You Must Die

You Must Die
An Ash Wednesday Homily

Egyptian Christians About To Be Executed by ISIS

Ash Wednesday

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and  acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 16:21-28

21 From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22 Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not happen unto Thee.”

23 But He turned and said unto Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan! Thou art an offense unto Me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

24 Then Jesus said unto His disciples, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works.

28 Verily I say unto you, there are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.”

When I was a very young minister, I would sometimes visit with older ladies, and they would tell me about some problem in their lives - a selfish husband, a ne’er do well son, a relative that had to be taken care of. Then she would add, “I guess that’s my cross I have to bear.” I never corrected them, but they did not understand what it means for a Christian to bear their cross.

When Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me,” they understood exactly what Jesus meant. Many times they had seen some condemned man bearing his cross as the soldiers took him to the place of execution. He was going to die.

For some who heard Jesus say that, it would mean literally that they would die because of their faith by crucifixion or some other method. Through two millennia since Christians have been executed for Christ. No doubt you remember about two years ago seeing pictures of the group of Egyptian Christian men about to be beheaded by ISIS on a beach in Egypt.

Anyone who follows Christ needs to know that following him may mean death. I say that knowing that barring unforeseen developments none of us here will be called on to die for our faith. But does that mean that Jesus’s words have nothing to do with us?

No, for when Jesus said we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow him, he meant that we all are called to die to self. What does that mean for us?

It means to die to self-salvation. The default setting of every human heart is to want salvation to be all or in part a do-it-yourself salvation. Some think they can do it all, so they seek personal salvation by trying to be good and do good. Others want it to be a part-God, part-self salvation. God does his part, but then we do our part. Some take Jesus’s command to take up our crosses as telling us what our part in salvation is - and a high demand it is, to add to Jesus’s cross by taking up our crosses. But dying to self begins when you see you can’t do anything to save your self, but that Jesus did it all. To be a Christian is to say, “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling...Could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no respite show, all for sin could not atone, thou must save and thou alone.” Even when have seen that, we tend to slip back into thinking that God loves and accepts us only when we are good enough to deserve it. Dying to self means we daily take our place, not with the Pharisee who told God about the sins he didn’t commit and the good things he did, but with the tax-collector who beat upon his chest and prayed, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

It means to die to self-sufficiency. We hear it less often, but people still say or, perhaps more often, think, “I am a self-made man/woman.” We want to think that we can take care of ourselves and make it on our own. We depend on no one, not even God. In fact that was the goal of the Stoic philosophy - to be non-dependent on external circumstances but to be self sufficient, depending on your own internal resources. There is a movie, “Shenandoah,” in which Jimmy Stewart plays Civil War era farmer. He is a widower who says grace at meals because that is what is wife would want. In one scene he says something like, “God, we thank you for the food we are about to eat. We planted it, we harvested it, we cooked it, but thank you anyway.” A person who follows Jesus knows he is not self-sufficient. He says with St. Paul, “I can do all things” - all things God calls me to do or endure - “through Christ who gives me strength.” A Christian dies daily to the myth of self-dependence.

It means to die to self-direction. We want to be our own boss, from the time we are very little when we don’t want our parents telling us what to do. About the only time we want someone else to tell us what to do is if we don’t want the responsibility for a decision. Self-direction was one of the issues Adam and Eve faced in the Garden. “Who is going to decide what I do? God or me?” They chose to direct their own lives. Jesus recognized the same temptation when he told his disciples he must go to Jerusalem to die, and St. Peter said, “No, Lord. Never.” That’s why Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” It came to the critical point for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he saw clearly what the cross would mean, and prayed that he might be spared, yet said, “Not my will but thine be done.” If Jesus is our Savior, he is our Lord, and we will say with St. Paul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?”

It means to die to self-pleasing. Self-pleasing takes many forms. One form is, when you are faced with something that is sinful that you find pleasurable, you choose what pleases you. Many a person faces that when confronted with sexual sin. Another form is when you know what pleases another person is not what pleases you, and you say, “Yes,” to you and “No” to the other person. Your wife wants to remodel the kitchen, and you want a 60 inch TV. You buy the TV. It takes the form of, when something you are asked to do will be costly, you say, “No, it wouldn’t be in my best interest.” You’re asked to serve in some way, and you say, “No, I don’t have the time, and I’m already too tired and stressed.” Explaining the meaning of denying self and taking up your cross, Jesus made the seemingly paradoxical statement, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.” Protect your life and you will lose it. Use up your life for Christ, and your gain will be eternal life. Jim Elliot, the martyred missionary understood that when he wrote in his journal while still a student at Wheaton College, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Jesus says to us, not just during Lent, but every day, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

Jim Elliot's Journal