Losing to Gain

Losing your life is the only way to save it.

I have a bit of a complicated relationship with change. On the one hand, I’m always looking for things that I can change, for ways to improve things, for tweaks and adjustments to make something better. When I look at our lawn, I see all the areas that need improvement. I see the weeds, the bare spots, the bumps that make it uneven. For the past six years of this church, I have never stopped trying to improve how we do things so that we more effectively accomplish our mission of surrendering all of life to Jesus and inviting others to do the same. So on the one hand, I am all about change.

On the other hand, I don’t do very well with change. Since we moved into our house, we have put new paint on nearly every wall. Katie has pretty much picked the colors. The first room that got painted was the living room. After it was done, I wasn’t sure we made the right choice. But eventually, I just got used to it. Now I don’t think about it at all. This has been the case every time Katie wants to make a change in our house. When we look back at pictures of our red kitchen, we both kind of shudder. But the funny thing is, I didn’t want to change it. I thought it was fine. I often can be resistant to change, but over time I have learned, and she has learned, that I just don’t like change and eventually I will get used to it and will probably like it or not even notice it.

I resist change for a couple reasons. I think what we have is working fine. What’s wrong with the current paint color? It’s not that bad. Sometimes I don’t want to put in the work it will take to make the change. If the paint color is fine how it is, why put in the effort to change it? Sometimes I’m scared that the change will make things worse. What if we don’t like the color we pick? For these reasons, it can seem easier and safer to just keep things how they are. It’s working now. Let’s save time and energy. Let’s not take the risk of maybe not liking how it turns out.

How about you? What’s your relationship to change? Many times we aren’t actually afraid of change itself but the perceived losses because of the change. So we do a calculation in our head: What would I gain from this change? And is what I gain worth more to me than what I would lose? Do the gains outweigh the losses? Is this change worth it?

We started this series in The Gospel According to Luke by looking at the four opening verses where Luke tells us why he wrote this gospel account: “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Why would the believers in Luke’s day need certainty about what they’ve been taught?

It wasn’t easy to be a follower of Jesus in the 1st century and it isn’t easy now either. To be a follower of Jesus, you have to swim against the current of religion, culture, and society. Following Jesus goes against the grain. You are going to experience resistance and friction. There is a cost to following Jesus. So the question is: “Is it worth it? Is following Jesus worth the cost?” Jesus told people to count the cost before following him. There’s going to be resistance, challenges, hostility, rejection, and persecution: is it worth it? When you have to give up stuff in order to follow Jesus, is it worth it? What would make it worth it? It would be worth it if the benefits outweigh the costs.

Our passage today answers two questions: 1) who is Jesus and 2) what is required to follow him? The most important question in all of life for you to answer is: who is Jesus? Who do you say he is? The most important decision in all of life for you to make is: will I follow Jesus? This decision has eternal consequences that we will forever live with - it affects both this life and the afterlife.

Who Do You Say That I Am? (9:18-20)

The first question is raised in verses 18-20. Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do the crowds say that I am?” In other words, “What’s their perspective on me? Who do they think I am?” The disciples report, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen” (cf. 9:7-9). People have landed on Jesus being some sort of prophet. And if Jesus were a prophet, that would be exciting enough. It had been 500 years since the last prophet in Israel. And Jesus has shown himself to be a great prophet (cf. 7:16), performing miracles like the ancient prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Jesus isn’t feeling insecure and asking his disciples to tell him what others think so he can feel better about himself. “Hey, what are people saying about me? Is it good? Do they like me?” Everyone has been asking the question, “Who is this guy?” He has been letting both his disciples and others ask the question without pushing for an answer but now he is bringing his disciples to a point of decision. He listens to their report of what other people are saying, then asks, “But who do you say that I am?”

