Jesus’ disciples. 

But all of that misses the point of Jesus’ vetting process: his disciples make sacrifices. Where, in the examples just mentioned, is there any real sacrifice? 

Let’s consider a pretty impressive record of someone who counted the cost of carrying the cross. “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked” (2 Cor. 11:23-27). You know those words as the words of the apostle Paul. Paul didn’t just pay lip service to being a disciple of Jesus; he displayed it sacrificially with his whole life. 

Let’s be honest – there are a lot of Dollar Tree Disciples today, aren’t there? Now that’s not a knock on Dollar Tree as much as it is a harsh reality we need to own up to. You know why anyone shops at the Dollar Tree. They want something for almost nothing. They want a certain item or product, but it’s obviously not something they’re willing to spend a lot on, so they shop at the Dollar Tree to get it.

Isn’t it possible that a lot more of us are Dollar Tree Disciples than we think? We want something for almost nothing. We want all the good Jesus stuff, the forgiveness and grace stuff, the salvation stuff – we want all of that, but we don’t really want to have to give up much to get it. That’s the mindset of a Dollar Tree Disciple.

And you know what makes that mindset so dangerous? It’s actually on the right track.

We want something for nothing, and that’s exactly what we have through Jesus. What Jesus came to bring couldn’t be bought or purchased by you or me. There was no price tag that would ever make salvation affordable for us. There was no option for bartering or working out a deal with him.

No, what Jesus came to bring is entirely free to us. It is a gift. We can’t buy it or earn it – it can only be given. It cost us nothing. So if we want something for nothing, we’ve come to the right place. Forgiveness and salvation doesn’t cost us a dime!

But all of it came at a price. A hefty price. And the price tag is so out of reach for us that only God himself could pay it. And Jesus did. You think Paul had an impressive list of crosses that he bore as Jesus’ disciple? None will ever compare to the literal cross Jesus bore. Consider that the whole reason we even use that term – bearing our cross – is but a poor reflection of the unbearable cross that Jesus bore in our place. Talk about sacrifice – literally! How much did Jesus have to give up? Everything. So he alone has the right to demand the same of us – “those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:33). 

But unlike Paul, Jesus was not just an example to imitate. Jesus didn’t come to show us how to be good disciples and then plan to seek out those who met his impossible standards, because he wouldn’t have found any – not a one!

No, Jesus came so that only through and in him, we could be perfect disciples. Here’s how Paul described it taking place. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Jesus came to make us what we could never be on our own: perfect disciples. He sought out everyone, including Dollar Tree Disciples, and by grace he made us his own devoted and dedicated disciples. 

Do you see yourself that way? He does. Because of Christ, God sees his church filled with devoted and dedicated disciples. And you know what devoted and dedicated disciples do? They count the cost of carrying the cross. They think differently about priorities. They make sacrifices that others wouldn’t fathom making in a million years. Counting the cost, they embrace the cross in this life because they know they are guaranteed the crown of life at the end of their race, through faith in Christ Jesus.

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be Willing to Count the Cost

Lord Jesus,
You tell me to count the cost of being your disciple. The implication is that following you will not be without its roadblocks. Counting the cost means considering what sacrifices and steps I am willing to take to address those roadblocks. Paying lip service to those sacrifices is one thing; following through with my actions and behavior is another. 

Nevertheless, always keep in front of me that it is not my dedication, my sacrificial living, or my willingness to count the cost of discipleship that save me; that work belongs to you and you alone. And, you’ve already carried it out! It is your sacrifice on my behalf that creates in me the willing heart to live sacrificially for you. So lead me to and not from the crosses in my life. As I focus my attention on your cross, it provides a different perspective on how small my crosses are. As I focus my attention on your sacrifice for me, it provides a different perspective on how small my sacrifices really are. Grant me then, the willingness to sacrifice all things for you.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Your Good Friday Sacrifice

Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world. Today, we remember the cost. There is no greater sacrifice imaginable that could have been made than that you, the innocent Son of God, would willingly be executed in the place of the real convicted lawbreakers. My sin crucified you, and your compassion saved me. On this Good Friday, words will not ever be able to capture or convey the thanks you rightly deserve. Nevertheless, thank you for dying for me. Compel me to live for you.   

