Grace Presbyterian Church
March 1, 2015, Lent 2B
Mark 8:31-38, 9:30-32, 10:32-34
Deny Yourself?
Do you ever have
those experiences where, just when you’re riding high and everything seems to
be going amazingly well, everything comes crashing down and you’re at about as
low a point as you can possibly be?
Maybe it was a
moment of professional triumph followed immediately by great personal
loss. I’ve known that experience
before. Even worse, though, is
when some great accomplishment of yours is followed by a serious episode of
putting your foot in your mouth.
I’ve known that one too, and I suspect some of you have as well.
Peter has that
experience in today’s reading from Mark 8. Just before our passage starts, it is Peter who puts in
words what none of the other disciples were able to come up with when Jesus
asked the million-dollar question, “but
who do you say that I am?” (8:29).
Peter answered, “You are the
Messiah” and, as we know, he was right. Jesus didn’t react quite the way Peter might have expected,
though. First, Jesus told them in
no uncertain terms not to go telling others about this, something that was
already becoming a pattern in their experience with Jesus as recorded by
Mark. Then Jesus launched into
what must have seemed to Peter and the other disciples to be utter nonsense.
For the first time
recorded by Mark, Jesus begins to talk about the suffering and rejection that
he would undergo, culminating in his execution and resurrection. The
disciples, not surprisingly, latched onto the bad news and somehow didn’t catch
that last part. But still, we can
be a little sympathetic. After all
this time the disciples have spent with Jesus, this is how he talks about being
the Messiah?
After all, that
word “Messiah” came with expectations of great things. Things like throwing off
the Roman Empire. Restoring a real
Kingdom of Israel, like in David’s time.
And maybe other things, too.
But suffering and death were emphatically not among them.
So when Peter,
fresh from triumphantly identifying the Messiah in their midst, hears Jesus
talking about these things, it’s not surprising that he reacts like the
impulsive, sometimes hotheaded character he is. The Greek word here translated as “rebuke” is actually even
a little more forceful than that; one could even read it as Peter ordering or
commanding Jesus to stop talking like that. At any rate, it’s not a nice way for a disciple to talk to
his teacher.
You can never be
exactly sure what kind of reaction Peter thought he was going to get. He probably didn’t expect to be called
Satan, though. Whatever the
firmness of Peter’s rebuke to Jesus, he got it back tenfold or more. And not only did Peter crash to a new
low, he also found out that his previous high wasn’t nearly as high as he
thought it was.
Jesus had to point
out that Peter’s idea of Messiah was not at all what Jesus was bringing. Peter had to learn that his ideas about
following Jesus, as hopeful as he thought they were, as understandable as they
were, were all wrong, with priorities misplaced and objectives all out of
focus. Just in case it wasn’t
clear enough, Jesus called the whole crowd (not just the disciples) together to
make it that much clearer:
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take
up their cross and follow me. For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
Writer Bruce
Maples makes an interesting point about that phrase “deny yourself” (to put it
in the singular). It’s an
often-abused phrase, one that is at times used by those who seek to dominate or
abuse others, to convince those others that submitting to that abuse or control
is the only proper thing to do.
Nothing could be further from the truth. What it means is much harder, actually. It goes back to that previous verse,
where Jesus rebukes Peter for having his mind on human things instead of on
divine things.
Do we get how hard
it is to set our minds on divine things?
To take our eyes so completely and deliberately off the “things of the
world” and to see only those things that Christ would have us see? To step away from our own wants and
desires and to be so caught up in the mind of Christ that our only concern is
to live out Christ’s will for us?
To be unconcerned about the one we see in the mirror and to strive to
serve those we see when we look away from that mirror?
This isn’t what
comes naturally to any of us. This
isn’t about being “nice” or any of the usual ways we strive to get by in the
world. This is about being
changed, being so remade and reoriented by the kingdom of God come near that
our desires and interests and even needs are oriented around that kingdom come
near.