That’s the question Jesus asks each of us: “Who do you say that I am?” We all must answer that question for ourselves. It doesn’t help us to know what others say about him: my pastor says this, my church says this, these people think this. Second hand knowledge of Jesus doesn’t help. It doesn’t help us to say, “Well, my church says he is [blank].” Each of us has to answer it for ourselves. But it goes even deeper because it’s easy to have the right answers but not doing anything with them. Jesus asked in his sermon in chapter 6, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” The demons know who Jesus is but they don’t change how they are living. So ask yourself these two questions. First, “Who do I say that Jesus is?” Second, “Do I live like I actually believe that?” If not, ask: “What does how I live say about who I believe Jesus is?”

Peter speaks up for them all with an answer: “The Christ of God.” Peter and the other disciples are finally seeing that Jesus isn't just a prophet or a healer or miracle worker; he is the Christ, the Messiah, the one for whom their nation has been waiting and praying for centuries.

What does it mean for Jesus to be the Christ of God? The fact that he is the Christ of God tells us that God has chosen and appointed Jesus to be the Christ. He is God’s Christ. For Peter, the other disciples, and most if not every Jew at the time, this means that Jesus is the one who will lead Israel in a military victory over their enemies, delivering them from the pagan nations and restoring Israel as an independent country, free from outside control and oppression. Their hope was in a King who would defeat their enemies like David did, a prophet like Moses who would lead them in a new exodus out of slavery to other nations. Then he would reign as king. The Messiah would change everything.

This is who Jesus is: God’s Christ. He is God’s chosen King to rule over his people and deliver them. But how will this look? Jesus tells his disciples the path he will walk as the Christ in verses 21-22.

Jesus’ Path of Suffering (9:21-22)

21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:21-22)

We are so used to talking about Jesus’ death that it’s hard for us to understand that this prediction would come as a shock to Jesus’ disciples and would make no sense at all. They don’t have a category for a suffering and dying Messiah. These two things don’t go together. How can Jesus be the Christ of God if he is going to suffer, be rejected, and die? He is supposed to lead them in a triumphant victory!

This is why Jesus strictly charges and commands them to tell no one he is the Messiah. The path Jesus must walk is much different than the path that people thought he would walk. The disciples need the mission of the Messiah redefined before they can tell others about him.

Jesus says: “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Must. This is a necessary part of God’s divine plan and purpose. First death, then resurrection. First suffering, then glory. This is the path of the Messiah. Glory doesn’t come without suffering and resurrection doesn’t come without death.

The Disciples’ Path (9:23-27)

Then Jesus makes clear what it means to follow him as the Messiah. If anyone wants to call him King, this is the path they will follow. Look at verse 23:

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me.” In other words, “if anyone wants to be my disciple,” “if anyone wants to be my follower.” Then he lists out what is required if someone wants to do that. Jesus first says what must happen to him, now he says what one must do if they are to follow him.

First, if anyone wants to be Jesus’ disciple, let him deny himself. This is a call to act in a wholly selfless way. It means to say “no” to one’s self. It means we are no longer in charge. We no longer run our lives. We are saying “no” to ourselves.

Second, if anyone wants to be Jesus’ disciple, let him take up his cross daily. A cross was the Roman method of executing criminals, especially those who rebelled against Rome. As a person walked to their death, they would “take up their cross” by carrying the horizontal beam of it to the place of execution.

Clearly, this is not requiring that you have to one day die by crucifixion because he says “take up your cross daily.” The cross symbolizes the world’s rejection of Jesus. Jesus’ crucifixion is a picture of the world saying “no” to Jesus as king. It shows the world’s hatred of God’s rule. Therefore to take up our cross daily means we must accept the world’s rejection of our King and his kingdom. It means we are also accepting the rejection and hatred of the world against us. It is recognizing that when we say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to Jesus, we become outsiders in this world. We have left the kingdom of this world for his kingdom. We accept that the kingdom of this world will see us as “rebels” against it.

Third, if anyone wants to be Jesus’ disciple, let him follow Jesus. This is a call to align our lives with his. We do what he does, do what he says, believe what he does, believe what he says. We align our life with Jesus.