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Persevere Along the Way

Precious Savior,
I know the you are the Way, and only through you has the door to heaven been opened. But I also know that along that way there will be crosses to bear that will include hardship, pain, and suffering. When these are revealed in my life, I am tempted to look for an alternative route. It would seem to be so much easier if I could simply ignore the difficulties altogether and pretend they’ll just go away. If only I could close my eyes and cover my ears to all struggles, then open them again to see that everything would be better! 

But it doesn’t work that way. I must stay the course, even when it includes suffering and pain. For what is waiting on the other side for all who persevere is better than anything we could ever imagine. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Crosses: Burden or Blessing?

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(Mark 8:31-38)

As we continue our series, Rethinking Religion, in this post we give our attention to a topic that can be a deal breaker for people when it comes to Christianity. I’m not talking about how smug Christians can sometimes come across when our concern about being right overshadows our call to be loving. Neither am I referring to the perception that some of our beliefs are downright absurd.

No, what I’m referring to is the observation that in a number of ways, the believer’s life doesn’t really seem to be any different or better off than the non-believer’s. Therefore, if the casual observer notes no discernible difference, no greater appeal or attraction to the Christian and his way of life, then why bother? What’s the big deal?

Moreover, to many, the whole category of Christianity’s perceived requirements – the “have to’s” and the “musts,” arguably make it quite unappealing. Christians must live according to a strict set of rules. They have to go to church. Christians are supposed to give offerings. They are required to read their Bibles. You could add plenty more to the list, I’m sure.

While it isn’t the purpose of this post to address each and every one of these perceived requirements that may not make Christianity all that appealing, for the sake of brevity, I will simply respond that a Christian doesn’t have to do any of the those things mentioned, or anything else, for that matter. There are no requirements in the life of a Christian; he is free to live however he pleases.

But here’s the thing: a Christian wants to do these things. God’s grace and love have changed his heart, bringing it into alignment with God’s plan for how to live. Not perfectly, mind you – but changed hearts nevertheless now see as opportunities what used to be viewed as requirements.

There’s another observation some have of Christianity that doesn’t appear to be noteworthy or especially attractive. It doesn’t seem like the Christian has any special dispensation from God regarding suffering or hardship. So if a believer and a non-believer both have to struggle with traumas and tragedies like cancer and unemployment and divorce and sexual abuse and chronic pain and miscarriages and the list goes on, then why bother? If God is in the Christian corner, shouldn’t he guard and protect believers from such things? If he’s capable of doing so, which Christians claim to believe he is, then why doesn’t he do more to shield them from such things?

It’s this last question surrounding the matter of hardships that we’re giving our attention to in this post. Each of those hardships listed – and so many more – could be considered what we call a “cross.”

Although it often uses the term in a lighthearted manner, the secular world is familiar with that term, “cross.” She says, “This is my cross to bear,” referring to her love of chocolate and the need to show restraint whenever surrounded by copious amounts of chocolate that are available to her. He refers to his “cross” when being stuck living in Southern California with its beaches, sun, and near-perfect weather. 

However, when Christians use the term, there really isn’t anything lighthearted about it. The way Jesus used in in Mark 8 reflects this. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (v.34). 

The cross Jesus refers to in the life of a believer is a burden that tests or tries one’s faith. That burden is unique in the life of the Christian because of her faith in God. So even if a believer and a non-believer experience the exact same hardship, it affects the Christian differently. It is a cross.

For example, everyone would agree that cancer is awful all around, no matter who is experiencing it. But cancer doesn’t cause a non-believer to question or doubt God’s love in the face of suffering, because God isn’t a part of the equation for them. And while no one likes to struggle financially, such struggles don’t cause a non-believer to second-guess if God is really able to provide as he promised, because God isn’t a factor. So what makes a thing a unique cross for a Christian is the impact it has on one’s faith.

To help us properly understand the role of these crosses for the Christian, let me ask you a reflection question. Has anything of great worth to you or anything you truly value ever come without difficulty? Was anything that was really worth it easy for you? Now you might be able to fire off a short list of a few things that could qualify, but generally speaking, for a thing to be truly appreciated and valued, it probably involved hard work and adversity to get it. In fact, that hard work and sacrifice that was required are often why we value it.

