Disciples of the Kingdom: Cross Bearing Disciples
Matthew 10:24-39
Today and throughout the month of June, we are going to explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. But before we get started, I think it is only fair to start with a disclaimer: Being a disciple of Jesus is not for the fearful or the fainthearted! Because to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we commit our lives to the one who gave his life for others and calls us to do the same!
I start with that disclaimer because I believe there has been a valid criticism leveled at the 20th and 21st century church that raised and formed us that it has made discipleship much too easy and much to bland. In our effort to compete against TV, Sunday morning ballgames, sleeping in, and too full calendars, we have tried to sell a watered down form of Christianity.
Yet, historically Christianity has grown the most when Christians are persecuted! And Christianity has floundered and lost steam when we are too comfortable and it is too easy to confess our belief in Christ. In fact, while many preachers are bemoaning the advent of what they call the post-Christian age in the 21st century, many maintain that we entered the post-Christian age when Constantine declared the Roman Empire to be a Christian empire and confessing Christ was no longer a possible death sentence.
You see, it all became so easy. Expected even. People were born and raised in the church and the gospel became old hat. Even the most amazing and awe-inspiring parts of the story-God becoming human and being born and laid in a feeding trough, Christ dying, being buried, and then rising on the third day-are so familiar to many of us that we lose our sense of amazement at these events.
I think that is why new Christians are so much more excited than those who have known the story all our lives. They know how amazing the story is! They know that believing in Jesus means that they have to view the whole world differently. They know that if all we proclaim is true then they have to share what they know.
So what do we do with those new Christians? We baptize and confirm them, bring them into the church, give them a Bible with a list of do's and don'ts, and place them on a committee-as if to say: "This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ." We don't ask too much of them: a couple of hours on Sunday, maybe an hour or two during the week. We ask them to tack it onto your already busy life and wait for the blessings to fall down. And if the blessings don't fall down soon, we remind them that after you die all will be well.
The problem is that this kind of discipleship is all too easy! All too comfortable! All too boring! All too cheap! And most of all-this kind of discipleship is nothing like the kind of discipleship Jesus describes in the gospels!
So let's look at today's scripture.
"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Now there is a lot to talk about in this passage, but I'm going to focus on the last two verses. However, I read the entire passage to you to give you the feel for the context of what Jesus is saying to his disciples. In essence, he is saying being a disciple is not an easy job. Take on this job and you will be rejected and persecuted. Furthermore, Jesus will ask you to give up those things that you think are most important: your careers, your comfort, your security, your family, even your life!
Jesus makes it clear that being a disciple is not a slight readjustment of our values and our dreams. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means a complete reorientation of who we are and what is most important to us!
Now I don't know about you, but I'd much rather discuss the part in this passage about the sparrows and the hairs on my head. But did you notice that those wonderful words of assurance are sandwiched between commands not to be afraid and not to hold too tightly to the things we think are the most important things in the world?! In fact, it is followed by several of the most uncomfortable verses in the whole gospel: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me."
Ouch! Not exactly Jesus, meek and mild!
It is words like this that make it very clear why not everyone dropped their nets and followed him. It is words like this that make it clear why some people-some very good people-are unwilling to let go and let God take charge, because when we give our lives to God everything has to change.
This is perhaps the most dangerous and unacceptable thing that Jesus has to say to moral upright middle class Americans because it threatens the foundations of our world! We are raised from childhood to believe that our goal in life should be to ensure stability, comfort and security for ourselves and for our families. We pick our careers based on that assumption. We buy large houses and SUVs for that purpose. We over-schedule ourselves and our kids in order to ensure that the college application looks good and the resume looks even better.
Not that those things are bad in and of themselves. But whenever those things-those goals-those dreams-have a higher priority in our lives than God then we have a problem.
Anything that has a higher priority in our lives than God is an idol. And where there is idolatry there is unfaithfulness to God. And when we put these good things before God, we cut ourselves off from the very source of all good things.
Those who want to save their lives lose them. Those who lose their lives save them. Take up your cross and follow me.
That is why Paul said the cross was a stumbling block! The problem is that the Jesus died on a cross. The stumbling block is that the cross is something we are called to carry!
