Are You Ready to Die?

Are You Ready to Die?

21Good Morning Friends,

I didn’t grow up observing Lent. Now, though, I observe Lent each year, and I learn so much about God and myself in the process. I have found that Lent is much richer than simply giving up chocolate. Which I have not done. It is a good time to reflect on Christ and what he is asking us to really give up and take up. And friends it is a bit scary what he asks when you think about what Jesus said. It has been a week ago that I saw my mother breath her last breath on Ash Wednesday. It echoes in my mind as I contemplate today’s scripture. So, Are You Ready to Die?

Scripture: From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ ²³But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. ²⁸Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

Matthew 16:21–28 (NRSV)

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. ⁶Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.⁷ I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.

Psalm 71:5-8 (NRSV)

Message: Even those who don’t call themselves Christians regard Jesus as one of the wisest teachers and most loving leaders the world has ever known. And yet he was perceived by his contemporaries in a way that prompted them to want to kill him. The reality is that Jesus is not simply meek and mild. He was dangerous and scary to his contemporaries and if we do not see that we miss something important. Sure it is emotionally difficult to relate to Jesus as being good when He calls us to join him in death. Those are dark words. Indeed there are few words Jesus ever spoke that are scarier: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Friends, Lent is a time to sort some of this out. Maybe dying is really about dying to self. So maybe there is something here that does not require martyrdom. I would like to think that. Maybe for us it is to mean giving up resentment and rebellion against God and it does mean being open to thousands of little distractions…no opportunities for doing something good along the way. And once we have done that, we can take up the cross…no not our difficulties and problems but our very death… Yes, what Christ is saying we are to live like the dead… radically unimpaired. We are to live with no holds barred, no holding back, with all the glory to God, day by day as a way of life. If we want to be Disciples of Christ it starts with putting something down so we can pick something. Putting down injustice so that we can pick up the love of Christ. We have to do that before we follow. We have to deny ourselves, not of food or provisions but of the world that rules our lives.

Pray that we allow God to be God. Pray that we experience Him with awe and wonder and pray that we want others to know Him too. Pray that we pass it on. Pray that we find ourselves in the newness of relationships with one another because our relationship with Jesus Christ is constantly being renewed. Pray that we be moral in an immoral world. Pray that we take up the challenge of revealing God’s truth in us. Pray we have the courage to make a commitment.

Blessings,

John Lawson