Following Jesus
Matthew 16:24-29
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
What does it mean to follow Jesus? Many of you may have sat around a campfire
and sang the song, “I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow
Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back.” Did you really know what you were singing
when you sang that song or was it just a good feeling?
As I thought about that song I went to the lyrics
and found an interesting verse that I didn’t remember singing. It went like this, “Though I may wonder,
still I will follow; thought I may wonder, still I will follow; though I may
wonder, still I will follow; no turning back, no turning back.” I am sorry but I don’t think that is what
Jesus is telling His disciples. It seems
to me that it would give us permission to wonder and I don’t hear Jesus telling
His disciples to wonder.
The next verse is more what I would say is what
Jesus is telling His disciples with one exception. “The world behind me, the cross before me;
the world behind me, the cross before me, the world behind me, the cross before
me; not turning back, no turning back.”
Yes, the world should be behind us but the cross should be in our hands,
not before us.
Jesus tells the disciples just exactly what it meant
to follow Him. Just like us, I don’t
think they really understood. After all,
they knew that He as the Son of God, that He was in control, and I think they
thought, like Peter and us, “this is going to be a piece of cake”. With God in control, He won’t let anyone harm
me. Yet that is not what Jesus is
saying, is it?
First He says that we must deny ourselves. Now that is a far cry from what we hear today
isn’t it? We hear, “if it feels good, do it”.
Like I said in my last blog, we hear “you deserve it”; “you owe it to
yourself”; “take time for yourself”. . .
We have all heard it sometime or another and I would imagine that most
of us bought into it. But, that is not
what Jesus is saying. He is telling us
that we should no longer think of ourselves, we need to deny ourselves. Now that is not an easy task so why do you
think He tells us this? If we get so
stuck on ourselves don’t we have a tendency to not think of others? When we get stuck on ourselves do we tend to
forget that our God is in control? When
we are stuck on ourselves we don’t see the pain around us because we are so
concerned about our own pain.
Note what He says next, He tells us that we must
take up our cross daily. I think of
Jesus taking up the cross after He had been beaten, spat upon, and His clothes
ripped off of Him. I myself have a
tendency to curl up in a ball and feel sorry for myself when I am hurt. That, my friend, is not denying myself. When I am hurt, when people say things that
harm me, I need to look to Jesus and do as He did, He picked up the cross and
He carried it. He carried it until He
could physically not carry it anymore and then someone was appointed to carry
it for Him. What a beautiful picture of
how we need to respond to the trials of this life. When life deals us an unfair hand we need to
deny ourselves, focus on Him and follow Him.
When we do that daily, it becomes who we are. We no longer focus on ourselves but we daily
focus on Him.
Back to the campfire, “Though none go with me, still
I will follow; though none go with me, still I will follow; though none go with
me, still I will follow; not turning back, no turning back.” Think about it, if we deny ourselves, take up
our cross daily and follow Him, do you think none will go with us. I have to think that if we live life the way
God would have us live, others will begin to follow too.
As you seek Him, may you realize that when you truly
deny yourself, you empty a place within that is filled with the One who is more powerful. This is the place where man cannot harm you
but rather a place where the Holy Spirit can satisfy you.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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