Winners And Losers

Matthew 16:21-28

There are certain things in the scriptures that are not so popular to preach on. So, you don't hear many of the popular preachers preaching on them. While you will certainly hear some eminently popular preachers preaching sermons on winning and success and being victorious, you don't hear so many of them talking about what Jesus said to his disciples, when he said, "If any one would come after me, let them deny themself and take up their cross and follow me."

Certainly, we live in an age and in a society that puts a great emphasis upon feeling good, prosperity, growth, and success. You can find persons, everywhere, who are involved with programs to better themselves: educational programs, health improvement programs, psycho- therapy to improve a person's self esteem, and all sorts of programs to improve a person's quality of life. And, don't get me wrong: These are very good things for anyone to be involved in. I, myself, very often suggest to people that they get involved with such things; and I've done a lot of them, myself. So, to hear a scripture that says that in order to follow Jesus, you have to deny yourself and even suffer, can be a little confusing for most of us.

And, yet, when you look at it more carefully, it makes more sense than you might think. I was reading a newspaper article a couple of weeks ago which said that some health and fitness experts are now debunking the slogan that we have heard so often from body builders and fitness freaks that goes something like this: "No pain, no gain." The idea is that the only way to build muscle and endurance is to push the body to the limit; which means putting the body through some pain. Now, some health and fitness experts are warning that while there is some truth to this old adage, there are those who are actually hurting themselves, physically, when they take it to the extreme. But, to the chagrin of some of our young athletes, I don't think you'll ever convince many high school and college coaches that there shouldn't be any kind of physical discomfort in the process of making someone a better athlete. Making bigger muscles often requires that they're going to ache.

And that's probably why so many of us, including me, don't have big, bulging muscles, but, rather, bulge in other places, instead. In order to improve, physically, demands that we be willing to go through some discomfort and sacrifice and discipline. Not only must a person remember to get him or herself to the gym regularly, but then there is all that sweating, and pushing it to the limit, and watching the diet, and avoiding the chocolate cake, and the like. Who of us really wants to do it? Most of us would do anything to avoid pain. It's only normal. Nevertheless, if you want to be a follower of Arnold Swartzenegger, you've got to do it. And, of course, there are many persons who do. And they look just marvelous!

Now, what is generally true for our physical health, is true for our spiritual health, as well. In order to grow spiritually one must test one's spiritual muscles. But it is just as easy to become unfit spiritually as it is to become unfit physically. Just as there is such a physical illness as "hardening of the arteries," there is also a spiritual illness known as a "hardening of the heart." And just as it may require a bit of physical pain to work the pounds off our body and build up our muscles, it may also be a bit painful to improve the condition of the soul.

And that's probably why so many of us, aren't in the kind of spiritual condition we would like to be in. In order to improve, spiritually, demands that we be willing to go through some discomfort and sacrifice and discipline. Not only must a person remember to get him or herself to the church regularly, but then there is all that praying, and Bible study, and moral conditioning, and avoiding temptations, and the like. Who of us really wants to do it? Most of us would do anything to avoid pain. It's only normal. Nevertheless, if we want to be followers of Jesus Christ, we should make the effort. And, of course, there are many persons who do. And how marvelous they are to God!

Now, what concerns me is that we will often heed our doctor's advice. I mean, if our doctor takes us aside and after the the weigh-in, the blood tests, and the physical examination, and sternly tells us that we must do something or we will surely die, we usually take him pretty seriously, and do it. At least for a while. We take the doctor seriously, but do we take spiritual advice quite as seriously? If the doctor told us to stop eating Big Macs and go for the salads, instead, most of us would heed the warning, right? But if what if I were to tell you to get into a Sunday School class for the sake of your spiritual longevity, would we do it? Indeed, what seems more real and immediate to us, our physical survival or the survival of our soul?

Certainly, this is something for us to think about as we are faced with some pretty fair opportunities for spiritual growth in the Fall. Not only will we starting up our church school program for the children and youth of our church, but we will also have three ongoing adult classes, as well. And all of these classes will be for the spirit what good food and exercise is for survival of the body. Yet, will we keep in mind that while the physical body may die, there is a God-given potential for the spiritual body to live forever? So, to which body will we give the most attention?

But, then, let's get back to our Gospel lesson, once again. After Jesus told his disciples to deny themselves and take up their cross, he told them this next thing that is probably one of the greatest stumbling blocks of all to Christians and non-Christians, alike. It's where Jesus said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

There is the old story about how the home of a wealthy English family was destroyed by fire. After the people got out of the house, the mother realized that the baby was still in the nursery. The mother saved her.

For years as the child grew up the mother went about the house wearing white gloves. For many years no one had actually seen the woman without her gloves. But, one day, the daughter came into her mother's room unexpectedly, and the mother wat there with her hands uncovered. They were torn, scarred, and disfigured. Instantly, the mother tried to cover them as the girl came forward, but she said, "I had better tell you about it. It was when the fire was in the house and you were in your cradle. I fought my way through the flames to get you. I wrapped you in a blanket and dropped you through the window, and somebody caught you. I could not go down the stairway, so I climbed out of the window, too. My hands were burned, and I slipped and fell. When I fell, my hands were torn. The doctor did his best, but, my dear, these hands were torn for you." And the girl, who had by that time grown to womanhood, went to her mother, took one hand and then the other, and buried her face in those hands, as she said, over and over, "They are beautiful hands, beautiful hands."

In many ways that woman's hands were a loss. Yet, at the very same time they represented a marvelous victory over death. And the same is true for us whenever we may invest ourselves, our time, our money, and our prayers, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

There is the story told of how a Chinese man saved his fellow rice farmers following an earthquake. From his hilltop farm he felt the quake and saw the distant ocean swiftly withdrawn from the shore line, like a huge animal crouching back for a leap. He knew that that leap would actually be a tidal wave. In the valleys below, he saw his neighbors working law fields that would be flooded by the crashing wave. He knew that they had to be gathered quickly to the sanctuary of his hilltop farm. His rice barns were as dry as tinder. So with a torch he set fire to them and rang the fire gong that hung beneath the eaves. His neighbors saw the smoke and rushed to help him. Then from their safe perch on the hill, they waw the waters cover over the fields they had just left. In a flash they knew that they had been saved and also what it had cost their fellow farmer. The monument they is still standing, bearing this motto, "He gave us all he had, and gave it gladly."

There are winners and there are losers. Sometimes the winners are those who have lost everything. And sometimes the losers are those who have won everything in life. Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow him, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Certainly, it is a quantum leap for many of us to accept losing as a way of winning. But Christ was the greatest Loser of them all. But through his loss we share in the greatest victory the world has ever known.

Amen.