Jesus is the Example

Do you remember what tracing paper is?  I ask that because it’s not a super common thing anymore.  

There are times when I think that made life easier.  You could “draw” something fairly easily with it. That made it great for people like me who have limited drawing abilities. 
But there was a drawback to it.  It still looked like tracing paper, and it was limited to the same size of the original.

I’ve done another thing that is kind of similar, only without the tracing paper part of it.  You may have done this one too.  

Back in my first appointment, where I was the only pastor, I had two churches in rural northeast Texas.  At one of them we were getting ready for Vacation Bible School (VBS) one summer and we were doing the decorating.

One church had an “overhead projector” which, for anyone still in school now, was my generations version of a smart board.  You would put a transparency on it, which was kind of like a stiff piece of plastic wrap that you could print on.  As a side not, I used to buy printers based on whether or not they could print transparencies.  The projector would shine a bright light through the transparency, which would be reflected by a mirror onto a wall.

If you were bad at drawing, like me, then you would put a big piece of paper up on the wall, and then “trace” the image onto the paper.  I’m better at that sort of thing than I am actually drawing.  This was what we ended up with.

I'm impressed I still had the picture

In order for me to do that, what is the one thing that I needed?  The pattern, or example.

Of all the ways that we have filled in the blank over the last number of posts, today’s is probably the most practical.

We’ve talked spiritually, and faithfully, and hopefully, but today, literally, Jesus is the Example.  We’re like the tracing paper that I just described.  If we would just follow Jesus outline, then we’ll get to the desired endpoint. 

No problem right?

That sounds really simple, but is it?  

Anyone?

It’s really not as simple as tracing out Jesus life on to ours and saying “that’s my example.  There’s more to it.  If it were really that easy, then the world would be very different than it is today.  Jesus points this out to the folks that are listening to him from our reading for today.

There are two big things that Jesus is saying here.  They’re very nearly the same thing, but he’s making these statements in different ways because he really wants to get this point across.

1. If you want to follow, say no, take up your cross, and follow me.
2. To save your life, you have to lose it.

These aren’t easy things to do.  To be clear, what Jesus isn’t saying is that you have to be willing to die for your faith.  A lot of times that what I hear this being interpreted as.  Scarily, that would be easier to accept.  Rather, Jesus is saying that he wants us to live for our faith!

That is more of a challenge because that means every day, not just when it’s convenient, or not just when we have nothing left to lose, but even in the times when we have everything left to lose, and even in the times when I’d just assume be outside, or sitting at home watching a ball game, then we choose Jesus.

Jesus is recognizing something that is key to us.  Our lives are always at the mercy of other things.  Rarely is our life ours to completely do with what we want.  That is a rare thing.  Jesus is saying to us, “own it.” Know that there is always going to be something that is going to have control of you.  

That’s reality, that's life.

What we can do is make a choice.  We can make a choice that says, for everything that is beyond our control that still forces us to live in ways that we may not want to; we can still pattern our lives after something, or someone else.

Who is that going to be?  Who is going to be our example?

To lose our life for Jesus’ sake isn’t to die for our faith, although some have had to make that choice, but it is to say that we put Jesus first.  That takes work, but it gives us a starting point.

That sounds like a burden.  That sounds like Jesus is putting a heavy workload on us, and building an unreasonable set of expectations.  Because I know how I would respond.  

I would be like, “but Jesus, you don’t know how much time that will take,” “no really, I’d much rather go out camping this weekend, or sit at home catching up on TV shows that I’ve been missing out on,” or “but I’ve got a family gathering to go to, or a friend is getting married” and so on and so forth.

That’s not Jesus putting a burden on us.  It can feel like it if we approach it from the wrong direction.  What Jesus is describing is a way of defining everything else that comes after we put Jesus first. 

For all the other things that will sometimes make our decisions for us, that get in our way, Jesus is saying, filter it through me first.  He is saying, put me first and we’ll work out the rest together.

It isn’t a burden.  Jesus says lose your life, know that it already isn’t completely yours to do with as you please.  Put your faith in me, live after my example and the pattern that I set.  Crazily, that is also the same place that we will gain our lives back. Through Jesus, because he goes with us, works with us, we can actually be who we are meant to be.