After the radical statements about family, Jesus addresses a second thing we often put in the place that belongs to God alone... ourselves.
In Matthew 10:38, he continues with these words... "And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
Again, he's using a metaphor, like the sword, to express depth and seriousness of his meaning. This time it's a cross. In the time of Christ, living under the Roman empire the cross was a well known symbol of death, of execution. What he's saying here is that you must take up your cross. You must willingly sacrifice yourself, die to yourself, put aside your own desires, dreams, goals, and ambitions, and put Christ first, not yourself. Self-denial is not a popular message. To die to self? Human’s are all about self-achievement, self-betterment. But that's what Jesus says: "Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."
You can’t separate Jesus from the cross, no matter how hard you try. Christ and the cross go together and the message of the cross... his willing sacrifice for sinners is powerful and unsettling to our spirit.
That’s why at Christmas time we so enjoy the baby Jesus, the child in the manger, because he’s not threatening to our self-centered lives. But when he grows up and his mission becomes clear, we have a hard time accepting his expectations of us as embodied by his sacrifice. We want Jesus, but we don't want the cross. We want all the benefits of faith. We want the assurance and comfort and joy, but we don't want the darker side. We don't want the self-sacrifice and suffering. We don't want the cross. But that choice is not up to us.
At the heart of Christianity is the paradox that Jesus speaks of here. He says that he who finds his life, who maintains his life, has control over his life, will, in fact, lose his life. We may throw God a bone every once in a while, but ultimately Jesus says that’s not going to work. He expects just the opposite from us. It's the person who gives up there life, who surrenders completely to God, who keeps none of there dreams or hopes or desires but gives it all, lays it down before God, who will find real abundant life.
It's a paradox. It's counterintuitive and certainly countercultural, like everything else in the passages from Matthew chapter 10. Tough ideals to confront. Give up my life and I'll find it? You can't negotiate with Jesus on this expectation or any other for that matter. You can't bargain with him. You can't say, How about this much, and I'll keep the rest? Remember, he didn't come to bring peace, he came to bring a sword. Just at the time of his birth was a threat to Herod, an illegitimate king. Jesus' presence is a threat to every illegitimate thing that exerts a form of influence over our lives, including ourselves. He has come to dethrone us, so the rightful King of Kings can reign over all. You don't negotiate with this King. You submit to him or you reject him.
When confronted with audacious demands and expectations, we either think the person making them to be a madman, or to be who he says he is... the Messiah, the one alone who can make such a demand.
C. S. Lewis in his classic book Mere Christianity said it well: Christ says, Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I've not come to torment your natural self but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have [cut] the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth or crown it or stop it but have [pull] it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires that you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked, the whole outfit. And I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself. My own will shall become yours.
This is why he has come-to turn the world, including our personal world, upside down, coming to demand full allegiance on every level. There's an ancient hymn that some people think dates all the way back to the first century. This hymn speaks of why Jesus has come...
Let all mortal flesh keep silence, And with fear and trembling stand.
Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descends, Our full homage to demand.
Jesus has come to ask for our full allegiance, and that will cause division both in us and in our world. During this Christmas season don't be fooled. Don't look at the manger and think about this innocent, helpless, sweet baby, tender and mild, laying down his sweet head. Jesus is no such thing.
He did not come to bring peace but a sword. He did not come to make us feel better about ourselves, but to demand our allegiance. He came as a threat to every illegitimate thing in this world, including every illegitimate influence in our own lives, whether that be family or self or anything that takes us away from Him. We are dealing not with an eternal baby, but with the living God of the universe, the creator of all things, in the person of Jesus Christ.
May this Christmas be your time to recognize Him... submit to His authority in your life, take up your cross and walk with Him on a journey that leads to everlasting reward.