Consider the gift of children. Even conceiving itself can be a hardship for many couples, let alone delivering a baby. When it comes to delivering a baby, I don’t know too many moms who would say that it was a piece of cake. The things we appreciate require hard work.

Like getting a college degree. Or getting – and staying – in shape. A great marriage isn’t easy. The list goes on, and we could share stories about the hard work and the struggle we’ve put in to get to enjoy many of the things in life we’d say are worth it.

So then, should it surprise us that following Jesus would be any different? Why should it shock us that he makes such a big ask of us to bear crosses – hardships – for a greater faith and deeper relationship with him? If virtually everything in life that we value or appreciate requires a great deal of sacrifice and struggle, surely we ought to expect the same when it comes to our greatest treasure, Jesus.

But we are surrounded by countless people who prefer the easier path of playing the victim and spending their lives complaining rather than putting in the hard work to achieve or acquire things they value or appreciate.

Sadly, Christians can be numbered among them. The result is that many of the things that should be crosses to bear for Christians are not, because of their refusal to pick those crosses up. There’s no cross when it comes to Sunday morning, because sleeping in and sports win over worship. There’s no cross to bear when it comes to lending my neighbor a hand, because I “don’t have the time” (or more accurately, refuse to make the time). There’s no cross to bear facing any ridicule or ribbing for being a Christian because nobody at work or the gym even knows I’m a Christian to begin with.

The Christian life is pretty easy when we don’t bother with those crosses Jesus called us to pick up… until we come to find out that neglecting those crosses brings with it its own set of struggles later on. Have you ever counted the cost of avoiding hard work or effort life in general? It often ends up costing more in the end, doesn’t it?

So it is with our crosses. When we avoid them, it often ends up costing us more in the end. Like maybe my marriage. Or my job. Or a friendship. Or my self-control that results in an addiction. So avoiding the hard crosses potentially leaves us much worse off than if we had picked them up and done the hard work in the first place. But just as hard things are worth it, so are crosses. 

In fact, the more we pick up the crosses Jesus allows in our lives, the more we see them for what they really are – not burdens, but blessings. But in order for us to see the blessings of our own crosses, we must first look to the greatest blessing that would ever come from a cross – the cross of Christ.

Jesus’ cross is hands down the greatest blessing. There alone do we find relief from the burden of our sin. For every cross we neglect, avoid, or ignore, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time we blazed a path of our own making instead of following in his footsteps, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time we pridefully presumed to know better than him, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time chose wrong over right, Jesus’ cross forgives. And at Jesus’ cross we find not only forgiveness, but also freedom – freedom from guilt, from shame, from regret, from fear, and ultimately freedom from self.

Here’s how it works. The forgiveness that flows to me from Jesus’ cross leads me to look differently at my own crosses to bear. That’s because, to pick up a cross and bear it, carry it, I have to let go of something else. What, exactly? Self.

Jesus told the crowd, along with his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (v.34). Deny self. In our society today, you will not find a more radical ideology than that! To a culture that has cemented its celebration of self in how we identify – gender, sexual or political orientation, skin color, and an endless list of other labels, Jesus demands that we let go of it. Deny it. To a culture that says the real problem is everyone else failing to embrace me for who I am, Jesus says, “Wrong – who you are is the problem. Self is the problem.

You want something that is real, something that matters, not just for this short life, but for eternity? Then listen up.” “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (v.35-37). Insist on self and risk losing everything. Let go of self and gain everything in following Jesus. 

Then, when we aren’t so enamored with individualism and consumed with self, we can see what matters most. “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this…” (v.31-32). THIS is what it looks like to deny self and be free to serve others. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh Jesus, denied himself and suffered and died, not for self, but for you. For me. For everyone else. For the greater good. For eternity. For suffering to be temporary and for salvation to be forever. For limiting the number of occupants in hell. And for freeing us to put each other first. That’s what the gospel does. 

Who benefits when we are free of serving self? My neighbor. You may disagree with me, but that care for my neighbor, care for the greater good of the group over self, seems to me to be what is sorely lacking in our culture today.

