Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : February 25, 2004
Will You Really Lay Down Your Life for Me?
Ash Wednesday
Dear Christian Friends,
This year in our Lenten services we are using questions from the Passion History to prepare our hearts for the coming celebration of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection. As our reading began tonight, we heard that Jesus was still in the upper room with his disciples. They had celebrated the last Passover, and they had celebrated the first Lord's Supper. Judas had gone to carry out his treacherous bargain with the enemies of the Savior. At that point Jesus began to speak very clearly of what was about to happen. He referred to his coming glorification. And he talked about his cross. For, through the cross, the Son of Man would be glorified as the Savior of the world, and God would be glorified for his gracious plan of salvation.
Jesus went on to explain that part of his coming glorification meant that he would be going away from them to his Father in heaven. This troubled the disciples, and, as he so often did, Simon Peter spoke up and asked Jesus where he was going. Jesus replied that Peter couldn't follow him where he was going right then but that he would follow him later. Hearing that, Simon Peter objected and said, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." When Jesus heard that, he asked Simon, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" As we look at that question, let us see that Jesus requires this sacrifice and that Jesus inspires this sacrifice.
As was so often the case with Peter, here again he spoke without really giving sufficient thought to what he was saying. "I will lay down my life for you," he said. But Jesus knew differently. He knew Peter's weakness and what lay in store for Peter later on that night. Jesus flat out told Peter that, far from being willing to lay down his life for Jesus, before the rooster crowed -- in other words, before morning broke -- Peter would deny even knowing the Lord three times. And the Lord was right, of course. In the courtyard of the high priest, Peter not only denied knowing Jesus and being his follower, but he also supported his denial with curses and oaths. Peter was not ready to lay down his life for his Lord. He feared for his life when a servant girl and others in the courtyard poked their fingers at him and said, "You also were with Jesus of Nazareth." He was embarrassed and afraid and unwilling to lay down his life for his Lord, so he denied even knowing him.
But before we point the finger at Peter and pass judgment too harshly on him, let's examine our own lives to see whether we've always been willing to lay down our lives for our Lord. Now at first we might think that such a question is completely out of line. What right does the Lord have to ask us such a question? It was Peter, not we, who impetuously promised to die for the Savior. And yet, the fact is that we have made a promise very similar to St. Peter's promise. For when we were confirmed and publicly confessed our Christian faith, we promised to remain faithful to our Lord even unto death. Let me remind you of that promise. We were asked, "Do you believe in God the Father?" And each of us answered, "Yes, I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth." Then we were asked, "Do you believe in God the Son?" And each of us answered, "Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." Then we were asked, "Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?" And each of us answered, "Yes, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church...." And then we were asked, "Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?" And the answer was given, "I do so intend with the help of God." With that oath each of us was promising to do nothing more than what our Lord requires when he says, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelation 2:10)
Jesus made it very clear to his disciples that allegiance to him meant being willing to give up everything, even their own lives for his sake. For example, he told his disciples, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 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." (Matthew 10:37-39) These words of our Lord make it very clear -- he must be more dear than life itself to those who want to be known as his disciples. Church history teaches that at times God's people have been called on to lay down their lives for their confession of Christ. That is exactly what we have pledged to do as Christians. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the promise that we made before God's altar and to be reminded of the commitment Christ requires from us.
But you might say, "I've never been in a situation where I was called on to confess Christ or face death." And that is precisely the point. Even though we might have never faced opposition to our faith that threatened our lives or made it necessary to actually give up our lives for Jesus, still we fail to keep our promise to lay down our lives for our Savior. Our promise to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from our Savior includes not only giving our lives for our Lord, but also giving our lives to our Lord and living our lives for our Savior. Think about how Jesus called on his disciples to give their lives to him. He said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) As his disciples we need to live our lives in him. As Paul says in Romans 12:1, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship." Instead of offering the parts of our bodies to sin as instruments of wickedness, we offer ourselves and the parts of our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.
