Go with me back to last summer's Olympics ” to one of its most memorable moments. "Before the bomb, before the bowed heads and the silent moments, before the Olympic flag billowing at half-mast, there was the heroic story of Kerri Strug.
"Many of you watched the Olympics and were stunned when a 4-foot-8-inch, 18-year-old woman charged down a runway, vaulted through the air and landed on a leg so badly sprained that it could hold her upright for only a second. Just long enough to ensure the first gold medal ever won by a U.S. women's gymnastics team. A few minutes later, while a crowd of 32,000 screamed and pounded each other on the back, six small, red-white-and-blue Olympians marched out for their medals, trailed only by their wounded teammate who was carried in the arms of her coach."
For Mark Starr, a writer for NEWSWEEK, it was an athletic feat inscribed for the ages. It had been a closely fought match all afternoon, with the Americans surging ahead on the uneven bars, then maintaining their lead along the perilous balance beam and through their spectacular floor routines. All they needed were solid performances on the vault and they would win. The first four women flipped safely. The fifth tried twice and both times failed. Strug was last. On her first try she sprawled ingloriously on the mat.
The rabid, pro-U.S.A. crowd quieted down. Few noticed that Strug, who had rolled over on her ankle and "felt a snap," had stood up staring at her leg in dismay. "Shake it off," urged her teammates as she hobbled back down the runway. "I don't think they understood there was something wrong," she said afterward. "I felt the gold medal was slipping away." When her coach Bela Karolyi leaned over the boards to bellow instructions, Kerri cried out that she was in pain. Then she asked him, "Do I have to do the second vault?" Bela, uncertain that the United States was safely ahead, shrugged. "I encouraged her," he said later, "but she was the one who had to answer that." Strug went back out onto the runway. She whispered a little prayer, asking "God to help me out somehow." And then she vaulted into history. (1)
It is that kind of story that makes the Olympics so popular around the world. Doesn't it make your heart beat a little faster when you see someone take on a challenge against great odds and be successful? This is the secret of exciting motion pictures. We watch a solitary individual take on a stirring challenge. It might be the challenge of going where "no man has ever gone before" a la STAR TREK, or winning a boxing match a la ROCKY, or playing football for Notre Dame as in RUDY. The adversary may be cruel Nazis or corrupt police or the mob or simply personal limitations. But there is something about watching our hero battle the forces of evil and then ” just as things look darkest ” winning a great battle that brightens our outlook on life and helps us believe that there is always hope even in the darkest hour.
This, of course, is the story of Jesus. All of the might of the Roman empire was arrayed against him. Nails were driven into his hands and feet. A sword pierced his side. He was buried in a borrowed grave. But just when his foes thought they had laid this carpenter to rest forever, just when they thought that had triumphed over his kingdom of love and compassion, just when they were feeling comfortable with their treachery, a stone mysteriously moved in front of a grave and this man who would not be defeated, whose love is stronger than any army that might be sent against him, whose spirit is alive even today, this unique man with the print of the nails still visible in his hands and feet stepped forward to conquer the world.
It is a story that encourages us to go on when life is cruel and adversaries are numerous. It is a story that encourages us to attempt the heroic. It is a story that reminds us that love is stronger than hate, life is stronger than death, right is stronger than wrong.
That brings us to our text for the day: "If any want to become my followers," said Jesus, "Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." "Here is your opportunity to be heroic," Jesus was saying to them. "Here is your call to go where few have gone before. Deny yourself, take up a cross and follow me."
FIRST OF ALL, WE NEED TO SEE THAT THE CALL TO FOLLOW JESUS IS A CALL TO THE HEROIC. It is not for everyone. On one occasion five thousand men as well as an unknown number of women and children were fed by Jesus, but when he spelled out what following him meant, the crowd was reduced to only twelve men and a small, unknown number of women. Not everyone who heard him speak was willing to pay the price of discipleship. Following Jesus was not for the faint of heart. It was a call to the heroic.
Heroes have always been in short supply. That is true in every age in every time. Years ago Sydney, Australia, was settled as a penal colony for Great Britain. They sent convicts down there, half a world away from England where they were completely isolated. When the convicts had served out their time, they were free to leave Australia and go back to England, or go anywhere in the world for that matter. But the problem was that there was no way of making a living in the penal colony. When their time was up, these prisoners had no resources with which to return to civilization. They were trapped in Sydney and the penal colony. The ocean bounded it on one side and a great range of mountains on the other. To the north and south there were swamps and desert. There was no escape from this desolate land.
The governor of the colony decided that Australia would never be developed until they could find some farmland, some forests, and other natural resources. So they mounted expeditions to go beyond the mountains. One after another, they failed. No one was able to get beyond the mountains. Finally, the government declared it was impossible, no more attempts would be made, and they named the mountains the "Barrier Mountains."
