Christ invites us, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow,” Him into heaven. As long we desire to be with God, then we can move the first phase of our journey. We must learn how to deny ourselves before we can ever follow Christ into heaven. The entire life of the Church teaches us how to deny ourselves and follow Christ into heaven.
My brothers and sisters, in this morning’s gospel, Christ has given us a clear picture on how we can be saved. It’s a big question in the Christian world, are you saved? And I like to say, “I hope so,” because every day is a challenge as a Christian. Every day we have an opportunity to choose Christ and His way of life over the world and the secular way of life.
Every day we wake up, we have this choice to make. This is why Christ begins in His message this morning, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” This famous passage, my brothers and sisters, because today we are closing our celebration of the Holy Cross. And so the church is reminding us that our life as Orthodox Christians is the way of the cross.
There is no way to heaven except through the cross, but we will never take up our cross so long as we are preoccupied with our own comfort. So long as we are preoccupied with our own agenda, as we say, our own way of thinking, this is why God says, repent. Change the way we think, change the way we respond to the world.
And instead of our default, which is always our own self-preservation, we grow up thinking, “What’s in it for me? What am I going to get out of this?” Even our relationships end up being mutual negotiations, “I will do this for you if you do this for me.” This, my brothers and sisters, is not the way to heaven. The way to heaven is for us to learn how to deny ourselves in the language of the gospel.
I’m going to give it to you in a more contemporary way. I imagine that if Christ were speaking today, he would say, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him get over himself.” Because let’s face it, we are our number one priority in life. We do what we want for what is in our best interest. I get it, it’s our human condition. But I’ll tell you what, if we want to always do what is best for us, then what is in fact best for us is to be with God in heaven.
And so Christ says, “Whoever desires to come after me, if we desire to follow Christ into heaven.” That word desire, the desire, the want. We have to want to be with God in heaven, and we have to want it more than we want the world. We have to want it more than our own comfort and our own agenda, because we’ll never pick up our cross. We’ll never embrace the struggle that is the Orthodox life as long as we are preoccupied with our own agenda.
And so the question is, on the understanding that we want to be with God in heaven, if that is our desire, then the church helps us learn how to deny ourselves. The entire Christian life, my brothers and sisters, a life of prayer and fasting and taking care of the poor, and the sacramental life, including Holy Communion regularly, not once a year, and Holy Confession regularly, not once in a lifetime, these are how we learn to get over ourselves. And then we can take up our cross and follow Christ into heaven.
But my brothers and sisters, it begins with desire. And so I invite you this morning, search your heart. Do you desire to be with God in heaven? That is the invitation from our Lord today. If we desire to be with Him in heaven, then listen to the rest of His message.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it.” Now, listen here, because this is so important for our American way of life. For what will a profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What does a beach house matter? What does a vacation house matter? What do our annual trips to Greece matter if we have lost our soul and we’re not following Christ into heaven?
These are just a bunch of material things that, quite frankly, my brothers and sisters, will not exist in the future. The boats will eventually wither away. The houses will eventually crumble. And what is left? Our bones in the grave. This is that challenging way of life. It’s not easy being Orthodox. To be Orthodox, my brothers and sisters, is a life of challenge, a life of discipline, a life of repentance, but it is also a life of God’s grace and His blessings. But first comes desire. If we desire to be with Him, then all these other things are mere presentations for us to learn how to be with God.
I was sharing with some people the other day, I don’t know how many of you are aware of this, but a growing trend and unfortunately a popular trend within the Protestant world is to not even have a cross displayed on the church or in the church, and we are told by Christ to take up our cross. The trend in American Christianity is to, “If I don’t like what they’re doing at First Avenue Christian Church, I can go start Second Avenue Christian Church. I can start the church that I want.” And yet Christ says, “Deny ourselves.”
You see, my brothers and sisters, the world has embraced selfishness, individualism, and ego. Christ gives a different way of life to the church, a way of humility, a way of discipline, and a way of repentance. This is the life of the cross. It is not easy, but it is blessed if we want it to be, if we want to be with God, if the desire rests in our hearts. So there’s the challenge, my brothers and sisters, the challenge to want to be with God. And trust me, if we want to be with Him, then being with Him, even in struggle will be the greatest joy that we’ve ever experienced. Glory to God for things.
