Aug 30, 2020  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, AMEN.

The text for our meditation this morning is the Gospel Lesson for ths 1`3th Sunday After Pentecost, Matthew 16:21-28. There we read these words:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

We begin in Jesus name, AMEN.

What bothers you? I know a man whom you do not know who has a serious illness that will remain with him for the rest of his earthly days. He has no love for his illness. Dutifully and obediently he marches forward with a stiff upper lip. It is hard to embrace weakness.

Jesus does not want this man to think of his illness as a mere weakness. Jesus wants him to think of illness as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

I know a woman who cannot stop grieving. A smile is possible, but fresh tears are only as far away a photograph, a whiff of aftershave, a baby blanket. Each day feels as useless as a dress rehearsal after the play.

Jesus does not want this woman to think of her grief as a mere grief. Jesus wants her to think of grief as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

What bothers you? I know a girl who dreads each morning almost as much as each evening. I know a boy who thinks he must tiptoe every day across eggshells.

I know an aging man who loves his age, except now he has more memories of sin than he knows how to handle. Another man tries to hide his memories in a brown bottle. And another woman waits for a telephone that refuses to ring.

I could fill an entire room with people who stagger under the burden of their vocation, straining but not gaining in their effort to be a good parent or worker or citizen. (Perhaps that room has already been filled.)

Jesus does not want these people to think of their sorrow or their fears merely as sorrow or fear. He does not want them to think of their regret and their sins merely as regret and sin. Jesus wants them to think of depression and dread, history and habit, as a cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

What bothers you? I have told you about everyone else, but only you know you. Whatever it is— whether something about you or something about someone else—whatever it is, Jesus gives you a clear definition for that thing here in today’s Gospel. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

Today’s Gospel is a baptismal Gospel. In other words, Jesus’ Words in this Gospel are meant to put you in mind of your Baptism. Plenty of Scripture passages speak about Baptism in terms of death.

Pauls says in Romans 6:3-4, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. “

In Colossians 2:12, he says, ”..having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

And in Galatians 2:20, he says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Today’s Gospel is no exception, where Jesus says, “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Where was your life lost? At your Baptism, where you were crucified with Christ Jesus; where your sin and your death were crucified, too.

Where is your life to be found again? In Baptism, “the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” What do these baptismal Words mean for you?

These Words mean that .... You now have nothing to prove, nothing to accomplish, nothing to gain, nothing to justify or atone or redeem. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for your sins (1 John 2:2). Jesus is the redemption, not merely of Israel (Luke 2:38, Psalm 130:7), but of all who trust in Him (Ephesians 1:7, 14).

Jesus lost His life for the sake of finding your life. Jesus poured His life into Baptism and when He gave you His life through Baptism He likewise gave you all things (Romans 8:32).

Whether you live or whether you die, your life cannot be wasted.

Its true, you are not living out your golden years with the sense of ease that you once hoped to feel. Its true, grief does not go away for those who are able to feel.

Its true, motherhood and fatherhood are far more strenuous than you ever could have imagined. Its true, everything always takes you away from what you want to get done. Its true, your loneliness stretches out the hours like a highway in the desert.

But my friends, none of this amounts to a hill of beans. It is all vanity. Your life has been taken away from you and your life has been given back to you again, new and fresh and perfect in every way.

That is the power of Baptism. And the Power of your Baptism cannot be made stale by the mundane paths of everyday life.

Jesus wants you to know that, among the many things He gives you in Baptism, He has included there the gift of the cross. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

What bothers you?

Christ is Risen.