Sermon - 2014-08-31

Today’s sermon, I would like us to focus on a very simple phrase.  This is a phrase that you may be quite familiar with.  A phrase that is used often and by many in the church when encouraging others to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Follow me, is a very simple phrase. This simple and common phrase is used with every single disciple Jesus calls.  Even others who express interest in wanting to know more; those who want to learn his teachings and follow his example within the world.  They want to make sure that they have learned it all, that they are able to live out these teachings in fullness of their lives.  These two words seem so simple. However, they are also too simple in understanding the calling that Jesus has for all his followers.  The simple phrase of “Follow me” degrades Jesus to simply a moral teacher, one who will show you the right way to live out your days in this world.

So let’s expand the sentence.  “Take up their cross and follow me.” Oh yes, we all have our own struggles, our own trials that we shall face within the world.  We live in a broken world in which we and the entire world is reminded of our need of God.   The cross was all about suffering.  The suffering and death that Jesus Christ was willing to go, not for his own sake but for the sake of everyone in the world.  However, the cross was not about our own suffering.  But rather the cross was the place in which God came to us in our suffering.  In our humanness and brokenness, Jesus came to live and die for you.  Yet it is this very instance that we struggle to understand.  For the cross reflects back at us.  That we are not strong enough, not in complete control of our own life, and the events that transpire within every single day.  As we find ourselves and God with us in our suffering, we begin to understand the depths that God is willing to go for us.  Along with that, we shall suffer in the name of our Lord for ways that people do not understand or do not believe all that God has done for us.  For in bearing witness to the suffering of the cross and the declaration, ‘Father, forgive them.”  We hear those words of forgiveness and hear that we have done something wrong.  No one likes hearing that they have done something wrong, that they made a mistake, or worse yet that they are a failure.  Yet, we hear those words of forgiveness.  We are confronted by our own brokenness and the healing of us, that comes to us from God.  Even this popular phrase comes up short.

So let’s expand the sentence even further to the full statement that Jesus shared with all of his disciples and those who wanted to follow. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For 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? 27“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. 28Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”  To become a follower, a person must first deny themselves, then take up their cross, and follow Jesus Christ.  What does it mean to deny oneself?  We are not referring to the denial of our own human needs of eating, sleeping, or other gifts given by God.  Rather, we are referring to our own pride and glory that we so often seek in the world.  The pride that so often drives us to make us look better among the crowd.  The pride that causes us to be the one whom everyone looks to as an example, and the pride that actually inflates us away from our own need of God within our life.  As we do this, we begin to see and realize how that attitude and mindset has caused much separation among people and also the heartache of others.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, we are called, to face some of the struggles in our life.  We face the shame of our own createdness.  Yet we face them with God right there with us, but also leading and guiding us towards a resurrection that reunites us with our Creator and Sustainer.  Our Redeemer, giving to us the love and compassion that we so desperately seek, but now we are being called to do the same with others whom we encounter.  However, it is not simply our actions.  The things that others see and bear witness to, but truly our calling comes within our own hearts, that we believe and what is on our hearts and minds reflects then into our actions.  It is for this reason that the whole statement of a calling of a Disciple should be a reminder, and understood in fullness by all Disciples of Jesus Christ.  Amen.