Imagine if Jesus opened a “School of Self Denial” right in your neighborhood—and He invited you to enroll. At what grade level would He place you?
Self-denial is not exactly trending these days. Self-actualization or self-assertiveness—there, you'll get some clicks. But self-denial? My Amazon search revealed only three book titles—all written by Puritans more than 500 years ago.
Apparently, today’s Christians don’t care much for self-denial. Odd. Because this was Jesus’ sweet spot, His thing.
- At the Incarnation, He denied Himself the majesty of heaven.
- In a prayer life that often began “while it was still dark,” He denied Himself sleep.
- In a 40-day wilderness odyssey, He denied Himself food.
- In the never-ending throngs that hounded Him for a miracle, He denied Himself alone time.
- In the repeated attacks of religious skeptics, He denied Himself the right to His divine reputation.
- In the ridicule of the Calvary crowd, He denied Himself personal peace.
- On the cross, He denied Himself comfort, relief—and life itself—trading them all for agony and atonement.
And now, He has enrolled us in His School of Self-Denial. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
But honestly, I struggle just to give up one meal a week to pray. What's with us and our discomfort with self-denial?
How is it we can applaud the self-denial of Christ but avoid it ourselves?
- Why can't we deny ourselves just one TV show a week—and invest that time in encouraging people who are hurting?
- Why can’t we reduce our daily phone time just enough to memorize a verse of Scripture?
- Why can’t we skip one meal a week and invest it in focused alone time with God?
From these small sacrifices, we can move on to larger ones. But—only if we take seriously Christ’s welcome into His School of Self Denial. Class is in session. Are you ready?