Did I Forget to Tell You that the Christian Life is a Life of Sacrifice?
Looking at the 2022 world and the way many church people practice their faith, I have been discouraged – and worried. Have I – and other preachers—forgotten to tell people that Christians stand on truth, that repentance is a central part of the Christian experience? Did I forget to tell you that other people matter? In this slug-it-out, relentless contentiousness all around, I am worried that another central – absolutely essential—dynamic of Christian faith has disappeared.
Did I forget to tell you that the Christian life is a sacrificial life?
On one hand, I am sure I have preached this.
Matthew 16: 24: “If anyone wants to be my followers, let them deny themselves, take up the cross and follow me.” Self-denial has never been a popular subject. It is, however, a necessary part of the call. Every year, the whole season of Lent is based around this “deny yourself”. And yet, as I look around at the Christianity in the culture and church, I see people who want to slap the word “Christian” on whatever THEY want—no matter how patently unchristlike it is. It is terrifying to me.
We are not following Jesus unless we are following Jesus.
When we are going our own way, entrenched in our own comfort zones (and fighting with unrestrained zel to keep our comfort zones in place) we are not following Jesus. We are doing our own thing and, to add influence or credibility to what we want, slapping on the exterior label of Jesus. That is, truly, taking the Lord’s name in vain.
We know how to follow Jesus. His teachings are clear. We have four treasures—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-- that give us the teaching of Jesus and the life that exemplifies everything He taught. For “Cliff Note” condensations, go to Matthew Chapters 5-7; Matthew 22 and 25; John 14-17. What Jesus taught and expects is clearly laid out: love for others; forgiveness to others; love and care for the poor, the disadvantaged and the hurting; understanding the spiritual danger of materialism, vigilant avoidance of hypocrisy. These are the themes of the teaching of Jesus. Every one of them is repeated and linked to eternal consequences. Following Jesus means we follow what He teaches---not that we keep on doing whatever we want and slap the name of Jesus on it. Is it possible I – and other preachers—forgot to make that clear?
In our culture, I see many Christians publicly advocate for the opposite of what Jesus taught and, at the very same time, want to call themselves followers of Jesus. Did I forget to tell you that is not how this works? If we follow Jesus, then we are the ones who sacrifice anything to be in conformity with Jesus. If we are followers, we have to follow---not run blindly ahead with our ideas and prejudices and hurtful attitudes and ask Jesus to tag along. That’s not how following works. Christian discipleship 101 is that we deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him. Did I forget to tell you that?
This is too important to be forgotten—or understated. The Christian life is a life of sacrifice. If we are following Jesus, our lives—our decisions and our words and our attitudes—have to reflect Jesus. We deny ourselves. Now friends, following Jesus is a choice. A free choice. People do not have to choose to follow Jesus. But is you say you are following Jesus, you do not get the choice to do your own thing and slap Jesus’ name on your will to make it look good.
Learning to deny yourself is never easy. In regard to faith, we deny ourselves out of respect and gratitude for the great love of God extended toward us—which we see in the self-denying life of Jesus on our behalf. Denying ourselves is deference to a greater love. In regard to our families, self-denial gives us a chance to show love beyond ourselves. Self-denial not only makes us easier people to live with J, it reminds us of the valuable lesson that the world does not revolve around us. And our lives are better for it.
People who demand that life revolve around them and their preferences live in very small worlds. Unhealthy relationships form the networks that surround them and they are dangerously vulnerable to abuses of “power”. Those abuses usually get discovered – but only after great pain and damage has been caused to their family or their workplace. Self-denial is in our best interest.
In case I did not say it clearly or forcefully enough before, let me be clear now: the Christian life is a sacrificial life—a life where we deny ourselves for the greater purpose of aligning ourselves with Jesus. We voluntarily and consistently pledge to turn away from anything that is not in conformity to Christ. Those who are not denying themselves are very likely not following Jesus. That’s something important for each of us to think about as Lent approaches.
