Some Things Impossible by Yourself: Exodus 3: 1-15; Matt. 16: 21-26
A friend of mine told a little story on her husband the other day. He’s a little bit of a macho, manly-man, or at least in his own mind he is. She quietly calls him “basically helpless” when he’s not listening. They recently bought a new lawn mower which was kind of fancy. He went out and started to use it and yanked the cord. Nothing happened. He yanked it again. Nothing happened. This set off a frenzy of yanking the cord to start the engine to no avail.
His wife (who had read the instruction manual) asked if he needed help. His angry response was something to the effect of her needing to stay in her lane, and that if he needed help making a meatloaf, he’d ask her. But she should stay out of men’s work. She finally said that she bet him $500 she could start the mower in one go. Bemused he agreed. She walked down, opened a flap on the side and pushed a button, pulled the cord, and it started right up. She looked at her shocked husband and said, “Helps to turn it on first, now give me my money.” There are just some things in life we cannot do ourselves. Moses and Jesus both remind us of this today. We learn three things in the scriptures: give in, take up, and move on.
First, we must give in. Now this doesn’t come very naturally to us. We’re resourceful, skilled, educated, and all of that. For goodness sakes, we are smart enough to send spacecraft into outer orbit. But Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel, “If any of you want to be my follower, you just give up your own way.” Jesus says we must give in and sacrifice our own way. As one commentary on the scripture notes, “Self-denial is not part of our culture’s image of the ‘good life.’” [1] And yet, Jesus is not calling for misery and suffering. It’s a directional calling to us. Think of it this way, when you merge into a highway, you have to yield to oncoming traffic, or else you face being run down by the speed demons on the highway.
In the same way, giving in on our way of doing things isn’t admitting defeat or incapability, or even necessarily that we are wrong. It’s directional and for our safety, so that life’s oncoming traffic doesn’t run us over. It’s like listening to the GPS navigation or following the map on the journey. Giving in isn’t defeat—instead it is the wisdom to seek greater resources.
Moses also needed a sign. Though he was close with God, he was very headstrong about not being the leader God had called him to be. I think that resonates with many folks today. The ones who are called to be great leaders tend to stay quiet, in the background, and shy away from claiming the authority. Moses needed a burning bush. I don’t necessarily blame Moses. He was smart enough to realize this calling was way beyond his capacity. But the same God who spoke from the burning bush never consumed is the same God who said Moses would never be alone or left unable if he yielded himself to God.
That same God speaks to us—to those who try so hard but never give in, and to those who (like Moses) feel incapable of the calling God has given them. To both groups, God can speak from a burning bush just like God did for Moses. God calls us to give up our own way, for following God is always the better way.
Next, after we give in, we must take up. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew, “If anyone wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, [and] take up your cross.” Sometimes, Jesus’s teachings feel a bit like an infomercial. Just when we think it’s enough, we hear, “But wait! There’s more!” I think most of us would have been satisfied with the difficult of giving in on our own way. But then Jesus says, “take up your cross.”
This is actually the big step. To simply give in and listen to Jesus is accepting his philosophy. To take up our crosses means we believe and proclaim that God has acted decisively and ultimately in Jesus for us and the world. But there’s also a reminder that Jesus says his burden for us is easy. And that’s because Christ bears the worst of it and reminds us that for us there is grace and hope.
Moses didn’t want to take up his figurative cross. When God calls Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, Moses says, “Who am I to do this?” Moses had lost his power, his integrity, his influence, everything in Egypt. In taking up his cross, he had to fully and completely rely on God because Moses would be utterly powerless on his own. He protests again and again—that they don’t know God anymore, that he is bad at speaking, that he is bad at leading. But God’s words are pretty definite. In the end, God says, “Do it.”
Some things are impossible by ourselves. Moses could never have gone back to Egypt without Aaron and God with him. The disciples could never have worked the miracles and shared the gospel without Jesus with them, and the support they had one for another. In our own lives, we need that sense of community and holy support. God gets us through the things that are utterly unbearable to us, and or community of support provides the joy and connection as well as comradery to make the struggle easier.
And lastly, after we give in on or way and take up the cross, we must move on. Jesus finished up his teaching with this, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” That follow me is important, and it can mean a lot of things. For Moses, following God meant going back into the dangers of Egypt to rescue his oppressed and suffering people. It also meant taking those people to the Promised Land, where God would give them a home of their own.
For the disciples it meant following in the work of sharing the good news of Christ’s love, resurrection, and redemption—even if such a calling led them into danger. But what does this mean to us? It’s both personal and global. We must rely on God’s help in our lives for what we face. We can pull that mower chain 100 times, but unless Jesus gives us the right instruction, nothing will start. It means there are things we cannot face alone—major health issues, overwhelming fear, toxic people threatening our peace (and sometimes they’re our own family), and so much else. We must rely on God’s help when we can’t face the situation alone.
But there’s also a global aspect. What are the burning bushes in our lives? What places of leadership, strength, ministry, and outreach do we hear God calling us to? We often talk ourselves out of a lot—too busy, not experienced enough, too many health issues, just not what I do—but when God calls, the burning bush will never depart. And the truth is, if God has given us a calling, there are people waiting, hoping, and depending on us to say yes just like the disciples did, and just like Moses did when God called.
This week while in Boston, I had a conversation with a coworker in the elder and dependent adult abuse field. She said that it had been years, and she was tired and ready to do something new. She noted the bureaucracy, the red tape, the constant training of new faces in different agencies. As we talked, there was a moment of realization, and it comes from the old question we hear so often: “If not us, then who?” Some things are impossible by ourselves. But sometimes, we are called by God, equipped, and encouraged for the task ahead. Trust in God’s wisdom. You don’t have to sit and pull the cord over and over again hoping something will happen in life. God can make it very simple. Give in, take up, and move o
[1] Boring, M. Eugene. “Matthew.” The New Interpreter's Bible: a Commentary in Twelve Volumes, VIII, Abingdon Press, 1994.
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