One of the things I find so appealing about World War II history is the selflessness of that generation. I’m aware that movies and books covering that period may occasionally go over the top in glorifying the spirit of those times and the heroes who served them. Nevertheless, there was a very real awareness of the need to come together to serve the greater good of society over the individual, and if that hadn’t happened, the outcome could have been disastrous. 

I don’t know that it could be done today. Oh I don’t doubt there would be many armchair quarterbacks sharing their opinions of what should be done. I don’t doubt there would be many activists somehow imagining that their boycott or opposition or stand for this or that might be making a grand difference. But I do doubt that our self-absorbed, self-serving society would be able to come together for the greater good if it means sacrificing our individualism.

But Jesus can change that, because the cross he died on not only forgives us, but frees us from self and empowers and equips us to pick up our own crosses. When we pick up those crosses, others are blessed. We are blessed. And God is at his best through us.

A Self< Church

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(Matthew 16:21-26)

The boss just laid out the plan for the next project at work. The goal was clearly communicated and comprehended so that everyone knew what they were trying to accomplish. All departments understood their specific roles in the project. Each individual team member was provided with the direction needed to help their department succeed and contribute toward achieving success in the specific effort. So it came as a bit of a shock when, after the boss had finished his presentation, one particular employee stood up and simply said, “Yeah, we’re not going to be doing this. This isn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.”

How long do you suppose that employee would remain with the company? Not long at all!

Jesus could have done much more than just fire Peter for his defiant remark. In his Gospel account of the incident, Matthew records for us what had caused Peter to feel compelled to take Jesus to task: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (v.21).

Peter had only a short time ago confessed that he knew Jesus was the One, the Messiah that God had promised repeatedly throughout history. However, Jesus’ explanation of how he would be carrying out his work didn’t align with the political aspirations Peter had for the Messiah. As Peter saw it, Jesus’ suffering and death were not part of his plan, so he had to take drastic measures. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (v.22). 

We’re quite used to Peter putting his foot in his mouth. It’s easy to understand why he wouldn’t want to stand by and approve of a plan that involved the suffering and death of his Jesus. He had a heart, after all. He cared about Jesus.

But his objection was actually much more selfish – sinister even. In fact, as Jesus’ response indicated, it was downright satanic. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (v.23).     

Whoa! Isn’t that going a bit farther than necessary? Is Jesus doing one of those hyperbole things where he uses an over-the-top extreme to make his point? You hear people joke about temptation from others (“C’mon, just have one more piece of dessert – it’s sooooooo good!”) with a, “Get behind me, Satan,” but Jesus was not at all joking. He was deadly serious. 

Because so is Satan. Peter’s rebuttal to Jesus’ teaching was not just a matter of misguided concern a guy had for his friend. It wasn’t because he had a better plan in mind (as if there could have been one!). Rather, it was an attempt on the part of Satan to thwart God’s plan of salvation. 

Jesus had made it clear that these things (his suffering, death, and resurrection) “must” (v.21) happen. They had to. This was the plan God had in mind to carry out the substitutionary work salvation required. The perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, had to be offered up as the only sacrifice that could serve as payment for sin. Jesus had to suffer and die. “It must be this way,” he told his disciples. 

So also today, anything that opposes the good news of the gospel – anything at all – comes from the evil one. There is no harmless indifference to the gospel. There are no alternative plans or paths that might work out. There are no religions or false gods that could provide forgiveness and eternal life. There was and there is no other way to a right relationship with God than through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Anything else – anything at all – comes from the evil one.

The scariest part of all of this? Look what drove Peter’s objection: “human concerns.” It wasn’t some deep theological truth that Peter had uncovered that prompted him to rebuke Jesus; it was his own ideas about who Jesus was supposed to be and how he was supposed to proceed.

Peter wasn’t concerned about God’s plans. Peter wasn’t concerned about Jesus’ plans. Peter wasn’t concerned about the other disciples’ plans. No, Peter was concerned about Peter’s plans, and Peter’s plans only. 

Does that same selfish concern that each and every one of us is capable of help you grasp why Jesus explained discipleship the way he did? “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’” (v.24). “You want to be my disciple? You want to follow me? OK, first things, first, we have to get you out of the way. We have to get self out of the picture, or he’ll only serve to provide a platform for the devil to go to work. And the only way to do that is for you to deny the most difficult person on the planet to deny: yourself.” 