How’s that for a marketing campaign? “Hey guys, I’m going to die and if you want to join me you have to die too.” Why would we ever do this? Why would we choose to live like this? Why would we choose to experience such difficulty? Why would we give up control over our own lives and willingly accept the hatred and rejection of others? Jesus gives the reason in verse 24.

24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:24)

Jesus says it is actually in our own best interest to do this. If we try to save our own lives by conforming to this world, then we will lose our life in the end. But whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake by denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following him, will save it. If we insist on trying to play god with our lives by staying in charge, then we will destroy them. To ever think that you are saving your life is an illusion. It’s temporary. It doesn’t last. Like a flower cut and put in a vase, no amount of fertilizer or sugar or MiracleGro in that water is going to save that flower or keep it alive forever. It’s been disconnected from the source of life. Losing your life is the only way to save it. You win in life by losing your life. You give it to Jesus. You have to let go in order to live.

Then Jesus asks a question in verse 25:

25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:25)

It’s a rhetorical question which means the answer is supposed to be obvious: nothing. It profits you nothing to gain the whole world and lose yourself. The Greek word translated as “life” could also be translated as “soul”. The question asks: What is worth more than your soul? Nothing is worth more than your soul.

The answer is supposed to be obvious, but Jesus would not be asking the question if we weren’t actually tempted to exchange ourselves for the things of the world. Jesus is basically saying: “Do the math. Is what you are getting in exchange for losing your self worth it? Do you think what you are gaining is worth more than what you are losing?” The problem is that we live as if we make a profit from selling our souls for the things of this world.

What are the things of the world that we try to pay for with our souls? Let’s just go back to the parable of the soils in chapter 8. One soil abandons Jesus for worldly possessions: the cares and riches and pleasures of life. Another soil abandons Jesus for worldly popularity: they fall away when others reject them or disapprove of them for following Jesus. When following Jesus becomes costly, these two soils stop following. Jesus is asking: “Is having the possessions of the world and popularity with the world worth more than yourself? Do the math. You aren’t coming out on top in this deal. You are losing more than you are gaining. You aren’t profiting.” But this is the temptation we too often give in to: selling our soul in order to gain possessions and popularity.

Why will we lose our life if we choose to align ourselves with the world instead of with Jesus? Verse 26 says:

26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:26-27)

Jesus makes the stakes clear. As God’s Messiah, Jesus is not only the Savior of the world but also the Judge of the world. Jesus has provided salvation and will come again to Judge the world. One day we still stand before Jesus face-to-face. In that moment, he will either be our Savior or our Judge. If we were ashamed of Jesus - who he is, what he said, what he stands for - then Jesus will be ashamed of us. If we denied him instead of denying ourselves, then Jesus will deny us. If we refused to acknowledge him as our king, as the one we follow and the one to whom we are loyal, then he won’t acknowledge us as his followers. If we distanced ourselves from Jesus, he will distance himself from us. If we align ourselves with the world instead of Jesus, then we have chosen our own fate.

Two weeks ago, Neutrogena and Aveeno did a recall on several of their sunscreens because they were found to have the chemical benzene in them. This chemical is a carcinogen that causes cancer. So think about this: why do we wear sunscreen? To protect our skin from the sun. To prevent sunburn. And why do we want to protect our skin from the sun and prevent sunburn? Because exposure to the sun can cause cancer! So anyone who bought this sunscreen was putting it on to prevent cancer while the sunscreen itself contained a chemical that causes cancer! The very thing that they were doing to protect themselves was actually hurting them. The very action they were doing to save themselves from cancer could actually give them cancer.

“Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” If we try to save our own lives through having the world’s possessions and popularity, what we think is saving us is actually killing us. What looks like life with the world is actually death. What looks like death with Jesus is actually life.

