Minister: Marv Vose
John 13: 31-38
A little boy and girl were fishing with their mother in the Alaskan
wilderness when a baby moose approached them. You know how children and
little animals are attracted to each other. I don't know why that
happens, but they just seem to be drawn to each other and this case was no
exception. The children met the baby moose in a small meadow, drawn by
their mutual curiosity. Moments later the mother moose charged onto the
scene. And she was mad!--Nostrils flaring and head lowered. The children
were now in danger. About this time the mother of the children noticed
what was going on and she came to the rescue. She looked all around, but
couldn't find a weapon or anything to protect herself or her children so
she just ran between her children and the mother moose, screaming and
waving her arms. As she charged right up to the mother moose, mamma moose
decided that this was more than she wanted to handle and made a hasty
retreat and all was well!
Needless to say the children were impressed with their mother's
bravery and courage. Later on, when they got home, they couldn't wait to
tell their father about this exciting encounter. They said, "You should
have seen it, dad. Mom scared off that moose with nothing but her face!"
I guess it was a kind of face-off! (Reader's Digest)
Peter said he was willing to do that for Jesus. It's an interesting
conversation. Jesus is trying to get his disciples ready for his
departure. He tells them that he's leaving and they can't follow him.
Peter is obviously indignant. "Why can't I go with you? I'm ready to lay
down my life for you!" In case you hadn't noticed this about Peter he
sometimes makes statements that he can't follow through with. He is brash
and bold and impetuous and has a good heart, but he doesn't really know
what is going on.
Jesus knows Peter far better than Peter knows himself. Jesus knows
what is going to happen. Jesus knows what Judas is going to do. He's
going to turn Jesus in to the authorities. Jesus knows that it is only a
matter of time. And Jesus knows that when things get tough, Peter is
going to disown him. In fact, he's going to do it three times that night.
It's not that Peter was a bad person. He was very devoted to Jesus.
And he had given up a lot already just to follow Jesus. He'd given up his
home and his profession and his family-all of that to follow Jesus. But
he wasn't really ready to give it all away, to lay down his life for
Jesus. Later on, he would be-but not today.
So, what would you do if Jesus asked that question, not of Peter,
but of you? "Will you lay down your life for me?" Pretty heavy question,
isn't it? And yet, we answer that question every day. We answer it every
hour, every minute. We don't think about it. We don't ponder it as a
question, but we answer it nevertheless. Every moment of every day, we
decide how we are going to spend our life. We spend moments, minutes,
hours. We give up our lives for those things.
If you decide you are going to watch an hour of reality TV, you
decide to spend an hour of your living in a fantasy world. (I think the
only benefit of reality TV is that it makes our own reality look so much
better!) But you spent an hour of you living. You laid down your life
for that TV show. Do you see what I mean?
When you choose to go to work, you lay down your life for work.
When you sleep, you spend your life on sleep. When you work on your
hobby, you spend your life on that.
Most of those decisions about how we spend our lives are at some
level or another calculated decisions. We choose to do things because of
what we are going to get out of them. Isn't that right? We go to work,
because we get money that lets us have shelter and food. We watch a
reality TV show because we need to escape from reality. We do a hobby
because it feels good. Most of the things we do are based on what's in it
for us.
I still remember a professor in seminary asking me a question that
is similar to Jesus' question. He asked me, "How are you going to give
your life away?" How's that for a question? "How are you going to give
your life away?" I must confess, no one had ever asked me that question
before and it shocked me. I don't remember what I said, but I can clearly
remember what I was thinking. I was thinking, "I'm more into getting
right now than in giving away." That's where most of us are, isn't it?
We are into getting instead of giving away.
But sooner or later, if we keep following Jesus, something strange
happens. I'm not sure I know how to explain it. But we are confronted
with paradox and we discover that in always looking to "get," we lose.
And in giving our lives away, somehow we gain them. It doesn't make any
sense does it?
It's as if in that relinquishment, in that letting go, we somehow find all
that we have been looking for. Everything we have been angling and
scheming for comes to us in abundance. I don't know how to describe it.
It's like talking in circles and it doesn't make sense, but it makes total
and complete sense.
