Discipel Zijn - 4

If anyone desires to come after me - 2 being a disciple - 4 “Who do people say that I am?” “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Two questions that framed the text we started with last week and will finish this morning. This question sparks Peter’s incredible confession and confirms in the hearts of the disciples that Christ is their expected Messiah and the Son of God. The verses that follow this confession reveal that you can know who Christ is and follow Him and yet have it completely wrong. Peter suddenly finds himself on the dark side and Christ confronts his worldly thinking. We ended last week by asking the question: What if what Jesus wants for you isn’t what you had pictured? That’s a tough question, but it gets tougher as Jesus explains what “coming after me together on the road” will take. deny yourself Denying yourself? This conjures up the picture of the flagellating saint, the Churchgoer that has surrounded himself with a host of DO’s and DON’T’s that make up his Christian experience. I’m defined by what I don’t do. I don’t watch tv, I don’t wear skirts, I don’t swear, and the list goes on. I’m reminded of an old Baptist saying: “I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t dates girls that do.” But this misses the point of what Christ is saying. “Himself” is the direct object of this sentence. Christ doesn’t say “deny yourself something”. He says: “deny yourself”. Peter helps us with this on the night of Christ’s arrest. When he is sitting in the courtyard and is questioned about his involvement with Christ, he denies that he knows Him. Same word. Christ is saying that the old you no longer in charge. Isn’t this how Peter just got himself into trouble? He was thinking like the old Peter when he confronted Christ. pick up your cross Now when Jesus said this, the cross had no special meaning to the disciples. Christ had not yet been crucified. In those days an estimated 30,000 jews had been crucified. It was a Roman device meant to instill fear and submission. People were hung on display for up to week along the roads leading in and out of Jerusalem. Jesus repurposes the image. Peter’s theology didn’t make room for a suffering Messiah and by citing the cross Christ dramatically introduces suffering into the plan of God. He makes it foundational to coming after Him. Someone who has been made to pick up their cross, has accepted his fate. It begins the trek that will lead to his death. Christ’s words carry the meaning that you let go of the plans that you might have and accept the plan that has been determined for you. Follow me This on is easy to understand. Hard to do, though, isn’t it. Christ is the replacement for the “self” you have denied and he is the example of picking up that cross. His words carry the same meaning as: “Let’s go.” One author put it this way… we have the family standing in the terminal. Their son is leaving. He says goodbye, he grabs his bags, and he goes on his journey. “You want to go this road together after me? Kiss yourself goodbye, carry this, and let’s go.” If you could do it over This verses that follow paint the picture that in the end, if you had it to do over again. You’d choose to do what Christ is saying. He introduces the paradox that clinging to your life now, means losing in the end. Losing your life now, means gaining everything in the end. You want to be my disciple? Kiss yourself goodbye. Pick up that cross. Follow me.