Sermon for August 31st

What does Jesus mean when he tells his disciples to “take up their cross and follow him.”? Consider the fact that up until this point, the disciples haven’t seen Jesus crucified on a cross yet. It hasn’t happened yet. So a cross, for them, is nothing special. It’s not salvific. It is not redemptive. It is simply a method for killing people. Why is this important? Because we have to distinguish between the crosses we bear and Jesus’ cross. The “crosses” you bear, your suffering, are not salvific or redemptive. The pain you have in your neck is simply that . . . a pain in the neck. It may be your “cross to bear” as the phrase goes, that pain in your neck, but it is much different than the cross Jesus had to bear. Your cross makes your life miserable for you while Jesus’ cross makes your life eternal for you.

Why is it so important to make this distinction? A distinction between your cross and Jesus’ cross? Because knowing the difference means that you can ask God to heal that pain in your neck without feeling bad, or ashamed or sinful or ungrateful to God. He intends you to have life and to have it abundantly. He listens to prayers for healing. He does not intend your life to be filled with horror, pain, fear and misery.

Many people believe that the pain in their life is their “cross to bear” as the saying goes. They believe that God has given it to them for their own good, or as a test, or as a punishment. Perhaps you have made the best of your pain under a mindset like this or learned something from all your problems and accepted them quite willingly. I am telling you that you may nail your crosses, your pain, your suffering and all your sin on Jesus’ cross. You don’t have to carry all that anymore. Call on Jesus to bear it all for you. He already bore the weight of your sin, your suffering, your pain and your death on his cross. Jesus was a pain to pain, suffering suffered at Jesus’ hands, death died once and for all on his cross. All those other “crosses that you bear” dim in comparison with the cross of Jesus.

There is a big difference between a cross you bear and Jesus’ cross. Many women have lived through a life of fear and abuse while being told that it was their “cross to bear”. Well that kind of cross leads only to death the way every other cross and crucifixion has, except one. Our crosses only lead to death and end there. Jesus’ cross is different. Jesus’ cross kills the power of death and leads to life. His cross alone and not any one of yours. Yet, the Devil always seeks to convince us that our “cross” is more important or integral to our virtue than Jesus’ cross. We are always tempted to hug our pain and suffering tightly to our chest, like a comforting teddy bear, rather than holding on tightly to the cross of Jesus—laying everything on him. There is a difference between your “cross to bear” and Jesus’ cross. One will always lead to death and stop there. The cross of Jesus leads you through death and then showers you with life.

When I lived in North Dakota on internship, I played in a racquetball league. Now, I tried very hard in this league but week after week I lost. It was very hard on my self-confidence, I must admit. I really dislike losing. But after three and then four weeks of losing I started thinking, “Well, hey, someone’s got to lose right? Why not me a future pastor? Someone who can really accept these loses with dignity. Someone who could bear that cross. Other people were happy to win at my expense? It was like I was doing them a favor. But then I won.

I won! And that was no good, because I had lost my virtue! My cross was stolen from me. By this time, I had become such a “good loser” that I missed that feeling of virtue once I had won. I know that this might sound a little weird, but I realized that I was actually attempting to use my suckiness at racquetball to defend myself from God. Yes, that’s right! Defend myself from God. How? If I could rely on my virtue and bear my own cross, I wouldn’t have to rely on God completely for my salvation. I thought I was being especially “Christian” when, really, I was just an especially bad racquetball player. Maybe my fellow players who were beating up on me each week thought favorably of my character, but God wasn’t impressed.

This is a common temptation. If we can’t be the best at something, we try to be really good at being the worst—martyrs hoping at least for pity if not for the prize. But in God’s eyes you and I are all the same and Jesus’ cross saves us all. We are sinners, not saints in ourselves. But when God finds us in Jesus Christ, we are saints through and through.

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” As I said before, remember that, for the disciples, Jesus hadn’t died on the cross yet, so what did a “cross” mean to them? They didn’t have the resurrection in mind the way we do. Crosses, to them, were for crucifixions. Crosses were for criminals. Crosses meant death, and not a nice way to die either.

Earlier, Jesus had just told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering and be killed. Peter didn’t want this and he told Jesus so. You can imagine what the other disciples would have thought about this idea as well. Not too popular is my bet. But now Jesus is telling them, “I must die, even though you don’t want it to happen. And, if you are going to follow me, you might as well be carrying your own cross and prepare yourselves for death as well. Following me will get you killed. Deny yourselves and your desire to save your lives, leave your lives in my hands.

What would you do? Well, I’d probably run the other way. And, at the cross, that’s exactly what they all do. The disciples either betray Jesus, deny association with him, abandon him or watch everything from far away. It’s not until after Jesus’ resurrection that they are given faith to believe all that Jesus has told them: The cross he spoke of that day referred not only to their deaths, but also new lives. And later on, when they each marched off to their deaths whether carrying a cross or struck down with a sword, you can bet that they each believed that their lives were in God’s hands. They had tried to save their lives by abandoning Jesus at the cross, but they failed. Now that they would die for faith in Jesus, they could believe that God had chosen them for eternal life even after death.

If it hasn’t happened yet, every one of you will experience your own denial of Jesus, your disassociation with him, your doubt of God and your betrayal of your own morals. Thinking to save your life at every turn, no matter what the consequences, each one of you will die, “For the wages of sin are death.” But, my prayer for you is that when you have finally reached the end of your days, and there are no ways out, and death is approaching, you will finally realize and believe once again that God has chosen you for eternal life even after death. Your death has already died. Your sins are forgiven.

Jesus says, “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.” There is a difference between your crosses and the cross of Jesus. You have many and they all end at death. Jesus has one and his ends with life. Jesus calls you to follow him all the way to your death, but finally, not to trust in your deathyou’re your suffering, but in his death and resurrection for your hope and eternal life. Amen.