What’s your vision of the good life? What are you pursuing? What do you give your time, energy, and resources to? What are you most concerned with? Does the way you live show you are dedicated to worldly possessions and popularity? Or does it show you are dedicated to Jesus above all else? Does your life show you are so dedicated to Jesus that you will even lose possessions and popularity for him? If you are unwilling to lose those things for Jesus, it means you value them above him.

Jesus’ Glory (9:28-36)

In verses 18 through 27, we hear about Jesus’ suffering and death. In verses 28 through 36, we hear about Jesus’ glory. Both happen after or while Jesus is praying, showing us that seeing Jesus clearly is given by God.

While on the mountain with Jesus, Peter, James, and John can barely keep their eyes open because of sleepiness. But they quickly snap awake when they suddenly see that Jesus’ face is radiant and his clothing is dazzling white. Two prophets from the Old Testament are talking with him, Moses and Elijah. As Moses and Elijah begin to depart, Peter suggests to Jesus that they construct three tents, one for each of them. It seems that Peter is so amazed and overwhelmed that he wants to do something to memorialize this event and keep it going. He doesn’t want it to end. It makes sense. He has heard about Moses and Elijah all his life and now they are standing right in front of him. Perhaps he thinks that if others can see this, it will really get this Messiah movement going. It also seems that he sees Moses and Elijah as equal to Jesus. Either way, this moment is very special to Peter because he describes it in one of his letters (2 Pet 1:16-19).

But God interrupts Peter before he can finish and shows that Jesus is far greater than Moses or Elijah. A cloud descends on them and a voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” Then, all they saw was Jesus before them.

What is this whole event about? What’s going on here? God’s words from the cloud tell us that Jesus is fulfilling three different roles from the Old Testament. “This is my Son” tells us that Jesus fulfills the role of the promised King from the line of David. God calls the Davidic kings his sons in Psalm 2:7 because they are to reflect what he is like in their reign and rule. “My Chosen One” tells us that Jesus fulfills the role of the Servant in the book of Isaiah (Isa 42:1), who suffers on behalf of his people. “Listen to him” tells us that Jesus fulfills the role of the prophet like Moses to whom the people of Israel are to listen (Deut 18:15).

Moses and Elijah are talking to Jesus about his “departure” or “exodos” in Greek. Does that sound familiar? The word has a double meaning. Jesus will “depart” in Jerusalem because he’s going to die. But the people of Israel were led by Moses in the exodus - their departure from Egypt. And Jesus is going to accomplish an exodus in Jerusalem through his death. He is accomplishing an exodus for others through his own exodus. His death will liberate people from their slavery to sin, Satan, and death. The prophets said God would send the Messiah to lead his people in a new exodus; Jesus fulfills that.

In verse 27, Jesus said some of his disciples would live to see the kingdom of God and this event is what he was talking about. Peter, James, and John were allowed to see Jesus’ glory as God’s Son and Chosen One. They get a glimpse of Jesus’ past glory before the world existed (Jn 17:5) and a foretaste of Jesus’ future glory when his kingdom comes in full. Jesus put his past glory aside to become a human being and a servant, dying in our place (Phil 2:5-8), which is what qualifies him for future glory (2:9-10).

Everyone has a choice to make about Jesus. We stand at a crossroads every day. We can reject Jesus and stay as we are. Or we can go down a path of following Jesus. To go down this path requires change. In order to come after him, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him as your King, Shepherd, and example. You have to lose your life for his sake.

And that might sound like a lot. That’s a big change from living for yourself and doing what you want. There’s a lot of giving up and losing involved. But we will be compelled to go down this path is what we will gain. The cost of what we give up is nothing compared to what we gain. In fact, holding onto the steering wheel of our life has gotten us nowhere good and will take us nowhere good. We need to come to the realization that the cost of staying as we are is far greater than the cost of getting off the throne and bowing before King Jesus to rule over our lives.

