XVIII. On Self Renunciation

SERMON XVIII.

ON SELF-RENUNCIATION AND TAKING UP THE CROSS.

Preached in the Fourth week in Lent, called “The Week of the Worship of the Cross.”

“Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” –S. Mark viii. 34.

JESUS CHRIST once called Himself “the way, the truth, and the life.” [S. John xvi. 6.]  And now in accordance  with the first of these designations, He shows us the way.  “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.” 

The  Evangelist  in  saying  this,  remarks  that  when JESUS CHRIST uttered  these words, “He had  called the people unto  Him with  His disciples also.”  This shows that His call was addressed not exclusively to the elect, but to all without exception. 

Whosoever thou art that hearest this, thou also must think about the way.  In  this visible and  temporary  world  in  which  thou livest there is nothing stationary, but all moves on, and  passes away; thy life also is moving onward and passing away: thou <207> art sometimes apparently at rest in body, but thy hidden  thoughts, thy secret desires are incessantly moving; and therefore if thou dost not walk in the way of salvation, thou art assuredly walking in that of perdition, or if thou  art not progressing,  then  thou  art relapsing,—sinking  from spiritual life into  that of the flesh,  from the human  into  the animal life,  and  thou wilt not even perceive how thou wilt fall into the life of hell, into twofold death, irrevocably.  Take heed therefore to thy path. 

As a Leader and King of freemen, JESUS CHRIST compels no one to follow the way which He points out, but invites those who are willing to enter upon it, “Whosoever will come after Me.”  Ask thyself, O Christian, ask thyself so as to give a decided answer— wilt thou follow JESUS CHRIST or no? 

A Christian not to wish to go after CHRIST!  What a senseless idea.  How it contradicts itself. Nevertheless there are men who though understanding the absurdity of the thought, yet do not feel how criminal is the action.  Then why are we Christians, if we do not follow CHRIST?  We are Christians, some will say, who have listened to the words of Christian doctrine, but have not understood their power,—we are Christians, because we believe in CHRIST.  Granted.  But if thou believest in CHRIST, then certainly thou also believest in His word; for CHRIST and His word are one.  If thou believest in the word of CHRIST, thou must also act according to <208> this word; for to believe in a word, and not to act in accordance with it is perilous boldness,   and folly.  Let us explain this by  an  example; if during  thy wanderings amidst  unknown and dangerous places, some one had told thee, there is the path which will lead thee into a place of safety, and if thou, having no reason  to  doubt  this  indication, shouldst  linger, or  go in  an  opposite  direction,  perhaps  to  encounter a wild beast or a robber, would not that have been an act of dangerous boldness and  folly on thy  part?   But what says the word of CHRIST, in Whom and in which thou believest?   “If thou wilt be perfect, come and follow Me.” [S. Matth. xix. 21.]   After this, how canst thou excuse thyself from following JESUS CHRIST?  Perhaps by saying that thou dost not seek perfection?  Yet this is the very thing required from thee by Him in Whom thou believest.  “Be ye therefore perfect,” says He, and moreover in what measure? “even as your FATHER Which is in  heaven  is perfect.” [S. Matth. v. 20.]  If thou renouncest the aspiration to perfection, then will He take from thee the hope of the heavenly kingdom.  “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” [S. Matth. v. 48.]  If thou  desires: not to  be with  Him,—and how  is  it  possible  to  be  with  Him  without  keeping His word, and following Him in everything? –then <209>will He proclaim thee His enemy, and deny thee in the face of heaven and earth, “He that is not with Me is against Me;” [S. Matth. xii.30] “whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His FATHER with the holy Angels?” [S. Mark viii. 38] And so one of the two,—either thou must follow CHRIST, follow His word and example, or vainly wilt thou call thyself a Christian. 

It would not be difficult to acknowledge and accept the duty of following CHRIST, if we were not stayed by the consideration, “Whither shall we follow Him?”  Ah, whither?   Let us see whither He goes.  “Behold, we go,” says He unto those who are following  Him,  “behold, we go  up to Jerusalem,  and the Son of Man shall be delivered up unto the chief priests, and  unto  the scribes; and  they  shall condemn  Him to  death,  and  shall deliver Him to  the Gentiles; and they shall mock  Him, and  shall scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and  shall kill Him.” [S. Mark x. 33, 34.]  An awful way indeed is the way of CHRIST.  The Apostles themselves who under His immediate guidance followed Him, were not able to enter calmly into this way.  “And  they  were,” relates the Evangelist,  “in  the way going up to Jerusalem, and  JESUS went before them, and they were amazed, and as they followed <210> they were afraid.” [S. Mark x. 32.]  And what more?  There is a part of that way which CHRIST Himself did not traverse without amazement, as it is said, “and He began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.” [S. Mark xiv. 33.] 

But am I not in vain revealing all the fearfulness of the way of CHRIST, which is already an object of fear to many?  No, Christians, “for our exhortation,” we will say with the Apostle, “is not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile.” [1 Thess. ii. 3.] We do not wish to conceal from you a difficulty, which is inevitable; but from this very difficulty itself you may perceive that it is not difficult to overcome it.  Wherefore was JESUS CHRIST amazed, before Whom all fear and quake, Who has no one to fear, for there is no power which is able to menace the Omnipotent?  Wherefore was He heavy, Who is the fountain of joy and gladness, for all that can but feel joy and gladness? It is evident that this amazement and this heaviness were not His own, but He submitted thereunto, because “He Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses,” [S. Matth. viii. 17.] But wherefore did He take our infirmities and bear our sicknesses, if not that He might heal them, or at least until their final healing, to lighten them to such a degree that we should not “be tempted above that we are able?” [1Cor. x. 13.]   Consequently if amazement and sorrow are not entirely taken away from the path of CHRIST, <211>they are at least considerably diminished by His having already accomplished that way, and laid it down for us.  Therefore the Apostles were not always,  as in  the beginning,  afraid  of following  CHRIST; and afterwards the time came when  they  walked  this dreadful and  painful path  with  gladness.  “They,"as writes the narrator of their Acts, “departed, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name.’’ [Acts v. 41.]   How could it happen that the same men standing in the very same path, were at first afraid, and then rejoiced?  They were afraid whilst JESUS CHRIST had not yet traversed that way, and rendered it secure; rejoiced when He had passed through it, and borne away on Himself its difficulties. 