I was recently reminded of why this is the most challenging thing of all for us to do by a quote from a little book, What’s Big Starts Small. In it, the author warns about why pride can be so destructive to the growth of our faith. He writes, “But pride offers an objection that makes you the exception” (p.42). That is just another way of saying that self is an expert at pretending it has permission for whatever it wants. “What is wrong for you is clear as day, but here’s why it isn’t wrong when I do it.” 

“Yes, I got a little angry and lost control, but it was justifiable in light of what the other person did.” “Of course the stay-at-home mom shouldn’t be drinking excessively during the day and putting her kids at risk, but my job is 100 times more stressful and a few drinks every night help me relax.” “There is no reason for a guy to ever push a girl around, but our relationship is different and her level of disrespect is unacceptable.” “Blatantly walking a full cart out of the store without paying is one thing, but what I’m skimming from the register is just enough to get me by until things get better and of course I’ll pay it all back.”

Pride – self – makes me the exception. It does the same for you. That’s why Jesus says we must deny it and let it die. “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (v.25). 

But what about the risk of not looking out for ourselves? If we don’t, who else will? How can we be sure that this practice of denying self is going to work out in the end? If we don’t advocate for ourselves, who else will?

I think you know the answer, but let me try to state it a little bit differently than you’re probably used to hearing it. Here is the bottom line: You cannot care about yourself more than Jesus does.

You cannot care about yourself more than Jesus does.

Do you understand? No matter how much you want to buy into the world’s emphasis on the importance of self-care and self-image and self-love and self-esteem and self-discovery and self… etc. – all of that put together into perfect practice will never amount to caring about yourself more than Jesus does. 

If that were not true, it would have been you on the cross and not him.

If that were not true, it would have been you condemned for your sin instead of him.

If that were not true, he would have allowed you to be abandoned and forsaken by the Father and not him.

But since he bore all of that on himself for you, let there never be any doubt that no one ever has and no one ever will care more about you than Jesus. 

So let go of the lie and live free. Shut out the internal pleas to serve self first and everyone else second. Jesus has you covered and now he wants to use you to help make sure everyone else knows they’re covered by him, too.

When we deny self, when we set down self, instead of dragging that care and concern with us wherever we go, then we’ve got free hands. With those hands, we find it much easier to pick up the crosses that are all around us. 

The cross of patient sacrifice in your strained marriage to a demanding spouse is much lighter when you set down self. The cross that comes in the shape of the extra workload you carry at work for the demeaning co-worker who doesn’t miss the opportunity to poke fun at your faith here and there. The cross of confusion over why God continues to permit the chronic pain that you’ve dealt with for years. The cross of abuse and its long-term effects. The cross of addiction that lingers despite the overall progress. The cross of family members struggling with identity and sexuality.

These crosses are not light, to be sure, but we are able to bear them much more effectively when we aren’t also carrying around the weight of self. 

And, we are able to bear them much more effectively when we realize we never bear them alone. We can be confident of this because we know Jesus’ own answer to his rhetorical question at the close of these verses. Jesus asked, “Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (v.26). Our answer, everyone’s answer, is of course, “Nothing.”

Jesus, though, has a different answer: “Everything.” He literally gave up everything for our souls. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Only One perfectly denied self. Only One perfectly lost his life. Only Jesus, and Jesus alone is our hope. 

Are you worried about what will happen if you cast off the perceived need to look out for yourself above all else? Worry not, for as much as your old self lies to you about looking out for number one, here is the truth we must remember: You cannot possibly care about yourself more than Jesus does. If that, dear friends, is true – and it absolutely is – then you are freed from yourself. Jesus has you covered. Go and be the church he wants, the self< church. 

God Calls Me to Bear My Cross

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(Luke 9:21-26)

If you want to tune out for a bit, this might be the sermon to do so, because Jesus isn’t speaking these words to everyone. How do we know that? Because he’s only addressing “whoever wants to be [his] disciple” (v.23). That’s not everyone. That’s rather obvious when it comes to unbelievers. But it isn’t just unbelievers; it’s a whole lot of people inside the church that aren’t really interested in being disciples either. They may be quick to identify as Christians, but the blunt truth is, there’s no shortage of Christians who have little interest in being disciples.