This means that instead of having the attitude that so many in our time have -- that "it's my life, my body, my time, my money, to do with as I please" -- we realize that our life comes from God, the Lord and giver of life, that our bodies were fearfully and wonderfully made by him, and that, most importantly, he has redeemed us from death with the blood of his Son. What all of this means is that we are not our own. Our minutes and days, our silver and gold, all that we have comes from God. We are to live our lives according to his commands and to his glory. No, our Lord does not always call on his people to give their lives into death for him, but he does call on his people to give their lives to him, to acknowledge him as their Lord, and to live their lives for him. As St. Paul says, "We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
And yet, when we look at our lives, we have to admit that we have often been unwilling to give up our lives to our Lord. Though we have the desire to do what is good, our sinful flesh wars against the desires of the spirit. The results are that we find ourselves spending our time the way we want to spend it, instead of the way God wants us to spend it. We find ourselves spending our money the way we want to spend it, instead of the way God wants us to spend it.
So then our Lord turns to us as he turned to Simon Peter, for he knows our promises and vows. He heard us say with Simon Peter, "I will lay down my life for you." But then he asks, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" He looks at the times we showed an unwillingness to acknowledge him as our Lord. He sees us struggling to stay in control of our own lives rather than letting him control our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams, and our lives. He knows that we are often unwilling to give our lives to him and live our lives for him. With St. Peter we have to admit every so often that we want to keep our lives instead of giving them to God and live our way instead of living for God. "Will you really lay down your life for me?" Jesus still requires this sacrifice. But we have found to our shame that we are often unwilling to give our lives to our Lord and live our lives for him, to say nothing of actually dying for him, so let us look again at that question to see that the One who requires this sacrifice also inspires this sacrifice.
As we turn to Jesus' question, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" we realize that he does not ask more of us than he was willing to do for us. This is what the Passion History is all about. It's about the innocent Son of God becoming sin for us; being stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God for us; enduring the cross with its shame and the cold, dark grave for us. In the reading of the sacred record of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus, we see Jesus doing what he promised he would do. He said, "I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10:11,15) Jesus promised that he would lay down his life for us. And as we look a few weeks ahead in our reading of the Passion History to the account of that great sacrifice, we see how our Savior who lived his life for us was also willing to lay down his life for us. From his willing surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, "I am he.... Let these men go," (John 18:8) to the very end when he called out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," (Luke 23:46) Jesus showed his complete willingness to lay down his life for us.
As we consider how unwilling we often are to give up our lives to God and consider his willingness to die for us, maybe we should make his question our own. Let us ask him in amazement, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" You get the feeling that the hymn writer had that question in mind when he asked in the first stanza of our first hymn this evening:
Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sov'reign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
for sinners such as I?
(Christian Worship, 129:1)
As we miserable sinners, who selfishly refuse to give our lives to our Savior and find it so hard to live our lives for our Savior, look at him during this passion season, we find the amazing answer to our question: "Will God's Son really lay down his life for me?" The glorious, amazing answer is "Yes." "Yes," the Savior says, "I will lay down my life for you." So much he loves us in spite of our sinfulness, in spite of our stinginess and selfishness, that he lays down his sinless life for us, to take away our sins and make us holy and perfect in God's sight.
How do we respond? Do we simply continue to ignore our Lord's claim on our lives? Do we continue to deny him the lordship in our lives? Didn't St. Paul say, "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him"? (2 Corinthians 5:15) And didn't Paul urge us, in view of God's mercy, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God? In view of Christ's willingness to lay down his life for us, can we do any less than place ourselves -- our lives and all that we have -- at his disposal to be used according to his will and for his glory? Again the hymn writer had some good ideas, didn't he? He said,
Thus might I hide my blushing face
while his dear cross appears,
dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
and melt my eyes to tears.
(Christian Worship, 129:4)
A blushing face at the kindness of our Lord in contrast to the coldness that we so often show. A heart filled with thankfulness, and eyes filled with tears. Those would be a good start to returning our Savior's love. But even they are not enough. The hymn writer continued,
But drops of grief can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe;
here, Lord, I give myself away --
'Tis all that I can do.
(Christian Worship 129:5)
That's the sacrifice our Savior wants. That's the sacrifice our Savior deserves. That's the sacrifice our Lord inspires. May his willingness to give his life for us make us willing to give our lives to him, live our lives for him, and, if need be, lay down our lives for him.
"Will you really lay down your life for me?" With that probing question, our Lord exposes our failures to live up to our promises to him. But that same probing question becomes an expression of wonder as we ask our Savior, "Will you really lay down your life for me?" The cross gives us his answer -- an amazing "yes!" Amen.