Jesus teaches us here that we don’t just need some small tweaks to our life. We need a major overhaul. We need someone else to run our lives because we’ve made such a mess of them.

We will endure very hard things because of what we gain from it. We will go through surgery. We will go through rehab. We will totally change our diets for health reasons. We do all the work of moving from one place to another because we believe where we are going is better than where we are. Why do we do these difficult, sometimes painful, things? Because the perceived gains in doing so outweighs the perceived losses. The cost of staying as you are is greater than the cost of the change. The pain of where we are is greater than the pain of change.

The path is not easy. It involves denying ourselves. It involves taking up our cross. But we have to consider where a path leads, not only its difficulty. The path of losing our life for Jesus' sake is difficult but the destination is life and glory. The path of saving our life on our terms is easy but the destination is death.

We aren’t the first to walk this path. Jesus already walked this path for us. The path for a disciple of Jesus is the same path Jesus walked: suffering then glory, death then resurrection. We have to lose in order to gain. We have to lay down our life in order to be raised to new life. We have to take up our cross before we receive the crown of eternal life.

Jesus says we must lose our life for his sake. We need to give it to him. Why would we give our life to him instead of keeping it for ourselves? Well we see in this passage that he is going to suffer, be rejected, and die. Why is he doing that? Because he loved us and gave himself up for us. We are not surrendering to someone who is power hungry but someone who laid down his life for us. Who do you most want to be in control of your life? It's the person that's most loving. It's the person who has our best interest at heart. It's the person who wants what's best for you and will do anything to give that to you. We actually aren’t the best person to be in control of our lives because we rarely do what is best for us. If we really did have our best interest in mind, then we would surrender to Jesus. We often think we know what's best, but we prove over and over again that we actually don't.

Jesus has already proved his commitment to our well-being, to our wholeness, to our health, to our happiness. By dying for us in our place, he has already demonstrated his commitment to us and shown how far he will go to do what is best for us. Jesus was the first to deny himself and take up his cross. He was the first to carry the beam of his own cross out to his death. Because he did so, we can be saved by him, we can enter his kingdom, we can become members of God’s family. Jesus isn’t taking us anywhere he hasn’t already gone. And Jesus has paid the price for all of the times we will fail at this. If we could do this perfectly, he wouldn’t have gone to the cross. In fact, Peter actually denies Jesus instead of denying himself and yet Jesus forgives Peter and he becomes a leader in the church.

Suffering, rejection, and challenges may lead us to believe we are doing something wrong or that God doesn’t love us. Jesus’ crucifixion might lead one to conclude that he was forsaken by God as a failure and a fraud. But God clearly says: he is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him. Jesus’ suffering doesn’t mean he isn’t God’s Son. Jesus’ rejection by others doesn’t mean he isn’t God’s Chosen One. Jesus’ death doesn’t mean he was wrong and we shouldn’t listen to him. In fact, it’s actually how the Messiah fulfills his purpose. The cross is ordained as a necessity in the redemptive plan of God. The suffering of the Messiah is not incompatible with the glory of the Messiah. The Messiah’s suffering is part of bringing the reign and rule of God to earth. It’s how Jesus leads his people in a new exodus out of slavery. So we too can know that when what we are doing feels like we are dying to ourselves that we are walking with Jesus and that God loves us, that he has chosen us, and that we are listening to him. The path is suffering then glory, death then resurrection, cross then crown. As we deny ourselves and take up our cross, that’s how God’s reign and rule touches down in our lives.

About 60 years ago, a team of missionaries set out to bring the gospel to the Huaorani people in Ecuador. One of those missionaries was Jim Elliot. During their time, Jim and three other missionaries made plans to visit the Huaorani but a group of 10 Huaorani came to them instead and ended up killing all four. On January 8, 1956, Jim Elliot died. His journal entry five years earlier (October 28, 1949) expressed the truth we see here in this passage: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” May we all live with this same perspective and devotion to Jesus, believing that all he says is true.