In 1812, three daring young men decided nothing was impossible, and they set out to conquer the Barrier Mountains. They studied every expedition and a pattern developed. All the previous expeditions had followed the stream beds up the valleys to reach the pass, and all of them came to a cliff that blocked the passage. The young men decided on another approach. They would start the climb from the top of the ridge from the beginning and climb the hard paths, staying at the peak of the range. They outfitted their expedition with horses, food, supplies. People ridiculed them. "Why are you taking so many supplies?" they were asked. They replied, "We'll need them to settle on the other side!" They climbed the hard route, the difficult way, not the easy valleys the others had taken. They climbed the little hills and ridges at first, leading them to the more difficult mountain peaks later. At last, they reached the highest peak, and named it Mount York. From that peak they could see beyond the range to the rolling valleys, the rich land, all of the forests beyond. Australia was opened for settlement! (2)
There is never progress in any land until someone heroic comes along. Jesus was a hero. He was opening a new kind of frontier ” a frontier far more significant than the settling of Australia. His new frontier was the reign of God in every heart. To bring the good news of that kingdom to the world would require men and women who would lay aside their own priorities in life and immerse them in his priorities. Only those who were also heroic would respond to Christ's call. "IF anyone would be my disciple," said Jesus. "If" can be a very big word. The call to follow Jesus is a call to the heroic. IT IS ALSO A CALL IS TO SELF-DENIAL. "If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself . . ." Do you know what it means to deny yourself? If you have ever had a loving mother or father, you know a little about self-denial. If you have ever been a parent, you know a little about self-denial. It goes with the territory.
Glenn Plashin, in his book TURNING POINT, tells about an event that occurred during his senior year in college, in the midst of the Great Depression. His family did not have the money for the first quarter's tuition, though tuition for a quarter at Northeast Missouri State where he attended was only twenty dollars ” and that included books! His father did not have twenty dollars. But he said, "Don't worry, Son. We'll go to the bank, and I'll sign your note with you. We'll get the money." They went to the bank the next morning. The banker had tears in his eyes as he shook his head. The directors had instructed him that without collateral there were to be no loans and there were to be no exceptions. They went to private individuals who were known to lend money, but everywhere it was the same: no collateral, no loan. There seemed to be no way Glen could go to college that year. But the day before he was supposed to leave, a big truck backed up to their house, and two men laid down some boards from the truck bed to the front porch. He wasn't there that afternoon, but afterward he heard what happened.
There was one thing his mother loved more than anything in the world, besides her family and Jesus, and that was her Gulbranson piano. It was the only decent piece of furniture they had. But the men rolled it out of the house, onto the boards, and into the truck. The driver reached into the pocket of his overalls, pulled out some bills, and handed his mother a twenty, a ten, and a five. Then they got into the truck and drove off with the pride of his mother's life. His father threw his arms around her, and she cried and cried. That night his mother couldn't even talk about it, so his father told him, "Son, you can go on back to college tomorrow. Your mother sold her piano." Then he handed Glen the money. Afterward Glen thought, THAT'S LOVE LIKE GOD'S LOVE. The most precious possession He had was His only Son, and yet He gave Him up to be disgraced and crucified so that we could learn to love like that! (3)
When Jesus said that those who follow him would deny themselves, he was asking no more of them than he was willing to give himself. The call to follow Christ is a call to the heroic. The call to follow Christ is a call to self-denial. FINALLY THE CALL TO FOLLOW JESUS IS A CALL TO DO JUST THAT ” TO FOLLOW. "If any want to become my followers," said Jesus, "Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." What kind of life does the disciple of Jesus live? That's easy. The disciple of Jesus lives as Jesus would live if Jesus were our contemporary. That is, the call to follow Jesus is a call to walk in his shoes. It is to live out the life of love that Jesus lived long ago.
John Sherrill, Roving Editor of GUIDEPOSTS lay in a hospital bed, disconsolate and more than a little bored. Doctors said he would be there for 10 days while they tried to diagnose his abdominal pain. The discomfort was mostly gone, though, and he was more than ready to go home. At 4:00 A.M. he was roused by a nurse checking his temperature and blood pressure. Unable to get back to sleep, he decided to take a walk. So, tethered to an I.V. pole, he made his way along the deserted corridor, his aluminum caddy rattling beside him on its tiny wheels, his Birkenstock sandals flopping on the floor. At the nurses' desk was a young woman at her computer. On his earlier walks she had not even glanced up, but now she turned from the screen and smiled. "Here comes the man in the Jesus shoes," she said.
Sherrill laughed for the first time in days. "Jesus shoes?"
"That's my husband's name for Birkenstocks," she explained. Sherrill looked down at the sturdy brown sandals with the broad bands of leather across his feet; indeed they did look like the shoes you see in paintings of Jesus and the Disciples. They talked for a few minutes. The nurse told him she had been working 14 hours non-stop: She and her husband both worked overtime just to make ends meet. Feeling less sorry for himself, he resumed his walk. With his sandals clomping along beneath him he wondered if he could turn the long days in the hospital into a unique experience . . . unobtrusively walk in Jesus' footsteps while his own life got back to normal. From that day on, he walked the halls of Northern Westchester Hospital in a different mood. Most of the time he did not talk about God or pray aloud with people, but he always prayed silently. And he listened with new attentiveness. It was astonishing how often doctors and nurses, other patients, visitors, volunteers and cleaning staff would bring up personal matters as he walked in his Jesus shoes. Of course, the difference was interior. Instead of focusing on his own woes, he became concerned ” like Jesus ” with other people. (4)
Do you have on your Jesus shoes? The call to follow Christ is a call to the heroic. It is a call to deny ourselves. It is a call to put on our Jesus shoes and to live lives of loving service. It is a call to leap high in the air knowing we might land on a wounded leg if that is what it takes to live for him. "If any want to become my followers," said Jesus, "Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
1. "Leap of Faith," by, August 5, 1996, p. 42.
2. From a sermon by Don Emmitte.
3. (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1992), pp. 142-143.
4. GUIDEPOSTS, Sept. 1996, p. 9.