Jesus was speaking to a crowd in this story, but the message gains meaning considering the exchange with Peter that had just happened. To review, Jesus previewed his future of rejection, suffering, death, and resurrection. Peter, the disciple, might have accepted this as coming from his learned rabbi. But Peter (or Simon), the human being, couldn't grasp this idea. Rejection, suffering, and death did not seem like the way to win people to a cause. It went against anything he thought or felt, against his own common sense. To save, even enhance, your own existence and influence was the way of an adulterous and sinful generation. To lose that life to gain the life of Jesus (including rejection and suffering and death) was to gain your true self--the one that is resurrected in Christ.
Peter had lost his sense of his true self moments after acknowledging Jesus as Messiah. Even Satan would acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Messiah for the world. But it's his intent to lead men and women away from this truth. To cast doubt into the way and methods of Jesus... it's Satan as his best. It wasn't Peter's true self that Jesus was rebuking. It was the self that Satan was pushing back into the forefront, and self dies hard.
The true self is not worth sacrificing to satisfy the self of a wicked generation. There is nothing you can offer that will buy your eternal life. There is nothing of your "self" that is worth saving. It will redeem nothing. It is only the way of Jesus that is worth anything, and that way will lead to rejection, suffering, and death, but then resurrection and a brilliant homecoming. To accept anything less than this path is to show disdain for Jesus.
This is hard stuff to consider in an environment that is extremely self-serving. I am constantly surrounded by the temptations of self-promotion, self-satisfaction, and self-exaltation. I have a hard time even considering the path of the cross because it sounds so extreme! Can we even comprehend it in our culture? The possibility of embracing suffering? And what does this even mean? Are we to leave any luxury behind and voluntarily suffer, or does it mean to obey even if suffering comes from it? Am I supposed to pursue it? It's easy to feel guilty at times that I live in relative luxury while others in the world suffer for their faith. My self hates the thought of rejection or suffering or death. I constantly ask the question: how does the path of the cross play out in my life today?
As I consider this, the word "obedience" keeps coming back to mind. Obedience isn't about just keeping a set of rules. It's about daily listening for the voice of God in my life. He knows where I need to be used for the sake of the gospel. I don't. I will come up with my own ideas that are erroneous on the best of days. I think it's a matter of asking in prayer, each day: "Father, where am I to be an agent of the gospel today? Show me where to go and what to do, what to say or not say. No matter what, give me the fortitude and attitude to obey well." Kind of like the radical prayer, isn't it?
Father, kill self in me. Kill my desires and ideas, replacing them with Yours. Please! Fling laboring harvesters into the harvest field... beginning with me!
Jesus... all!
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