Being a disciple isn't about being comfortable or secure, it's about sacrifice.
Take up your cross and follow me. Or as Jesus reminds us in Luke-take up your cross daily and follow me.
Now here is one of those places where we once again tend to water down what Jesus is asking of us. We talk of "the cross we have to bear" as if it is something that life has forced upon us. We say, "Oh my unhappy marriage is just the cross I have to bear." Or "this illness is my cross." Or "caring for my difficult mother is the cross I have to bear."
But that misses the point of what Jesus is saying. Remember the cross was not just something that happened to Jesus, but something he chose to bear for the sake of others. Jesus is talking about those things that we chose to do on behalf of others.
So the illness, the difficult mother, the unhappy marriage are not our crosses to bear-they are just things that happen to people who live in a broken sinful world. But what we choose to do with those difficult situations-that's another matter entirely
An unhappy marriage is not a cross to bear-learning to forgive and evaluating your own behavior and making changes so the marriage will work might be the cross you bear.
The difficult mother is not your cross to bear-but caring from her with dignity, patience and love might be.
But even those examples limit what Jesus is getting at in this command. Taking up our cross daily means day in and day out making choices on behalf of God and others-not simply reacting to the difficult things that happen to us Taking up our cross is looking beyond our own wants, needs, desires and comfort to meet the very real needs of others.
Of course, it is risky. To take up our cross means risking we might not have everything we need. Giving a tithe risks not having money for something else we need or want. Sharing the gospel with someone means risking they'll reject us or think us a fool. Clothing the naked and feeding the hungry means we might have to spend time with people who smell funny or who might take advantage of us. Putting church first over the ball team or cheerleading means risking the ridicule of others. Finding time to teach a bible study or lead a prayer group risks wasting your time on ungrateful folks or showing your ignorance now and again. In all cases, we are being asked to give up something of value to us for the sake of others. And, yes, it is risky.
That is why Jesus reminds us that it is a risk worth taking. Look at the sparrow-they aren't fellow workers in the Kingdom of God-yet even they are taken care of. Look at the lilies of the field-look how beautiful they are-aren't you worth more than they? Take up your cross. Give your life. The same God who cares for them will care for you.
Now please understand, I am not suggesting that you say yes to every call to donate time or money. I'm not suggesting that you allow yourself to be used and abused by everyone. What I am saying is that IF God calls you to do something. . . let me rephrase that . . . when God calls you to make a sacrifice, God will take care of you.
To our way of thinking, God works in mysterious ways. I used to say that in the Kingdom of God everything is upside down. The rich are poor. The poor are rich. The first are last. The last are first. We lose our lives in order to gain our lives. But I have a dear friend, who always reminds me, that it isn't the Kingdom of God that is upside down. What is upside down is this strange world we call normal. And what this world needs to be turned aright!
So it is that in the Kingdom of God, when we lose the very things we think we need the most, we learn that God provides the very things we truly need.
In his book, "If Grace is so Amazing Why Don't We Like it?" Donald McCullough tells of a trip he made to Ghana. There he visited a Presbyterian clinic where he met a physician, named Tim, who had given up a very successful medical practice in Europe. And what amazed Donald the most was the fact that Tim, who had given up a large bank account and a Porsche, did not seem to miss his former life. In fact, he seemed happy.
Then one day, Tim took Donald out to a big field. Tim reached in his bag and pulled out a boomerang and told Donald that he was going to teach him how to use it. Tim was a good teacher and soon Donald was hurling the boomerang as hard as he could and it was flying back to him.
And suddenly, it all made sense to him. He said, "[This] is what Tim and other givers experience. It's the central paradox that Jesus taught: the ones who seek their lives will lose them, and the ones who sacrifice will save them. Hoard what you have and it will turn to dust in your hands; give it away and you will gain far more than you lose." 1
We live in a world that proudly proclaims that he who dies with the most toys wins. That we must accumulate and hoard and seek to have the most stuff, the most security, and the most popularity. But we serve a savior who declares that it isn't the one with the most toys who wins, but the one who holds all things lightly while clutching tightly to the creator of the universe who really wins in the end.
1 McCullough, David, If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don't We Like It? Jossey-Bass: 2005, pp. 137-138.
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