Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42 (Pentecost 5: Series A)

“Jesus is for losers,” is the title of a chapter in Mark Allen Powell’s book on biblical spirituality called Loving Jesus (Augsburg, 2004). It is about being a disciple; first the twelve originals, and then all who followed after them. This chapter came to mind as I thought about wrapping up this series of sermons on discipleship according to Matthew 9 and 10 (see the previous three reflections for more about the proposed series).

I was reminded of Powell’s chapter when I read verse 39: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” To be a disciple of Jesus is to lose your life, which is why you might riff on Powell’s chapter and call this sermon, “Discipleship is for Losers.”

To say Jesus is for losers is to say two types of things. First, it reveals something about the people Jesus calls to follow him. Such people are, in more than one way, losers. They should own it. But that is not all this means. It also declares something about God. Your sermon would do well to spend some time on both.

Let us start with what it says about Disciples. Powell points out how discipleship for the twelve started well. Jesus seemingly called them out of the blue and they responded by dropping everything to follow Him. But after this good start, things went downhill quickly. Repeatedly, they misunderstood Jesus’ identity and mission. They were eager to call down fire on Samaritans. They argued among themselves about who was the greatest. They tried to prevent his passion, until it was upon them and then they ran away from it. In the end, this ragtag band of fair-weather followers found themselves hiding behind locked doors with great fear and weak faith. To say discipleship is for losers is to notice that Jesus calls people to follow Him who are weak, unimpressive, and ultimately undependable. As Paul pointed out to the Corinthians, “Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26).

They are losers in another sense as well, which is more directly at play in the reading from Matthew 10. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” To lose your life is not simply to be a loser to begin with. It is to continue to lose; to lose your pride, boasting, or anything else you might presume to offer God as significant or worthy of commendation. Again, Paul: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christand be found in Him” (Philippians 3:8-9). We lose our lives as we recognize we have nothing to offer God, no claim, no right, no entitlement.

To lose your life is not simply to be a loser to begin with. It is to continue to lose; to lose your pride, boasting, or anything else you might presume to offer God as significant or worthy of commendation.

To say discipleship is for losers is also to say something about God. The one who chose the disciples was also the one who chose Israel, that small nation with an even smaller role to play on the world stage. This fits a God who humbled Himself by becoming a human from the hometown of good-for-nothing Nazareth.

This self-effacing God delights in showering His favor upon those of low estate. He lifts up the humble, reaches out to the downtrodden, welcomes the outcast, and befriends the foreigner. In other words, He is for the loser, which is to say He is for you, me, and all of your hearers. We are sinners, outcasts, and foreigners all. But God has chosen us to be His losers. We are His disciples and we have been given life in Him. This is the promise you are called to proclaim this Sunday.

The flip side is also true. To say God is for losers is to recognize that He humbles the proud and bring to nothing those who think they are something. This puts us in our place, which is needed more often than we would like to admit. But this not only remind us of our place before God, it also makes room for faith, which is saving faith. This kind of faith recognizes we are totally dependent on God and His call to follow. We have nothing to offer. We simply follow Him to and through death into resurrection. As we lose ourselves in Him, we find the only possibility for real and lasting life.

What do losers like this look like? Perhaps it is easier to tell them by what they sound like. If you listen in on their prayers, they probably sound something like Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582):

May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for not abandoning me when I abandoned You.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for offering Your hand of love in my darkest, most lonely moment.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for loving me more than I love myself.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for continuing to pour out Your blessings upon me, even though I respond so poorly.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for drawing out the goodness in all people, including me.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for repaying our sin with Your loves
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for being constant and unchanging, amidst all the changes of the world.
May You be blessed forever, Lord,
for Your countless blessings on me and on all Your creatures.[1]