“If anyone would come after Me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross...” Jesus, Matthew 16:24-25.
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| John Harper with his daughter Nana whom he successfully placed on a lifeboat before going down with the Titanic. |
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Cost of Discipleship,” chapter 4. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who spoke out against Hitler and died In a Concentration Camp in WW II).
“Christians [need to be] committed to great causes, not great comforts. I pleaded with the saints to dream a dream bigger than themselves and their families and their churches. [Commit to] the great causes of mercy and justice in a prejudiced, pain-filled, and perishing world.” (John Piper, World Magazine, February 23, 2002, p. 37)
The response to the Peter’s bold proclamation of Jesus as the
Christ (Matthew 16:16) is not what they expected. His followers
expected Jesus to come out powerfully against the Roman oppression. However, there
were no parades, no debutante balls, no open-air stadium rallies, no marches on
Jerusalem with shouts of “death to God’s enemies!” Missing were grandiose
displays of ethereal power, and any “sign from heaven” (v. 1) which Jesus’
critics demanded.
Instead, the disciples receive harsh warnings to tell no one
that Jesus is the Christ (v.20). Furthermore Jesus called his key disciple, “Satan”
(v.23). Then Jesus continued to further reverse their expectations and told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me,” (v. 24). A modern marketing guru
would probably take offense at this and ask Jesus, “Where is the promise of a better
life now? When will you tell
us about the secret Biblical money codes for prosperity? C’mon, Jesus! We need
to sell books and fill those pews!”
Jesus is pointing His disciples past this temporal life,
this vapor of breath, to a MUCH GREATER reality of EVERLASTING joy! Paul says,
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory beyond all comparison,” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Christ’s call is that our
hope is fixed not on this dying world but on our eternal life with Him.
The freedom and the joy in Christianity comes not when we
are mindful of bettering ourselves but when we are mindful of whom we serve. We serve the Christ, the Son of the Living God (v.16).
Again, Bonhoeffer: “To deny oneself is to be aware of only Christ and no more
of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard
for us. Once more, all that
self-denial can say is: ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.’” (Cost of Discipleship, chapter 4)
Let us remember: we serve Christ; He does not serve us. Run from ideologies that reduce Jesus
to a mere spiritual trainer, guiding you to a self-exalting life. Jesus does not beckon us to a “better”
life; He beckons us to come and die, to die to this world, its expectations,
its pain, and its futility and find life that is everlasting and centered on
him. “For whoever would
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find
it.” (v. 25)
Let us lay aside this world, which we will lose anyway and
let us take up our cross and follow Him. “What will profit a
man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? What shall a man give in return for his
life?” (v. 26). What
good will fame, money, riches and pleasure accomplish on Judgment Day? May our security in Christ lead
us to take great risks. Lets
follow His call to take the gospel to places where Christ is not known and where
great danger and opposition await us. We need fewer Christians intent on living long lives
and more Christians intent on dying purposeful deaths.
On April 14, 1912 the Titanic
sank. 1528 people jumped overboard
into the frigid waters including a man named John Harper. Harper was swimming frantically to
people leading them to Jesus before the hypothermia became fatal. Mr. Harper
swam up to one young man clinging to a piece of debris. Harper asked him
between breaths, "Are you saved?"
The young man replied, “No.” Harper then took off his life
jacket and threw it to the man and said, "Here then, you need this more
than I do..." and swam away to other people. A few minutes later Harper
swam back to the young man and succeeded in leading him to salvation. Of the
1528 people that went into the water that night, only six were rescued by the
lifeboats. Harper was not among
the six. However, the young man on the debris was.
