Those Who Lose Their Life For My Sake Will Find It

Text: Matthew 16:21-28

Reflection and Question: Jesus has just told Peter that his faith is the rock upon which the church will be built — and Peter immediately gets it totally wrong by chastising Jesus after He shares the violent fate that awaits Him in Jerusalem. Jesus then takes His message of the first being last and the last first to its farthest extreme: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” It can take a lifetime to fathom this claim, to discover what it means to deny oneself, take up a cross and follow Jesus. What cross will you take up today?

Prayer: Everlasting and Most Loving God, Jesus, Your beloved Child, warns us that You will repay everyone for what has been done. Our only hope is that He stands at our side on that Reckoning Day and speaks for us. Have mercy on us, Dear God. Amen.

This meditation is based on the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).