Does being a Christian automatically make one a disciple? Consider two individuals enrolling at SDSU in the fall. One of them attends all the classes, completes the homework, studies hard, and eventually graduates. The other is there to party, making zero academic effort. Which one is the student? In that they are both technically enrolled and pay tuition, each would be considered a student. But an honest evaluation would conclude that only one of them is in reality a student. So also, Scripture lays out criteria that apply to disciples of Jesus: they hold to his teaching (Jn. 8:31), they love one another (Jn. 13:35), they bear fruit (Jn. 15:8), and they make other disciples (Mt. 28:19), to name a few. To that list, Jesus adds yet another challenge: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (v.23). There you have it. Jesus’ disciples are called to bear our cross. Doing so involves a three-step checklist: deny self, bear crosses, and Follow Jesus. 

Do you know why this is such a struggle for us? We want to jump right to the cross-bearing part, which is tough enough as it is… but made even tougher if we don’t address the bigger obstacle in the way before we even get to the cross-bearing part: ourselves. Imagine if every time you opened your eyes, no matter what you were trying to look at or which direction you were looking, all you saw directly in front of you was a mirror, reflecting yourself back to you. While there isn’t literally a mirror right in front of you 24/7, that really is the problem each one of us has – it’s completely natural for us to see ourselves before we see anyone or anything else.

Trace that reality all the way back to Eden. Adam and Eve believed Satan’s lie that God was trying to hide their true reflection, that he didn’t want them to see how god-like they really were, convincing them that they’d see what they actually looked like if they just ate the fruit. The reality was, they had a perfect view – the wonderful image of a gracious, caring, loving God who designed an amazing world for them! But they traded it in to be able to replace that image with a picture of themselves.

They got it, but it wasn’t what they had hoped. The mirror with their reflection was completely cracked. It has been ever since, and sin’s curse has carried with it the desire to see only self and nothing else. So what does it mean to deny self? It means shattering the mirror so we can see beyond the reflection of self, so we can put up a fight against our selfish, self-absorbed worldview.

Then we’re ready to pick up a cross, right? We might think so, but we’re not done just yet denying self. There are two other obstacles that we often need to address. We need to slow down and put down. We think the more efficiently/faster we get things done, the sooner we’ll have time for God… but that only speeds up the treadmill; it doesn’t actually ever free us from it. We end up running ourselves ragged because we never slow down. 

And we need to put down. When we finally arrive at the cross we are to take up, we won’t be able to pick it up if we insist on having our hands full with the other things we are carrying! What do you insist on hanging on to that won’t free your hands to pick up your cross? To what are you so attached that it’s worth disqualifying you as a disciple, and possibly even resulting in a forfeit of eternal life? Jesus gave a very blunt warning and then followed it up with a very pointed question. “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (v.24-25). Hang on to your loves in this life, whatever they may be, and you run the risk of losing out on eternal life. Put those things down.

Then, assuming we have slowed down and put down enough stuff to finally free up our hands so we can take up our cross, we’re ready to bear it, right? Just one problem: crosses aren’t pleasant! We want to avoid them! We don’t naturally gravitate toward them or ask the Lord for them, and when we see them in our lives, often our first reaction in prayer to the Lord is to ask him to remove them, to get rid of them. They get in the way of our best life now, of the life we’ve been trying to design for ourselves. Crosses, by definition, are not convenient! 

So why do we ever bother bearing any cross at all??? Because bearing crosses bears blessings. It wouldn’t seem like it, but each time you lift up that cross, to carry it, what you find on the other side are the blessings that God had hidden beneath it. Paul mentions many of those blessings in his letters, reminding us that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5), patient endurance, and comfort (2 Corinthians). We also know that in cases of suffering that the world cannot solve or explain, we are compelled to lean more and more on the Lord, to anchor our trust in him, which ultimately brings us into a closer relationship with him. And each of these blessings from cross-bearing ready us for the next cross to bear, which may be even slightly larger than the previous cross. That’s less daunting… when we realize that blessings are hidden beneath that cross – the larger the cross, the more blessings are hidden beneath it. 