Jesus states the paradox very clearly. It's in all of the synoptic
gospels. (Matthew 16:25, Mark 8: 35, Luke 9:24) Jesus says, "For whoever
wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me
will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world,
yet forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:25-26) Quite a paradox, isn't it?
The apostle Paul had it figured out. He talks about it in his letter to
the Philippians. Paul is in jail and the young, Christian church is beset
with teachers who are trying to profit from the gospel. But Paul writes
with a sense of joy that is absolutely remarkable. He said, "For to me,
to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the
body, this will be fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do
not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I
remain in the body." Do you hear what he is saying? He's saying I would
really like to go and be with Jesus, but you need me, so I guess I'll
stay! I still remember the first time I read that and how stunning I was
by the words. "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." How
incredible!
Most of us learn the lesson a little step at a time-a little sacrifice at
a time. We let go of something and find life and then we do it again and
again. That's probably what happened to Peter. He learned the lesson a
little at a time so that when the right time came, he was prepared to lay
his life down for Jesus. Legend has it that Peter was crucified in Rome
but he was crucified upside down because he was not worthy to be crucified
the way Jesus had been.
Every so often one of you will send me an e-mail with a story you want to
share. This is one of those. It's told by a lady who was grocery
shopping one day back when stores were small and you knew the owner. She
was looking over the fresh produce when she noticed a small boy hungrily
looking over the red, ripe apples. The lady paid for her groceries and
while she was doing that, she over heard the conversation between Mr.
Miller, the owner of the store, and the ragged but clean little boy.
Mr. Miller said, "Hello Barry, how are you today?'
"Hello, Mr. Miller. I'm fine. Thank you. I'm just admiring them
apples. They sure look good!"
"Oh, they are good Barry. None finer. How's your Ma?"
"She's good. She's getting stronger all the time."
"That's good. Anything I can help you with?"
"Oh, no. I'm just admiring those apples."
"Would you like to take some home?" asked Mr. Miller.
But the reply was, "Oh, no. I don't have any money to buy them."
So Mr. Miller said, "Well, what have you got to trade me for some of
those apples?"
"All I have is my prize marble here." Mr. Miller looked at the
prize marble and said, "She's a dandy, but this one is blue and I sort of
go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?"
The boy said, "Well, it's not exactly like this one, but its close!"
So Mr. Miller said, "How about this? How about you take a bag of apples
home with you and the next trip this way let me look at that red marble?"
The boy readily agreed and took off with a bag of apples and a big smile
on his face!
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to the lady and
with a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our
community. All three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to
bargain with them for peas, or apples, or tomatoes or whatever. When they
come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he
doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with another bag of
produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next
trip to the store."
The years passed and she didn't think any more about the event. Her
family even moved away but had an occasion to come back to visit and found
out that Mr. Miller had died. Naturally, they wanted to go to the
mortuary and share their regrets with Mrs. Miller. They got there and
fell into line. Ahead of them were three young men. One was in a military
uniform and the other two were in dark suits and white shirts. They
approached Mrs. Miller, hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
After they had spoken, they moved to the casket. Mrs. Miller watched them
as they each placed their hand over the hand of Mr. Miller. Finally, each
one left, wiping his eyes.
The line shortened and the lady had a chance to visit with Mrs.
Miller and she told the story she had seen play out so many years before
with the marble. Mrs. Miller took her to the casket and said, "Those
three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just
told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last,
when Jim could not change his mind about the color or the size...they came
to pay their debt." She reached down and raised her husband's lifeless
fingers to show three, shiny red marbles!
She said, "We never had a great deal of wealth, but right now, I
would say Jim considers himself the richest man in the world."
Peter didn't lay down his life that day for Jesus. He just
couldn't. But Jesus laid down his life for Peter! And Peter was such a
mess! He had so many problems. He was bold and brash and impetuous! He
had no idea what he was saying to Jesus. And yet Jesus entrusted the
church to him. Can you imagine that? And as much of a mess as Peter was,
Jesus died for him! I don't know about you, but that's about the best
news I know. Because if Jesus will do it for Peter, there's an outside
chance that he might do it for me. And if he will do it for me, I know he
will do it for you. Can you believe that? Is that good news?
How are you going to give your life away?