ON THE VANGUARD

DENIED
“Then He said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24

Rejection is never a fun thing. I think we all can attest to that. I have become careful in speaking about my ex-wife in these devotionals, but I think it is important to state that she was just one of many people that rejected me in my 36 years of life. However, because she was the closest person to me, I also think her rejection stung the most. Countless times while we were married, I was denied in return for the good deeds I did do. Granted I was no saint, as I have shared before, but I wasn’t always the bad guy either. After awhile, as I’m sure even you can relate to, one begins to wonder what their worth really is. I think it was because of the years of hardship in marriage, as well as events before then, that I found myself eager to date once the divorce was final. Thankfully, three years later, God has stayed with me and reminded me of some key lessons.
One such lesson I want to share with you today revolves around the word ‘deny’. If I can blunt with you, my reader, I think we have it wrong. I think we all feel, whether voiced or not, that the world revolves us. My world revolves around me and you are just a pawn on my chessboard. But then to you, I am confident that I am the pawn and you are the royal piece. How messed up are we when this is our thinking? Have we never read Luke 9:23-24? “Then He said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Well how does that fit in to my being the best thing since sliced bread? Here I am being told that to be great I have give myself up, and then my greatness is based on Him and nothing that I have done.
But of course I can’t just leave it there; I have to break down a few of these words to really understand what the Lord is saying. What exactly is this passage saying about denying and taking up? To ‘deny’ is the word APARNEOMAI, which means to reaffirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with. So in order to come after the Lord, I must forbid myself any acquaintance or connection with myself. Wow, that in itself is a big task. Then I have to take up my ‘cross’, my STAUROS, my stake. Now with myself denied and my cross taken, the next task it to ‘follow’ Him. The word follow is AKOLOUTHEO, which is defined as joining alongside as a disciple of. This may be the easiest part of the whole verse so far. I want to follow alongside Him, but the denial of me is where I struggle.
But wait, there’s more. Whoever wants to ‘save’ his life will ‘lose’ it. If I want my life rescued from danger, SOZO, then I need to abolish it, APOLLUMI. So really, verse 24 is saying, “For whoever wants to rescue his life from danger will abolish it, but whoever abolishes his life for the Lord will rescue it from danger.” Does that make sense? It does to the one who is passionate for more, to the one who desires a life that drips of the Lord. And that is me.
I’ll be honest, although I have been dunce in the past, I am now coming to a point where I realize that it is not all about me. Profound, I know. But true. My mission in life is to serve Him, yet how can I serve Him if I am still living for myself? It is not possible. Perhaps the best way to think about this passage can be summed up in a clip I heard by Lisa Chan, the wife of Pastor Francis Chan in Simi Valley, California. She said, “God’s doesn’t want to take from you, He wants to give to you.” There is only one way this can truly happen. We must allow ourselves to be rejected and denied…by ourselves.