September 3 — Pentecost +14A – Matthew 16:21-28

“From that time on, [after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah,] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “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. For 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? “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. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

What does it mean to live a life of denial? Well, to begin with, denial does not mean separating ourselves from culture — or to separate ourselves from others like so many Christians have done before us. Instead, in this world, to deny the self in terms of following Jesus is to live — but to live so that we reorient our lives so that we are not focused just on ourselves. Just giving up things, denying ourselves of things will just leave us feeling empty. While living for others, putting others first, squashing our egocentric needs is not only counter-cultural, it recognizes that our self has worth when compared to the cost of the death of G-d’s son. This is what gives us real worth. It isn’t through self-achievement, which is nice. It isn’t in self-fulfillment, which is interesting. Instead, G-d gave the Son up to death for each one of us. That is what we are worth. Imagine — Jesus died for you. Period, end of story. That helps us understand what it means to deny ourselves. It means reorienting our priorities — it means reorienting our very lives — living for G-d — and not for ourselves.  

Living as if we are prepared to die — to pick up our cross and to follow Jesus — is scandalous. This is what Jesus was teaching his disciples — and teaching us. Following Jesus means more than just thinking that Jesus has some good advice for us. It is being prepared to leave everything that makes us comfortable, gives us some sense of belonging, and to leave it all behind for the sake of the cross. G-d is looking for the true, authentic “Us” — G-d wants us to be authentic Christians — to admit that we are not always as faithful as we like to be, not at prayerful as we should be, and not as giving as we should be. And yet, G-d still loves us. To be authentic Christians we need to admit we are not as knowledgeable or perfect as we want others to think — and yet the good news is, G-d still loves us. 

Moving forward as a church, and individually as Christians is going to require getting outside, outside of ourselves, our egos, our wants, needs and desires — and to work toward what will be the greatest good for “the” church of Jesus Christ. As I see it, it will not only be this church’s greatest challenge, but is our greatest challenge as Christians every day.  

Pastor Dave