Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Matthew 16:24-25
For someone I love, I will sacrifice many, many things. For my siblings or my niece and nephew, I would do almost anything because I love them. The interesting thing is that any "sacrifice" I make for the people I love does not even feel like a sacrifice because I want to help and serve them in any way that I can. Love drives us to sacrifice, doesn't it? Love is what led Jesus to sacrifice His life on the cross for the sins of the world. Not only did Jesus sacrifice because of His love for people; He taught His followers that they, too, were called to sacrifice.
Matthew chapter 16 is one of the most fascinating chapters in Scripture to me. In fact, take some time right now to pause and read this chapter. When you have read this chapter, let me tell you why I find it so fascinating. In this chapter, Jesus' disciples plainly heard and understood who Jesus was. In fact, Peter confessed to Jesus that He is "the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (verse 16). With this confession was the acknowledgment and understanding that Jesus was God's Son, the Savior of the world. After this confession, Jesus begins teaching that He is going to suffer, too. Furthermore, suffering and laying down one's life is a call for every believer.
While teaching His disciples, Jesus said to them, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will find it" (verses 25-26). With this teaching, Jesus flipped the paradigm for success upside down. Do everything you can to hold on to your life and save it, and you will lose it. Give up your life for the sake of Christ, and you will find it. Yes, this life holds suffering and sacrifice, but when we lay down and sacrifice our lives, we will actually find our lives.
When you think about your faith, do you often remember this invitation from Jesus to sacrifice and lay our lives down for His sake? If you are like me, I do not always think about it. My pride and self-protection cause me to want to argue that I should not have to suffer or sacrifice anything. Yet that argument is contrary to what Scripture teaches. A life following Christ includes suffering. It calls for sacrifice. And, as devastating as it may feel at the time, the beauty is that in giving of ourselves, even our very lives, we will, in fact, find our lives.
Spend some time thinking about the fact that the call to follow Jesus is a call to sacrifice. Have there been sacrifices you have made as a result of your relationship with Christ? Are there any sacrifices that you know God is calling you to make? What are they? What is the promise in Scripture about our suffering?
Read Matthew 16:21-28 (NLT)
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”
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