There once was a Texas oilman who was speeding down the highway in his brand-new Ferrari. As he came around a bend and he approached a bridge over a deep gorge. He lost control of his car. He hit the side of the bridge and was thrown out of the car on to the edge of the gorge. The car went careening into the river far below. As he was thrown out of the car, he injutrf his left arm. Now a trucker was following and saw what had happened. The trucker jumped out of his truck and rushed over to the injured man. The man was just returning to consciousness and asked, “what happened?” The trucker explained that there had been a crash and that the car had fallen into the gorge and unfortunately was completely ruined. The oilman cried out, “oh no, not my Ferrari!” The trucker was amazed. He said, “What! man, you are so lucky to be alive , to have your life… but you did injure … and then he looked down to the man’s arm. The oilman looked down where his hurting hand and screamed:” Oh no, not my gold rolex!”
Unfortunately, the Texas oilman’s set of priorities are not uncommon. We tend to cling to our hard-won treasures. After all, don’t we deserve it? We’ve earned it! But Jesus asks hard questions of us today: Do we value the Ferraris, and the gold Rolexes over life itself?
There is only one Bible verse in the New Testament that is repeated six times on the lips of Jesus. It is one of Jesus’ hardest teaching:
If anyone would be my disciple, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me; whoever finds their life, loses it; whoever loses their life, finds it. What does it profit you, if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?
Jesus’ saying is a paradox of faithful living. We are taught early on how to makes a good, successful life. Study hard. Get good grades. Get a good, well-paying job. Get a home, car and a family. These are all worthy things to have. But they don’t constitute a life. Sir Winston Churchill defined it well when he commented - “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
Jesus encourages us to think along similar lines. We make our life by what we give. It is a fundamental spiritual principle. According to Jesus, if we lose ourselves in giving and sacrificial caring, we gain the world. If we find ourselves wrapped up in making a living, in getting, getting, getting --- the latest, the most fashionable -- we lose out. We lose our soul when we become obsessed and too attached to the things of the world. Jesus warns us elsewhere in the gospels: we cannot serve both God and money. (Matt. 6:19-21)
Jesus tells us if we want to follow him; we must first take up the cross. Now we all know the purpose of the cross. The cross is an instrument of execution, of the worst possible kind. For centuries it was reserved for non-Romans, foreigners. It was a painful, slow, agonizing death. No doubt Jesus and his disciples saw crucifixions as the journeyed throughout the land. They were a common sight.
But the impact of the cross has been blurred for us. We wear beautiful, sometimes gem-encrusted gold or silver crosses around our necks. Celebrities parade fancy crosses as if they were the latest accessory craze. The cross has become a chic logo, a brand name. But wearing the cross should hit us as if we were wearing bejeweled miniature electric chair around our neck. How jarring is that?!
The cross is a symbol of self-denial and death to our self-centeredness. As C.S. Lewis put it, “it’s not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less. As a result, Jesus put his own desires aside, went to the cross and died for us. Jesus didn’t want to die. He begged the Father to let that cup pass from him. Jesus accepted his Father’s will and surrendered his life – for our sake. So, the process of carrying the cross leads us to daily deny ourselves and shape us into Christ-centered, other-focused people.
Studies show that giving is one of the best practices we can do for ourselves: Giving makes us happy, healthy, it increases our self-confidence, it improves our relationships and can even help us live longer. Carrying our cross isn’t easy, but it enables to store up treasures in heaven, where thieves can’t break in and steal, and rust can’t consume – one of the major lessons our Lenten season wants us to learn.
What does carrying our cross look like? Here’s one example. On a dreary winter day in 1943, 903 troops and four chaplains, including Protestant pastors, a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi, boarded the SS Dorchester.
World War II was in full swing, and the ship was headed across the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of February 3rd, a German torpedo ripped into the ship. "She's going down!" the men cried, scrambling for lifeboats.
The four Chaplains on board, two Protestant pastors, a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi, were among the first on deck, calming the men and handing out life jackets. When the life jackets ran out, the chaplains took off their own and placed them on waiting soldiers without regard to faith or race. Approximately 18 minutes after the explosion, the ship went down. The last image to be seen by witnesses was the sight of the four chaplains, standing arm-in-arm on the hull of the ship, each praying in his own way for the care of the soldiers.
Most of us will not be asked to sacrifice our lives the way those chaplains did. But we should live our lives so we can link arm in arms with all humanity – realizing we are all in the same boat.
So our season of Lent invites us to examine what are the Ferraris and Rolexes of our lives that stand in the way of following Jesus with our whole heart, mind and spirit. What gets in the way of linking arms with each other?
You See, at the close of life, the question to us will not be, "How much have you gotten?" but "How much have you given?" Not "How much have you won?" but "How much have you done?" Not "How much have you saved?" but "How much have you sacrificed?" It will be "How much have you loved and served," not "How much were you honored?" As Jesus says, It’s time to lose – so all can live. For there is nothing we can give in turn for our life. Nothing.
So go to that gorge. You know what you have to throw away. Then turn around, with a free heart, and follow Jesus. Amen