Take that imagery literally. Picture a small cross, one the size of an earring or a necklace. We naturally want to avoid it because remember, bearing a cross will involve hardship and trial; it will in include some measure of suffering. But eventually, when you pick up that small cross, you see the blessings that were hidden underneath it, blessings that would have remained hidden had you never picked up the cross to carry it. Then you come across a little bit bigger cross, one the size of your hand. You immediately remember the difficulty that resulted the last time you picked up the smaller cross. But then you also remember the blessings hidden beneath it. So you pick up this cross, too, and sure enough, beneath the larger cross are hidden even more blessings. And so it goes throughout life – God allows one cross after another to come into your life, sometimes bigger than the previous. Our natural inclination is to avoid the cross, to leave it where it is. But each time we have picked up that cross, an abundance of rich blessings were hidden beneath it, blessings we could not have experienced without the trial or hardship that preceded them. So it is – we bear our cross, and God blesses our cross-bearing. 

We’ve denied, we’re picking up the cross. Now we follow Jesus. “There’s more?!? Weren’t the first two enough?!? What about when Jesus goes a direction I’d rather not, when he veers this way and I’d rather go that way?” Recently I met someone for coffee. It was a place I hadn’t been to yet, so I did what we all do and punched in the address to my navigational app and off we went. It worked just like it was supposed to… until I arrived at the address and there was no coffee place. It wasn’t hidden or tucked away somewhere that I couldn’t see; it was just gone, not at the destination I had punched in. A little looking around online revealed that it had recently moved – very close by, thankfully – but at a different address altogether.

Isn’t that often how our lives work? We punch in where we want to go or where we think we need to go and then we arrive and there’s nothing there, or at least not what we expected. Our own navigation system just isn’t trustworthy, is it? But you know what will never steer us wrong? Following Jesus.

Now following Jesus doesn’t mean that he will provide little signs along the way throughout our lives on every little decision we make. Following him doesn’t mean waiting for him to reveal which menu choice he wants you to make when you go out for breakfast. Neither does it mean he’ll reveal to you whether you should date this person or accept that job. But following him does mean that we look to God’s Word for guidance in our decision making. It does mean that we follow his guidance toward paths that help us avoid sin rather than paths that bring us closer to it. Following Jesus does mean that our relationship with the Bible ought to better resemble our relationship with our phone than it does our relationship with the unused treadmill or exercise bike sitting in the garage. 

And I know it seems like a tall order to follow in the footsteps of perfect Jesus! It IS a tall order! It is impossible. But think of it the way a small child follows in dad’s footsteps after piles of freshly fallen snow. He’d never be able to get through on his own without getting stuck in the snow. But what an easier time is made of it when he simply traces dad’s footsteps ahead of him, each step having packed down the snow in a clear path that makes it much easier to follow. That child will go his own direction at his own risk, but he can’t fail when he follows in his father’s footsteps.

Why is that the case when it comes to following in Jesus’ footsteps? Because we know that the value of following him is not in making it possible for us to perfectly keep in step with him; no, the value is in seeing where those footsteps led: to the cross. Ah, and we have come back to it again, haven’t we? The cross. But this time not to bear it ourselves, but rather in faith to gaze on the One who bore it willingly for us. For if we do not follow his steps to his cross daily in our lives, we will struggle mightily to ever see the point in bearing our own crosses. But to see his cross is to see the price Jesus paid to forgive self-absorbed, imperfect disciples, who prefer to go their own way and avoid any cross placed before them. To follow Jesus to his cross is to see that my forgiveness means freedom for cross-bearing!

Before calling his disciples to pick up their cross and follow him, Jesus reminded them that he had to be rejected, had to suffer, had to be put to death, and had to rise from the dead. All this had to happen so that we could call ourselves his disciples, bought and paid for with his own blood. All this had to happen so that we can now bear our crosses and follow him.

Is any of this easy? Will any one of us ever attain the status of perfect cross-bearers this side of heaven? Never. So God addressed that problem by sending the perfect cross-bearer. Literally. Jesus bore the cross for those who couldn’t as well as those who wouldn’t – he bore it for everyone. He bore his cross so that we can bear ours. We do so because cross-bearing brings blessings. THAT is our calling.