In these Wednesday services, we've been talking about the things we need to give up, not just for Lent but for all of our lives. We've talked about giving up control of our lives, giving up expectations about our lives, giving up feelings of superiority over others, and giving up our enemies by loving them. Last week, we talked about giving up our lives, if necessary, for the sake of Jesus.
Some of you may be thinking, “What's left?” I mean, once we talk about giving up our lives, there's not a whole lot more we can give up. What more is there to talk about?
The scripture for tonight may have given us a clue. When we talked about each one of these things, we talked about how hard they are to give up. A lot of times they go against what we might call our human nature. If we really try to give them up, the way Jesus tells us to, it feels like a pretty heavy burden. Yet, Jesus tells us that he does not give us heavy burdens. Jesus says his burden is light. How can that be?
I think the answer to this is in the one aspect of this sermon series that we've not talked about yet. We've talked about what we need to do, but we've not talked about the most important thing. We've not talked about why.
That's really the big question. That's the question whenever we're asked to do something we don't want to do, right? I mean, when you ask little kids to do something they don't want to do, what do they say? “Why?”
As we get older we never stop asking that question. And “because I said so” does not satisfy us. When we're little kids we may have to accept it, because we don't have the power to do anything about it, but we still don't like it. Sometimes when we're adults we have to accept it, too, for that same reason. The boss may tell us to do something because they said so, and there's nothing we can do about it. But we don't like it. We never like it. We resent it. And we only do it because we have to.
When it comes to these things we've talked about, though, the things God tells us to give up, we don't have to. We can choose not to give them up if we want to. And if we don't know why we're supposed to give them up, we probably won't. Saying “because God said so” does not cut the mustard. We want to know why.
The good news is that, when it comes to things God asks us to give up, we don't have to settle for “because I said so”. There is a reason why. The better news is that there's a really good reason why. The reason is because God loves us.
God loves us so much that God wants to make our lives easier. So, God gives us some help. God tells us some things we can do that will make our lives easier. That's why God tells us to do these things. God knows our lives will be easier, things will go better for us, and we'll be happier if we do the things God tells us to do.
It seems like it's hard to give control of our lives to God, but think of how much easier it would make our lives if we did. Think of all the things we're worrying about now that we would not have to worry about if we gave God control of our lives. Think of all the concerns we have about our future that we would not have if we gave God control of our lives. Think of all the regrets we have about the past that we would not have if we gave God control of our lives.
That'd really lighten our load, right? That would feel like an incredible burden lifted off our shoulders. All we'd have to do is do the best we can in the situation we're in now. We could trust that, when it's time for our situation to change, God will lead us to that change and guide us through that change. Think of how much easier life would be if we could do that.
It's the same thing if we could give up our expectations about how our life is supposed to go. Think of all the pressure that would take off of us. Think of how much easier it would be to accept things that don't go the way we want them to go. Think of how much easier it would be to deal with all the things we have to deal with in life if we just gave up our expectations of how things should go and trusted God to make things go the way they're supposed to go, even if that's not what we might've wanted.
We'd be a lot happier if we gave up feelings of superiority, too. Think of all the arguments we'd avoid. If we assume that other people are at least equal to ourselves, then we cannot just dismiss what those people say. We cannot just dismiss what those people want. If we consider other people to be at least equal to us, then we have to consider their needs and their opinions to be at least equal to ours, too. Now, that's not to say we don't have a right to our opinions, too. Giving up feelings of superiority does not mean we have to always give in. But it will make for a civil conversation. It will mean that we'll talk to each other instead of at each other. It will mean that, even if we disagree, we can stay friends rather than calling each other names.
And if, despite our best efforts, someone does not want to stay friends with us, that's their decision, not ours. That's where giving up our enemies comes into it. Jesus had a lot of people who did not like him, but he did not have any enemies. They may have considered him their enemy, but he did not consider them his enemies. Jesus did not even consider the people who killed him to be his enemies. He asked God to forgive them.
What Jesus understood is that he was only responsible for what he did. He was not responsible for how other people responded to him. Jesus was called to be faithful to God. Jesus was called to say the things God wanted him to say, do the things God wanted him to do, and live the way God wanted him to live. He could not make people like it or accept it, nor could he make people like him or accept him.
And that's why we're better off to give up our enemies. Again, it lightens our load. It takes the pressure off.
When we give up our enemies, what we're doing is giving up taking responsibility for things we cannot control. If we know we are saying the words God wants us to say, and doing the things God wants us to do, and loving others the way God wants us to love them, then we know it's all good. We're covered. If others choose not to like us because of that, it's okay. We cannot control that, and we don't need to worry about it. All we need to be concerned about is the things we do, the things we say, and the way we live. If we're doing those things right, then we can trust God to take care of the rest.
That's how Jesus lived. It's how Jesus died. And it's how Jesus was brought back from the dead. Jesus stayed faithful to God and trusted God, no matter what.
That's the key to it: trusting God. If we truly trust God, these things God asks us to give up are not hard. It's not hard to give God control of our lives if we trust God to take care of us. It's not hard to give up our expectations for our lives if we trust that God's plans are better than ours. It's not hard to give up our feelings of superiority if we trust that all people are God's children. It's not hard to give up our enemies if we trust that God will make things go the way we're supposed to go. It's not even hard to give up our lives if we trust that God loves us and that God is always there for us, no matter what.
God does not ask us to give these things up because they're hard. God does not tell us to give up these things to give us heavy burdens. It's the exact opposite. When God asks us to give these things up, what God is really asking us to do is trust God and accept God's love. When we trust God, we take the pressure off ourselves. When the pressure comes off of us, it takes away our heavy burdens. When we stop worrying and trust God, it's like a huge weight comes off our shoulders. Our load really does become easy. Our burden really does become light.
So, when our lives seem hard, when it feels like we're carrying heavy burdens, let's take the pressure off ourselves. Let's give up that big load we're carrying. Let's trust God. It'll make our lives a lot easier.
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