Being

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

BEING

Luke 9:21-27

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."  23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." 

NIV

We could have separated these two sayings of Jesus and focus on the fact he told his disciples the plan for his death and life, but that is also history. It was as he said it would be and that has had a profound impact in the lives of many people including us. The life lesson we learn from that is to know it happened as he said. But he continued with words that are more difficult to incorporate into our life. What does it mean to deny ourselves and take up our cross? Certainly we have to admit that before knowing Jesus we spent all our time in pursuit of self-satisfaction, doing everything for the benefit of our own gain in one way or another. When we decide to follow Jesus we need to do it with a sincere heart. This means we need to put aside those selfish pursuits as well as self-dependence. We are no longer our own person, but we belong to Jesus, his bond servant, which also includes being his friend, his co-heir, now being a member of the family of God. If people remain in the state of self-pursuit, Jesus tells us they will lose their life, as if we remain as the world lives, we too will lose our life, that meaning eternal life. But if we follow Jesus, putting aside that self-pursuit, that wanting what we want and wanting it now and doing whatever it takes to get it attitude, we will gain eternal life. Jesus tells us that it does not matter how much of the world’s wealth and pleasures we gain, if we are not his follower, we lose. There is also another truth here in that Jesus tells us not to be ashamed of him. Certainly we say “Praise the Lord” in church, but what about in the presence of the world? Although we might tell some we are Christians, or that we go to church, do we tell them we are born again believers in Jesus? Do we tell them that Jesus baptized us with the Holy Spirit and he lives within us? How bold are we when it comes to Jesus? Maybe if we have a tendency to hang back, to keep our faith quiet, it is a form of being ashamed of him.  The consequences of being ashamed of him and his words are too devastating to image. It is far better to suffer the consequences of trouble with the world by boldly proclaiming the truth about Jesus and his words then to be friends with the world by our silence. Let the world call us crazy, let them call us preacher, let them call us any name but friend. That is not to say we should not befriend them in order to tell them about the kingdom of God. But we should not be like them, living in pursuit of self whatever, we cannot be like them, yet we do need to love them. True loving them would mean we do not want them to die in their sin, in their self-pursuit and lose their life. True love, being a true follower of Christ would mean we need to tell them about Jesus, and how they can gain eternal life. Being a follower of Jesus is not just all about us, but it is about being what Jesus is to the world.