Sermon
Mark 8:31-38
Lost in the Moment
Where is the gospel in this story? Where is the Good News in this text? Don’t you think the terror seems to overshadow the amazement today?
Well, let’s see if we can get lost in the story long enough for it to make some faithful sense. We start off well enough with Peter proclaiming Jesus to be “the Messiah!” But then things go south pretty quickly — Jesus tells the disciples (and us) that he must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise on the third day. That’s when Peter tries, in his own way, to save Jesus from all of that horror, but Jesus goes and calls him “Satan” and puts him at the back of the line. Then we’ve got Jesus telling anyone who will listen (that too would include us) that if you want to be his disciple you have to set your mind on divine things and not human things — and the way to do that is by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus. And if all of that isn’t troubling enough, Jesus tops it off by saying that if we want to save our lives we have to be willing to lose our lives for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the gospel, because what sense is there in gaining all of the material goods of the whole world but losing our lives in the process?
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There’s a lot in there, and apart from Jesus telling us he’ll rise on the third day, I don’t hear a lot really “good news.” At least not in the sense of “good news” as we like to think of it. You know, good news that Jesus loves us, or that Jesus heals our wounds, or that Jesus has come to save us. What we’ve got here doesn’t sound so much like good news as it sounds like a list of unpleasant things Jesus expects of us. Denying ourselves? Taking up our cross? Following Jesus into suffering, rejection, and death? It’s almost enough to make you want to turn the page and move on to sunnier times. But we’re not going to do that. We’re not going run away just because these are hard things to hear, let alone do.
Take Jesus’ announcement that he must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise on the third day. We know all of that. We know that’s part of the story, part of God’s plan but that doesn’t make it any less easy to hear. Why do you think so many people come to church on Palm Sunday and on Easter Sunday but they skip Good Friday. It’s too painful to hear. Suffering, rejection, blood, pain, crucifixion, death. I think I’ll hold out for the Easter parade.
That was Peter’s thinking too. He didn’t like what he heard any more than we do. But Peter thought he could do something about it. He took Jesus aside to set him straight, to tell Jesus he didn’t have to do all those things. But Jesus instantly recognized Peter as temptation disguised as a friend. The temptation to be something other than the Beloved Son had followed him all the way out of the desert. The temptation to choose another path, a human path, an easier path, a path other than God’s was staring at him through Peter’s eyes. Jesus sees the situation for what it is and scolds Peter by saying, “Get behind me, Satan.”
But we still might scratch our heads and wonder why Jesus had to suffer and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes? Why these three groups? Were they the bad guys? No, precisely the opposite. These three groups make up the Sanhedrin, the ruling body over Israel’s the religious life. Elders were lay members. Chief priests were made up of the high priest and his predecessors. Scribes were the scholars in Torah law. These three groups did not represent humanity at its worst, but humanity at its best! The suffering and death of Jesus was not the result of sinfulness at the hands of the criminally insane, but rather as the result of the careful deliberations of the most respected religious leaders in all of Israel who justified their actions by the highest standards of law and morality, even believing their actions to be an arm of God’s will.
Why is this important? Because it tells us no matter how “good” or “decent” or “law abiding” we may be, we are still sinners in need of a savior. And Jesus is our savior. He is the one who brings about salvation through a divine plan, not a human one. That’s what Jesus was getting at when he accused Peter of setting his mind on human things and not one divine things.
So what does it look like for us when we set our minds on divine things? Well, Jesus has an answer to that question and it’s probably not what we had in mind. Jesus says to us, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me.”
Denying your self has to do with your will. The question is, “What’s the controlling factor in your life? Is it your will, or is it Jesus Christ? Jesus’ call to deny the self is a call to deny the instinct to self-preserve at all costs. The world may call us to be ego-centric, but Jesus calls us to be Christo-centric. Self-denial certainly is not a part of our culture’s image of the “good life.” But the culture sees self-denial as self-loathing, or purposeful unhappiness, or a lack of self-fulfillment and that’s a complete misunderstanding. What’s difficult for our culture is any understanding of life that is not focused on self, that is not focused on “me” and “getting mine.” It’s when we give up that kind of life, deny it, lose it — it’s then that we come to focus on Christ — it’s then that we come to gain Life.
Think about this. What happens when your desire to be Christian is really just a human attempt to save your own life? What happens if salvation is turned into nothing more than “fire insurance,” bought and paid for by one confession of faith made a long time ago, and followed up by being “a good person”? If all you’re after are the benefits of the Christian faith for yourself without hearing and heeding Jesus’ call to deny yourself — you’ve got to ask, “Is that a real faith?”
It may be news to some Christians, but it’s not about YOU! The call to deny ourselves is the call to step out of our self-absorbed, self-obsessed lives and redirect our attention on to Jesus and his
next call to “take up our crosses.”
The cross Jesus invites us to take up has nothing to do with the hardships of life we all suffer. Rather, the cross Jesus calls us to take up has to do with the conscious choice to live and act in ways that share in the suffering of others — it’s another’s cross we take up and bear. We all hear people say, in self-pitying fashion, “Oh, that’s just my cross to bear.” Wrong. The cross Jesus calls us to take up looks like answering a neighbor’s call for help at 3 a.m., or coming to the aid of a perfect stranger who lay bleeding in the middle of the street. Taking up your cross means denying yourself so that you can see the needs of others and act faithfully by sharing in their suffering.
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I head the story recently of a youth group that traveled to a big city to work with the homeless. Upon their arrival, the youth group was glad to hand out gifts of candy and sweets to the homeless who had gathered to greet them. But one man looked disgruntled. He approached one of the kids and said sternly, “We don’t need candy. What we need are socks.”
The youth was stunned. He realized that candy and sweets were what the young people wanted. They’d been thinking more about themselves than about those whom they were called to serve.
So this youth, this kid, sat down on the curb and took off his shoes and socks and gave his socks to the man. The other youth saw this and did the same. And for the rest of the week no one in that youth group wore any socks, they gave them all away. They denied themselves and took up the cross of common need and shared suffering.1
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If you’ve ever read a really good book or watched a really good movie you’ve had a taste of what it’s like to get lost in the moment. The book, the movie, take you outside of time — they transport you outside of yourself until you lose yourself.
This is what Jesus calls us to in the whole of life. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves; he calls us away from thinking solely about ourselves, our wants, our desires, our demands. Jesus calls us away from a focus on human things that are all about “me” and “getting mine” and toward a focus that is all about Jesus — a focus that moves us to join in the suffering of our neighbors.
Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow, He calls us to live sock-less lives of care and compassion where we lose ourselves in the moment that is NOW, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of our neighbors in need. Amen.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible.
Copyright 2012 Jeffrey K. London. Used by permission.