The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost Follow Me Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. Christ our Lord says in today’s Gospel, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Dear Christian friends: What bothers you? I know a man who has a serious illness that will remain with him for the rest of his earthly days. He has no love for his illness. He can barely admit that he has an illness. Dutifully and obediently he marches forward with a stiff British lip. It is hard to embrace weakness. Jesus does not want this man to think of his illness as a mere weakness. Jesus wants him to think of illness as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” What bothers you? I know a woman who cannot stop grieving. A smile is possible, but fresh tears are only as far away a photograph, a whiff of aftershave, a baby blanket. Each day feels as useless as a dress rehearsal after the play. She should pick herself up and go on, but there is no place to go. Jesus does not want this woman to think of her grief as a mere grief. Jesus wants her to think of grief as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” What bothers you? I know a girl who dreads each morning almost as much as each evening. I know a boy who thinks he must tiptoe every day across eggshells. I know an aging man who loves his age, except now he has more memories of sin than he knows how to handle. Another man tries to hide his memories in a brown bottle, and another woman waits for a telephone that refuses to ring. I could fill an entire room with people who stagger under the burden of their vocation, straining but not gaining in their effort to be a good parent or worker or citizen. (Perhaps that room has already been filled.) Jesus does not want these people to think of their sorrow or their fears merely as sorrow or fear. He does not want them to think of their regret and their sins merely as regret and sin. Jesus wants them to think of depression and dread, history and habit, as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” What bothers you? I have told you about everyone else, but only you know you. Whatever it is—whether something about you or something about someone else—whatever it is, Jesus gives you a clear definition for that thing here in today’s Gospel. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Today’s Gospel is a baptismal Gospel. That is to say, Jesus’ Words in this Gospel are meant to put you in mind of your Baptism. Plenty of Scripture passages speak about Baptism in terms of death (Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12, Galatians 2:20). Today’s Gospel is no exception, where Jesus says, “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” • Where was your life lost? At your Baptism, where you were crucified with Christ Jesus; where your sin and your death were crucified, too. • Where is your life to be found again? In Baptism, “the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” What do these baptismal Words mean for you? These Words mean that • You now have nothing to prove, nothing to accomplish, nothing to gain, nothing to justify or atone or redeem. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for your sins (1 John 2:2). Jesus is the redemption, not merely of Israel (Luke 2:38, Psalm 130:7), but of all who trust in Him (Ephesians 1:7, 14). Jesus lost His life for the sake of finding your life. Jesus poured His life into Baptism and when He gave you His life through Baptism He likewise gave you all things (Romans 8:32). • Whether you live or whether you die, your life cannot be wasted. No, you are not living out your golden years with the sense of ease that you once hoped to feel. No, grief does not go away for those who are able to feel. Yes, motherhood and fatherhood are far more strenuous than you ever could have imagined. Yes, everything always takes you away from what you want to get done. Yes, your loneliness stretches out the hours like a highway in the desert. No, none of this amounts to a hill of beans. It is all vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11). Your life has been taken away from you and your life has been given back to you again, new and fresh and perfect in every way. That is Baptism. The newness and freshness of your Baptism cannot be made stale by the mundane paths of everyday life. In today’s Gospel Jesus wants you to know that, among the many things He gives you in Baptism, He has included there the gift of the cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” What bothers you? Jesus wants you to know that He has lovingly, mercifully taken that thing that bothers you; He has torn it apart and He has fashioned that thing back into the gift of the cross. It is odd to think of hardship and suffering as a gift, but the cross of Jesus is ALWAYS a gift, even when it yields tears and sorrow for you. What bothers you? Easier said than done, but try not to let it bother you any more. Your cross is a good gift because Jesus is the crucified one (1 Corinthians 2:2), the cross-carrying one (John 19:17). Whenever you must carry a cross, your Lord Jesus cannot be too far away. Whenever you must die—either dying at the end of your earthly life, or dying by remaining faithful to your daily tasks—whenever you must die, you are merely taking the form that your Lord Jesus first took for you. Even when you must bear a cross for someone else (Galatians 6:2), praise “God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” for us (Psalm 68:19). Yet cheerful He to suffering goes, That He His foes from thence might free. (Lutheran Service Book 430.5) _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
