The Second Sunday in Lent

[Jesus said] “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

If you’re over the age of 50, you might remember that country song by Lynn Anderson that went something like this: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden!” It’s a song about a woman telling her man that no relationship is perfect and without its challenges, so don’t run away at the first sign of trouble.

Unfortunately, we can think of our relationship with Christ as perfect in the beginning. When we are converted, we experience such a sense of joy and wonder and excitement. Then troubles begin to come our way, and we complain that things weren’t supposed to be like this at all!

No doubt that is what Peter is feeling when Jesus starts telling him and the other disciples about His impeding future: about His coming arrest, trial, and execution at the hands of the Jewish religious establishment in Jerusalem. Up that that point Peter and the other disciples believed that since Jesus is the Messiah, that He has come to restore the Kingdom of Israel. They believe that Jesus will be a King like David, who will come and drive out the Romans and reign in peace and justice over a restored Israel. Peter and the rest of them believe that since they are Jesus’s followers, that they will be the new insiders, and they will have a privileged place in this new order.

But Jesus blows up that fantasy, and He explains that as the Messiah, His first task is to win the victory over sin and death. He must purpose the land and the people of Israel from the curse of sin. This victory cannot be won with armies and weapons, but only by Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the Cross. That’s what Jesus has come to do: die on the Cross as a sacrifice for sin.

But Peter and the other disciples cannot accept this stark truth. They have missed it almost as badly as the Pharisees and other members of the Jewish religious establishment. What Jesus is saying to them is incomprehensible, unthinkable even. So Peter, ever the impulsive one, takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke Him. This prompts Jesus to look at Peter and the rest of the disciples and rebuke Peter saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

What is so significant about this exchange is that it comes not long after Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus tells Peter that he is blessed, because Peter boldly proclaims what God in His love has revealed to Peter—that Jesus truly is the Son of God. But the same man who proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah is now rebuked by Jesus as “Satan.” It seems harsh at first, but if you remember from last week, when we looked at Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the desert, one of the things we see is that while Jesus is tempted just as we are, the temptations that Jesus faces are deeper and more profound. Fundamentally, Satan was trying to tempt Jesus into turning away from His calling and mission as the Messiah, to be a Messiah without the Cross. Now Peter and the other disciples are trying to convince Jesus to do this very thing—be a Messiah without the Cross!

This provides Jesus with another teaching moment. Jesus explains to Peter and the others, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Following Jesus is a great privilege: there are many joys and wonders and blessings, no doubt! We can all testify to that. But Jesus also explains that as His followers, we cannot expect to be exempt from the hardships and sacrifices that Jesus experienced. More fundamentally, to follow Jesus means that we give up our right to ourselves. On a surface level, when someone says we are to deny ourselves, it means that we are to think less of ourselves. That’s not what Jesus means at all. Denying oneself does not mean thinking less of oneself, but of not thinking of oneself, and thinking of God instead. To deny oneself means that we put God at the top of our list of priorities. When Jesus says for us to take up our cross, that may mean martyrdom for a few of us, but for most of us, taking up our cross means accepting the path that God has placed us on. Whatever circumstance, hardship, or trouble that we are dealing with today, we don’t run away from it, but we accept it and ask God for the strength to see it through. To take up our cross means that we continue to trust God no matter what.

Let’s look at the example of Abraham from today’s Old Testament lesson. After many years of no children, Abraham and Sarah ask God for a son. They keep asking, but nothing happens. The years pass, and so Abraham and Sarah decide to try plan B. Abraham gets the servant girl, Hagar, pregnant, and she bears a son, who is named Ishmael. But that plan doesn’t work as Sarah gets jealous and drives Hagar and her son away. God, in His mercy, appears to them at the oak a Mamre, and tells them that in a year, Sarah, despite her age, will bear a son. Sarah thinks this is so ludicrous that she laughs out loud. But it does come to pass, and Sarah has a son. Abraham and Sarah name him, Issac, which means “laughter!” So God has answered their prayers for a son!

But now, God comes to Abraham with a command. Abraham is to take Issac, his only son, the son he loves, to the top of Mt. Moriah and sacrifice him there. Can you imagine how distraught and perplexed Abraham must feel? Yet you will notice that Abraham obeys. He takes Issac his son to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him. Yet when Issac asks him “where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham replies, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” This is the voice of a man who trusts God no matter what. And it is only at the last minute, when Abraham is just about to slay his son, that God stops him and provides a ram for the sacrifice.

This story may seem like a harsh one. It may seem cruel for God to put Abraham through such a test. Yet, this is what God does to Himself. God the Father sends His Son, His only Son, whom He loves to die on the Cross as a sacrifice for you and me. And while all that is in the future, Abraham was close enough to God that he knew about God’s character, about His love and faithfulness. Abraham knew he could trust God and obey, no matter what.

Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” That which seems impossible becomes possible when done for love’s sake. When a man and a woman get married, they don’t know what the future will bring. They know that in choosing to get married to each other there will be sacrifices and hardships along the way. But they commit to one another out of love and trust. Love for each other and trust that since God is in the middle of their marriage that He will give them the power to persevere through the joys and challenges of marriage and family.

Jesus invites each of us to take up our cross and follow Him. This invitation seems like an invitation to death on the surface, and it is in a way. It’s an invitation to die to self. And it’s that sinful, broken self that needs to die. But the good news is that Jesus’ love for us and our love for Him is more than enough to see us through. You see, with every command that Jesus gives to us, He also gives us the power to carry it out. We don’t have to try to struggle through all by ourselves. Jesus is right there with us, encouraging us, supporting us, directing us, and strengthening us. That’s why St. Paul, in our Epistle lesson this morning, rejoices over God. In his letter to the Romans, he boldly and cheerfully exclaims, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Any hardship can be borne because God is on our side. There is never any need for shame or self-condemnation, but only praise and thanksgiving to God. No matter what hardship or sacrifice we are facing today, we will be victorious if we continue to look to God and not ourselves or our circumstances. As St. Paul writes, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

​+In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.