Pentecost 15
Jesu Juva
“A Cruciform Life”
Text: Matthew 16:21-26
Grace, mercy, and peace to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
If
you want to know the definition of a word, you go to the dictionary and look it
up. If you have a medical problem, you
go to the doctor and get it diagnosed.
If you need legal advice, you go to a lawyer for a consultation. And if you want to know what it means to be a
Christian – a believer in and
follower of Jesus, the Christ – it is
the words of Jesus that we heard this morning that give a pretty good
description of what that means: If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Now
that is not a verse most people in
our world would point to to define a Christian.
Current cultural and political debates are about posting the Ten Commandments in schools and public
buildings, and those who object do so because they think that will make us a
Christian nation. But the Ten
Commandments are not what Christianity is about. Following the Ten Commandments does not make
you a Christian. . . . Others today will tell you that being a
Christian means following the “Golden
Rule”: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But that isn’t much better. In fact, that is just a summary and
condensation of the second table of the Ten Commandments. No, following the Golden Rule does not make
you a Christian. In fact, this is the
kind of “false religion” that we prayed against
in the Collect for this day, when we prayed that God would increase in us true
religion.
No,
there is only one thing that makes Christ Christ, and
a Christian a Christian – and that is the cross. As we heard today, Jesus told His disciples that
He must go to
So
we must know what it means, therefore, to take up your cross. That too is a very misunderstood thing. For the first thing that
comes to many people’s minds is suffering
– that Jesus wants us to suffer.
But while the cross involves suffering, that is not what the cross is about. For if you lived in First Century, if you saw
someone carrying their cross, it didn’t mean just that that person was going to suffer. It meant that, but more. That person was going to die. And soon. There was
only one future, one outcome, for that person.
The cross was an execution.
Now
if we were just discussing crosses in general, that would be it. The cross means death. But we’re not just talking about any
cross here, but one cross
in particular – the cross which Jesus carried; the cross on which He
hung. And so there’s one more step in
understanding it rightly – which Jesus said, and which we confessed in the
Creed – and that is life. Life after death. Resurrection from the dead.
This too is included in what Jesus said must happen. He must
go, He must suffer, He must die . . . but He also must rise. That is what we mean when we talk of Jesus’
cross, and our cross – the whole package . . . and the goal of the whole package, which is life. Eternal, everlasting,
unending life. The life that was
lost in the Garden with sin, and which Jesus came to restore. And the means
of restoration was the tree of the cross – or as we say in the liturgy as we
approach Holy Week: On the tree of the
cross you gave salvation to mankind that, where death arose, there life also
might rise again and that he who by a tree once overcame likewise by a tree
might be overcome.
And
so no cross, no Christ. No cross, no Christians. Both then, and still today.
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me. But now the
question is: how do we do that?
Well
(as I said before), we don’t
do it just by suffering; we don’t
do it just by dying, or laying down our lives for others – we do it by living
the cross. Now that sounds like an
oxymoron, or a paradox, and it would be
if we were talking about just any cross!
But remember: the goal of Jesus’ cross is not death, but life. And so His cross in our lives means not just
death, but life. It means living the
cross. It means that the cross defines who you are. It means that the cross shapes who you are. It means
that the cross is not just an historical event that happened some 2000 years
ago, but is an ongoing reality in your life, and that without the cross you would not be who you are.
Is that true for you? If you took
the cross and Church and Christianity out of your life, would you be
different? Or would you be pretty much
the same person, only without anything to do on Sunday mornings? That’s an important question, and it is at
the heart of our readings today. For it
was true of Jesus. The cross was not
just something that happened to Jesus at the end of the story of His life, but
was there from beginning to end. The
cross defined and shaped who He was and what He did. It was there in everything. His mind was set on the things of God, not
of man. And so He was often in
conflict with those who thought like men.
But He couldn’t do otherwise. For He was formed and informed not by this world, but by the cross. Or in other words, His life was a cruciform life.
And
that’s how the Christian’s life is as well: a cruciform life. A life
formed and informed by the cross. But the cross not just as history, but as an ongoing reality in
your life. And so as cruciform
Christians, you are defined not so much by your birth certificate as by your baptismal
certificate. You know that it is better
to be on your knees before your Saviour than standing before kings and
politicians. The voice and praise of men
is insignificant compared to the comfort and voice of your Good Shepherd. The cruciform Christian sees blessings in all things, not just in “good”
things. Enemies are not opponents but
opportunities for prayer. Families are
not defined by homes, but churches. The
cruciform Christian knows that the body and blood you here receive is a richer
feast than the finest of restaurants.
And you know that the most important three little words you could ever
utter are not I love you, but I forgive you. For that is the bottom line. That is what the life of the cross is all
about. And that is why Jesus said He must
rise. His resurrection wasn’t a
necessity simply because He was more powerful than death, or because He
defeated Satan and the grave – although that’s all true! No, He had to rise because in Him, sin was no
more. It was swallowed up by Jesus on
the cross. And if there is no sin, there
is no death. And if there is no death,
then Jesus must rise to life. And
as those forgiven their sins by Him, by grace through faith, so must we. At the end is not death, but life. And so while the things of this world will
all come to an end – birth certificates, kings, politicians, men, enemies,
homes, food – the cruciform life, His life, will never end.
And
as we receive that new life and forgiveness here in baptism, absolution, and
Supper, we have already begun to live this new life. For in these is His cross applied to our
lives. In these we live the cruciform
life, as these gifts – the fruits of our Saviour’s cross – form and inform and
shape our daily lives.
And
so when Jesus says to deny yourself, take up your cross, and
follow me – that is not three different steps, but one step. It is to live the cruciform life. It is to live in the freedom of forgiveness –
received and given. It is to live
by faith, in a reality greater than what can be seen. It is to trust that the way of our Saviour is
the way of life. . . . It doesn’t mean that Christians can’t
have any fun and have to live hard lives of suffering and deprive ourselves of
all pleasures! No! But it does keep things in perspective – in God’s perspective. And it enables us to live our lives here with
purpose and meaning – not just randomly chasing after things that are here one
day and gone the next, but living, as
For
that is what God wants most of all. He
does not want us to suffer. He wants us
to live. The way of the world, the way
of Satan and sin, is death. And we’re
living in a culture of death. People die,
friendships die, families die, relationships die. But into the midst of all this death comes the Son of God and His cross of life. And He takes all this death – our death – and
gives us life. He does not count our
sins against us, but takes them Himself.
And when Peter objects, saying this shall never happen to you! Jesus says, “No, it must, so that it may never happen to you!”
And
that’s it! That’s the cruciform
life. The life in Christ and His cross,
forgiven and now free to live! Now, how
do you want to live?
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts
and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.