Let’s be clear;
this is not about some kind of self-destroying, self-abusing kind of
denial. This is not about the kind
of self-abasement that makes a person into a doormat or a punching bag or a
target for abuse. That kind of
self-denial is not only unhealthy, it renders a person unable to live fully and
completely into our place in the work of God’s kingdom. It cannot help but include being
nourished by the scriptures and the fellowship of the body of Christ, the
church. It demands soundness of
body and mind. It requires
wholeness and health. And it takes
all of these things and directs them toward the building up of the body of
Christ, the work of the kingdom of God, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit
among all peoples. This is not
about self-abasement, or self-flagellation or any other kind of punishment; it
is about fulfilling the kingdom of God in our very lives.
Jesus goes on to
two more instructions; to “take up your
cross” and “follow me.” Again, it’s easy to misunderstand and
instruction to “take up your cross.”
There are times when we find ourselves beset by difficulties or burdens,
and we let slip the phrase “well, this is my cross to bear.” I don’t mean to dismiss what we go
through in the hard times, but this isn’t quite what Jesus means about “taking
up your cross.” Sometimes it means
going towards the suffering. It
means seeking out those in need and reaching out to those who are lost. It means standing with those who are
oppressed, and even standing against those doing the oppressing. And it means doing so by choice, not by compulsion. Ultimately it all falls into that last
instruction; “follow me.” Live the life Christ lived. Do what Christ taught.
The sad part of
this story seems to be that Peter and the disciples seemed to have trouble
understanding what Jesus was about here.
As we heard in Mark 9 and 10, Jesus felt compelled to repeat his
warnings about the fate he would ultimately meet. In those cases nobody was quite as rash as Peter, presuming
to rebuke Jesus, but in each case it becomes clear that the disciples didn’t
understand based on what happened next.
In Mark 9, he catches the disciples arguing about who was the greatest,
and in chapter 10 James and John make the ridiculous request to be seated at
Jesus’s right and left in glory. No,
they didn’t get it, and it’s awfully hard for us to get it sometimes as
well.
There are so many
times in this gospel when the disciples “don’t get it.” They think that the world’s standards
of success – power, influence, maybe wealth or position – transfer over into
the kingdom of God just fine, when that’s just not how it works. We humans often act as if we can just
call ourselves by Christ’s name and go about our usual business and Christ will
follow along, when if we look at the life Jesus lived and the teachings Jesus
taught we’d realize just how foolish that is.
We are not left on
our own to pull this off. We are
supported and sustained and even carried sometimes in this following. Indeed, Jesus promises something
extraordinary in verse 35; “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those
who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” It sounds
backwards, counterintuitive, and just wrong. But in the giving away of ourselves we find what real life
is, the life that is ultimately rewarding and sustaining and filled with
meaning and purpose. Striving and
struggling and fighting for all those things, seeking to stuff our lives with
“winning” and “honor” and “fame” and all the things the worldly way of thinking
urges upon us leads, paradoxically, to the losing of life.
Again, one can read this too literally. Jesus is not saying that every
Christian has to be a martyr in order to receive eternal life (don’t laugh;
there have been those who wanted to read the verse to say exactly that). But for the one who denies self, takes
up cross, and follows, this is the hope – no, this is the result. This is how life – real life, here and
now, not just in eternity – happens.
Oh, and that does bring up another caution. Maybe you’ve heard the expression that
describes a person as being “so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly
good”? Hopefully by now it’s clear
that this is not at all what Jesus is calling for in this passage – in fact,
quite the opposite; being “heavenly minded” in this context is actually all
about being “earthly good.” It
means living out Jesus’s call, the kingdom of God come near, here and now, in
this world that does not know and will not recognize the kingdom of God come
near. The world does not know and
will not recognize it because it is busy striving and fighting for all those
worldly things listed before, and frankly, it does not now and will not
recognize it because so many of those who most loudly and belligerently call
themselves “Christians” are among those who are most consumed with accumulating
honor and power and riches and fame here on earth, and lording their power over
others – in other words, living something very opposite to the kingdom of God
come near. May it never be so with
us.
Sometimes we have to stop and look in that mirror. We have to examine ourselves. We have to interrogate ourselves. Who
do we serve? What are we striving
for? Whose kingdom are we
seeking? Have we taken up our
cross and followed Jesus?
For hard calls and crosses to choose, Thanks be to God. Amen.
Hymns (PH ’90): “Lord, Who
Throughout These Forty Days” (81), “Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said” (393),
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory” (84)
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