Sign The Blank Page

We’re getting into the very heart of Jesus in the Gospel According to Luke. It’s all about what it means to follow Christ.

I remember hearing a speaker one time (actually over 25 years ago now) say that what we typically tend to do is something like this -  We imagine a list of things that we are willing to do for Christ; (what I am prepared to do that I think will be enough to impress Him!) and then we kind of present it to Him as the expression of our devotion. The speaker (I can’t remember his name) encouraged us to picture Jesus’ response to our great gesture in a scenario that goes something like this …. we present Jesus with our list, signed at the bottom by our own hand just to make it totally official and binding, accompanied by all kinds of self congratulatory emotions… And what does Jesus do? He hands us back a blank piece of paper and says, “Just sign the bottom, then I will fill in all the details.”

In other words, when Jesus calls us to turn our backs on the ways of the world, to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Him, He is asking us to sign a blank piece of paper. It’s true. How often do we hold back on committing ourselves fully to Christ for fear of what He might ask us to do? The truth is that we don’t know what He might ask us to do. But that’s the whole point. He wants us to be willing to do whatever, wherever, whenever.

This means that we must trust Him implicitly of course. To really follow Christ, we must let go of everything and everyone, even our own lives. It’s a lot like signing a blank page.

Luke 9:23,24

We’ve dedicated 34 weeks (Sept 8 to Apr 20) to read, preach and discuss the Gospel According to Luke. My text last Sunday included this infamous statement by Jesus –

“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’”    Luke 9:23,24

How many times have I read those words. Yet they continue to challenge me to the core of my being every single time I read them. It’s like a mountain that you continue to run into but can never climb over. It’s just there, calling you ever upward. Has there been anything that anyone else has ever said that is anything like it? Not even close. Because He didn’t just say it. He said it, then He went and died. There is nothing in any faith anywhere at any time that is anything like this. Not even remotely close. They are ominous words that outweigh all others. They are counter intuitive. And they are immeasurable in their significance.

It occurred to me this week that this single statement made by Jesus serves as the foundation for the entire body of New Testament teaching on Christian living. It is the watershed from which flows all that it means to live FOR God; the very definition of ‘Christian service’; to deny oneself, to die as it were to oneself, and to sacrifice for Christ, only to realize that there is no such thing as a sacrifice for Christ. Because when we die is when we begin to live.