Jesus calls disciples to “pull the goalie.” Hockey’s late-game strategy puts another scorer on the ice, but it leaves the net wide open. Jesus uses that kind of all-out risk in calling disciples to lose their lives in order to gain them. The kingdom of God does not come through protecting comfort, security, or the self. The kingdom comes as disciples lay it all out there for love.
Jesus does not allow status quo. Jesus keeps calling people from where they are to where they could be, often from comfort to challenge. The church, as Christ’s extension in the world, receives that same call to imagine what God’s kingdom could look like in Scranton and far beyond it. The cross becomes the clear picture of that call.
Crossbearing sounds about as fun as it actually is. Jesus tells disciples to carry the instrument of their own death, to acknowledge that trouble is real and to die to self in hope of being raised with him. Religion is not a feel-good endeavor or a crutch for making life a little easier. Faith takes risks because hope rests not only in what is visible right now, but in what God can make of the world.
Peter makes sense when he resists Jesus’ path toward suffering. Peter loves his friend and cannot bear the thought of losing him. Yet Jesus calls Peter “Satan” because Peter becomes the tempter, offering Jesus an easier road around the cross. The same temptation still comes through well-meaning voices that say, “Don’t sacrifice that. Don’t deny yourself. You deserve this.” Jesus answers with a harder and better word: die to yourself in order to live in him.
Jesus makes discipleship worth the risk because he brings truth, healing, forgiveness, possibility, and hope. Jesus redefines power as service, making the world’s conventional authorities, even death itself, look pitiful and paltry beside love, grace, joy, and sacrifice. Christ forms himself around his bride, the church, and gives the church gifts and graces for a broken, painful, beautiful world.
The church exists for the people who are not yet here. That identity is not clever marketing. That identity calls Christ’s people to embody now the love, acceptance, joy, and care for all people and all creation that belong to God’s coming kingdom. A life lived for others is simply better than a life lived for self. Until someone finds something worth dying for, that person is not really living.
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Key Takeaways
- 1. Pull the goalie for the kingdom [40:14] Jesus does not call disciples to a carefully protected life. The risk of love leaves familiar securities exposed, just as an empty net leaves a hockey goal unguarded. Yet the risk is not reckless for its own sake, because Christ directs it toward the greater reality of God’s kingdom. [40:14]
- 2. The cross names costly discipleship [44:41] Crossbearing does not mean chasing misery or treating pain as inherently holy. Jesus names the real cost of refusing self-preservation as the highest good. The cross exposes every false version of faith that promises comfort without surrender. [44:41]
- 3. Temptation often sounds reasonable [49:14] Peter’s resistance comes from love, but it still invites Jesus away from obedience. The temptation to avoid sacrifice can arrive through kind, familiar, and persuasive voices. Jesus sees that an easier road can still be a road away from God’s purposes. [49:14]
- 4. Jesus redefines power through service [52:43] Christ’s power does not depend on control, force, status, or the avoidance of death. Christ reveals power in service that gives itself for the good of another. That kind of power makes the world’s usual claims to authority look small. [52:43]
- 5. The church exists for outsiders [56:27] The church is not a club built around the needs of its current members. Christ forms his people for those who are absent, overlooked, wounded, and not yet gathered in. That purpose requires love that looks beyond its own comfort and boundaries.
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