They were afraid when they only glanced upon these difficulties without penetrating them furthers but rejoiced when they clearly perceived the end of the way of CHRIST.  For whither at length does that way lead?  It leads to heaven, to GOD the FATHER, as JESUS CHRIST Himself saith, describing His whole way, from its beginning to its end, “I am come from the FATHER,  and  am come into  the world; again, I leave the world,  and go to the FATHER.” [S. John xvi. 28.] This way leads unto divine glory.  “Ought not CHRIST to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” [S. Luke xxiv. 26.] 

Is it then possible, some will say, who understand <212>not the mysteries of CHRIST, is it possible that we also shall be brought near to GOD the FATHER, and enter into the glory of the Only-begotten SON of GOD?  Yea, it is so, my brethren.  For He is truthful Who hath said, “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.” [S. John xii. 26.]  And  therefore if our LORD goes to GOD His FATHER,  then  He will bring  us also  to Him with  Himself.  If CHRIST enters into His divine glory, then will He also bring the Christians into it with Him, and will render them, in the words of the Apostle, “partakers of the divine nature.” [2 S. Pet. i. 4.]  Do not say that such height is unattainable to  earth - born man; we must but enter with firm resolution into  that part or the way  of CHRIST which  He has traversed  and  laid  open  to  us upon earth, and  then, when we shall have need to raise ourselves high above all earthly  things, and to rise unto  that which  is divine and  heavenly,  then  He Himself will lift us up, and  “bear us as on angels’ wings,” [Exod. xix. 4.] according to His great promise: “And I, if I be lifted  up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” [S. John xii 32.] 

With these reflections, my brethren, we hope that your heart is saying unto its Leader and Redeemer, “Master I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest;” [S. Matth. viii. 19.] only Thou to Whom all hearts are open, reject not this desire, as Thou did once reject it in the <213>lips of a  certain man, doubtless, because it did not proceed from the fulness of his heart.  But if you desire to follow CHRIST, then it is time now, to tell you how you must follow Him: “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” 

Firstly, then, he who  desires to follow CHRIST, let him deny himself, that is, let him deny his self-love, let him not be devoted to his own honour, and interest, and pleasure; but like a traveller, meet all these things in passing, and soon leave them behind; and in everything act according to this precept of the Apostle: “It remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they  had  none; and they that weep, as though  they wept not; and they that rejoice,  as though  they rejoiced not, and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and  they that use this world,  as not abusing  it.” [1 Cor. vii. 29-31.] How is it possible, some will say, to attain to such self-renunciation?  Even as the warrior renounces all the joys of domestic life, when he enters on a campaign, and as he renounces life itself when he enters the very fight; for without that renunciation he could neither be brave, nor victorious. If it be possible to do this for the sake of a perishable crown and temporary fame; what is there that cannot and should not be achieved in order to obtain an incorruptible crown and eternal glory? 

Secondly, to follow CHRIST one must take up his<214> Cross.  The cross of CHRIST consists in His sufferings, rejections, and death. [S. Mark viii. 31.]  Having alone endured all this for our sakes,  He has the perfect right to  re quire that every one of us should  endure all these things for Him.  But that we might not be crushed by the weight of His burden, under which He Himself was seen to faint, He does not lay upon us His own great Cross, but commands each  of us to  take up  his own cross, that is, to be ready to endure as many sufferings and  trials, outward  and  inward, as the chastening, purifying, and  at the same time merciful dispensation  of an  all-ruling  Providence may  choose to  visit us with.  Is then this inevitable? some effeminate souls will exclaim.  Calm yourselves and reflect.  If CHRIST, Who  was without sin and omnipotent,  “ought to  have suffered,”  that He might “enter  into  His  glory,”  then how can we, defiled and  weakened by sin, attain unto this glory, without being purified by trials and strengthened by sufferings? For what is it, that dwells in us now?  If self-love prevents our confession, let us plead guilty, in the words of the Apostle: “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” [Rom. vii. 18.] There dwelleth in us, from the time of original sin, the old Adam, with his desires and lusts: how then are we to divest ourselves of him, and to put on the new man,— which  is the aim of our aspirations?—I say not, not without suffering, but even, not without death. We <215>must take up our cross not only to fight the good fight, but that we may at length entirely “crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts,” [Gal. v. 24.] “mortify our members which are upon the earth,” [Col. iii. 5.] die, mystically, that “our life be hid with CHRIST in GOD.” [Col. iii. 3.] 

Such, O Christian, is the doctrine of the cross, a doctrine so necessary and essential in Christianity, that the Church, not content with proclaiming it often by word, still more frequently represents it to us in symbols and signs.  At our very baptism she lays upon us the image of the cross; at every prayer she enjoins us to make the sign of the cross on ourselves; and from time to time, as on this present day, she solemnly presents it for adoration and holy salutation.  Let us be attentive, let us accept this commandment, not as though from human lips, but as from the lips of our crucified SAVIOUR Himself: “let us deny ourselves, and take up our cross, and follow Him.”   Amen.