Give It Up

The scriptures referred to are Mark 8:34.

Ash Wednesday and indeed all of Lent are primarily associated with giving things up. And a lot of people think being good is mainly about giving stuff up. Like anything fun. And it's not true. That's like thinking health is all about giving stuff up. Yes, you should cut back on sugar and fried foods and salt and alcohol. And you should totally give up tobacco and any drug taken merely for recreation. But you should also eat healthy things and exercise and get more sleep. Being healthy is about achieving a balance in your life.

Being spiritually healthy is, too. From Lent through Easter we will be talking about 7 virtues we should be taking on. 4 of them were admired even by the pagans. 3 are mainly seen as virtues by Christians.

But today is Ash Wednesday and so we are going to be focusing on things we should give up. And I don't mean snacks or soda or sweets, though there may be merit in that. Jesus calls us to give up much more. He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) A better translation than “deny” is “disown or renounce.” Jesus says we cannot be his disciples unless we renounce all right to ourselves. What rights?

We give up the right to choose whom we put first in our life. We are not to put ourselves first, of course. We are not to live for ourselves but for him who died for us and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15) Nor are we to put family first. (Matthew 10:37-38) Like a soldier, we cannot abandon our mission when it is inconvenient for our family. In fact, we are not to put any mere human being first in our life. (Psalm 146: 3-4) Nothing and no one is to come before God. (Exodus 20:3) That doesn't mean we must love ourselves or our family or others less; it just that we are to love God more. It is a matter of priorities. If we put God first, everything else will be in proper relationship to him and to us. (Matthew 6:33)

We also give up the right to choose the path of our life. Jesus did not say we are to follow our whims or even our dreams but to follow him. Now this is not to say that certain dreams are not sent by God. Often we find God's will for us at the intersection of what we are passionate about and what we are good at. And the Spirit equips us to do what God want us to do. But sometimes what God has in mind for us is not what we initially think our path will be. Amos was not prepared to be a prophet; he was a herdsman who also worked with trees. David was a shepherd, not a prince. Paul was a Pharisee, not a likely candidate to be an apostle to the Gentiles. As it says in Proverbs, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9) and in the same chapter it says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3) And in the Psalms we get this reassurance: “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” (Psalm 73:23) We may not be heading where we thought we would be going but God is with us all the way.

We also give up our right to lash out at those who oppose us. Again and again we are told not to reciprocate evil actions with evil (Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9) And you know what's interesting? I had a hard time looking up all those instances because even Bibles with chain references and topical indexes of the Bible don't cross reference all the places where we are told not to “repay evil for evil” though all the instances use those exact words! We don't like the fact that we are to give up violence, even though Jesus says that explicitly and at length in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles....” (Matthew 5:38-41) It's a disturbing demand and causes problems if, say, we are speaking of abuse. Jesus is, I think it's safe to say, thinking of the dismissive slap, one that is an insult, and not one that is meant to do lasting physical damage. But we rarely deal with the ethical dilemmas that arise from the pacifism Jesus commands because we usually just react in kind and we like the idea of fighting fire with fire. Jesus, however, requires us to act nobly and be creative in dealing with opposition. We lose our right to just haul off and hit somebody because it feels good to get him back.

Finally, we give up the right to choose whom we are to love. In his parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus shows us that loving our neighbor doesn't mean just loving the guy next door or your coworker but anyone we encounter, even if they are of a different race or faith, and even if we find them to be in great need that will take a lot of our time and money to fix them up. (Luke 10:25-37) Remember we are to treat those in need as we treat Jesus. (Matthew 25:40)

Jesus said we must love not only our neighbors but those who are hostile to us. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Notice that Jesus doesn't define love as having warm and sentimental feelings about someone but as acting in a loving way toward them. We are to treat others not as they treat us but as we would like to treated. (Luke 6:31) And the night before he died, Jesus raised the bar. We are to love one another as he loves us: self-sacrificially. (John 15:12)

If all that we give up when we renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus sounds a bit much, we need to remember that Jesus died to save us. And as we pointed out Jesus “...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 5:15) To put it another way, Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). That's why we take up our cross. It is to crucify our old sinful self, daily if necessary. (Romans 6:6-7; Luke 9:23)

But as we said, this new life is not one of merely giving stuff up. Being good is more than simply refraining ourselves from being of doing evil. It is about developing good qualities or virtues as we become more Christlike, through the power of the Spirit. So this Sunday we will discuss the first of 7 key virtues that we should have. They are not the fruit of the Spirit though they do overlap. And they are not the only ones we should emulate. But they are important enough that for millennia they have been called cardinal virtues. The first one we will look at is temperance. And, no, it not about Prohibition.