“Living in Reality”
Mark 8:34-38
I want us to think about the following questions this morning:
1. What gives you the greatest joy in life?
2. What creates for you the deepest sense of purpose?
3. When do you feel most alive, most true to the person God created you to be?
My guess is that you aren’t thinking about something you bought or even earned—but rather, you are thinking of something that is rooted in relationships, acts of service, and even in things that the world calls “sacrifice” when you are caring for another person or persons.
Right before our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus asked His inner circle of disciples who they think He is.
And Peter answered the question with the right words: “You are the Messiah.”
After Peter said this, Jesus started to teach His disciples what it means that He is the Messiah—the Savior of the world.
He said that He will suffer many things, He must be killed and after three days rise again.
But in hearing this, Peter, took Jesus aside and started to rebuke Jesus—telling Jesus that He is wrong…
…And, in a sense, was tempting Jesus forsake what the Messiah is called to do and be, which is what the devil had been trying to tempt Jesus to do all along.
So, Jesus turned and looked at His disciples and rebuked Peter saying: “Get behind me, Satan!
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then, we are told, Jesus turned to the entire crowd that had been following Him, and said to them: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
This is some really heavy stuff.
Jesus tells His disciples what He, Himself must do as the Savior of the World—and then, He tells all who want to be His disciples what they must do.
Does that mean that they must go to the literal Cross and die the death Jesus will die for the salvation of humankind?
Or does it mean something different?
It definitely does not mean that anyone other than the Son of God Himself can die for the salvation of all who will believe.
So, what does it mean?
Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.”
The original disciples and the entire crowd that Jesus addressed had no idea what He was talking about.
It was only later, after Christ had died, been raised and the Holy Spirit had been sent did they start to find out what this meant.
Only when they started to try themselves to intentionally live out His teachings and follow His example did they get a glimpse of this profound truth.
And the same can be said for us.
Think of it this way: The Cross of Jesus Christ represents God’s Commitment to humanity.
It is the Ultimate Commitment to save us from our sins.
Christ denied Himself--His place as God-Made-Flesh—He could have called down an army of angels to save Himself from the horrific death He faced…
…But instead, He took it on willingly.
He took on something that He could have otherwise avoided (denying the human tendency to love Himself—to look out for number One above all) and took up the Cross (He bore the painful cost of that denial) so that we may be Resurrected as He was Resurrected and live and reign with Him forever and ever—being freed from the wages or outcome of our sin—which is death.
This was the Ultimate Act of Love.
He took it on because God so loves the world—that includes you and me and everyone who has ever lived.
Now, we, if we are going to seek to be like Jesus and be Christ to the world--we are to do the same…
…on a daily, minute by minute basis.
And when and if we do this…
…when and if we deny ourselves (our tendency toward self-centeredness) and take up our cross (which is the cost of denying our self-centeredness) and follow Christ we will find ourselves in touch with something more REAL than anything else that we have known before.
We will be touching the deep and powerful stream that runs through life.
And we will begin to love, finding ourselves in-touch with the life of God or the Kingdom of God.
We will know that what Jesus is teaching is not about some moral code of conduct—but it is REALITY.
It is how we were created to live.
It is what life is about.
It will bring us true joy and true peace.
Self-denial and cross-bearing are not about us being less happy—or mutilating ourselves and all that.
But rather it is about discovering the real and abundant life that salvation through Christ offers us—a kind of life that those who have not experienced it can hardly imagine—the abundant life that comes through self-giving love and service to God and others.
I’ll try and give you an example.
When I was in my twenties I owned a rock and roll tee-shirt shop in a mall.
It was the hang-out for the skater kids, the rocker kids, the misfits, the marginalized.
And these kids had a lot of problems.
And I had come to care about them, and wanted to help them.
At the same time, I was making a living off of them by selling them hard-core rock tee-shirts, hats, watches, crazy gothic jewelry and it goes on and on.
My number one best-selling artist was any tee-shirt or other piece of junk that had Marilyn Manson on it.
His was the most popular hard-rock band of the time.
He also stood for everything that was anti-life…anti-Christ, really.
As a matter of fact, his hit album at the time was entitled “Anti-Christ Superstar.”
One evening I was watching the MTV Music Video Awards and Marilyn Manson was performing.
He stood in what was meant to look like a Church Pulpit, ripped up a Bible and said something like, “Who would want to go to heaven anyway? You would just be surrounded by a bunch of ‘blankety-blanks.’”
To say this made me uncomfortable and sad is an understatement.
Here is the guy my poor young customers idolized.
Here is the guy I am making a living off of.
At the very least, I didn’t want to be part of the problem in these kids’ lives.
So, I made a pledge with myself that I wouldn’t sell anymore Marilyn Manson merchandise in my store.
I didn’t know if I could keep this pledge, but I made it anyway.
The next day, I started thinking about God, Jesus, good, evil, love and grace.
I had decided to deny myself (stop selling my best-selling product for the sake of the children) and take up my cross (reap the losses in revenue), and as a result and I found myself touching the deep and powerful stream that runs through life—the Love of God.
And when this happens we experience a real, happy and exciting experience of living that is the way things are supposed to be.
We start living in REALITY.
Because the REALITY is that God has created us to love and be loved.
God has created us to reach out to one another in real concern and care.
We were not created to be self-centered, out only for us, closed in on ourselves—this actually goes against the grain of who we are as those created in the image of God—it’s the unreality of living in the darkness.
Reality is found in selfless love.
We might tend to think that life is something we go out and get, or earn, or buy or win.
But, it can’t be won or earned or bought—only given away.
And the more we give away the more we have!
As first-time parents experience profoundly—only when we love others do we most understand what love really is.
And only when we give away our lives for the sake of others do we discover our lives and who we really are.
In thinking how to fulfill the needs of others our deepest needs are met.
This is the mystery of life and the key to the Kingdom of God!
There was a man who had a lengthy stay in a hospital.
And this was back in the old days when there weren’t private hospital rooms…
…not all that long ago, really.
In any event, the man was impressed by one particular nurse who seemed to be working extra hard to make sure all the patients were well taken care of.
She spent time with each person, listening to them when they had needs.
One day, he called her over and said to her, “I have been watching you, and have been so impressed by your self-giving love for every single patient.”
Her answer was, “I’m just working to get another jewel in my crown.”
From that point on, the man said that he saw the nurse’s work and actions in a totally new light.
Instead of seeing how she interacted with the patients as a beautiful, grace-filled and inspiring thing—he saw it as an ugly thing, a self-centered thing.
Jesus doesn’t call us to follow Him, to take up our cross, just to earn some bonus points toward our salvation.
His Cross has taken care of all that.
He calls us to the Cross because it is the essence of God’s unconditional love…
…the cornerstone of the New Covenant.
And that is what He wants for us—to live as He lived and to rise again in His love experiencing and expressing REAL LOVE as we live in the Kingdom of God even as we are still on earth—right here and right now.
For many of us, denying ourselves and taking up our cross may be found much more in the day to day decisions we make as we heed the call and choose to be and do for God and others over self.
It may be in listening to another rather than speaking first…
…and truly trying to help someone with a problem they are dealing with for the sake of the other, and not for anything we get out of it.
It may be in the meal provided and shared.
It may be in the snow shoveled for a neighbor, the lawn raked for a friend, the cookies baked and delivered to someone whose day it will brighten or the meal prepared and delivered to someone who is sick or just without food.
It may be in visiting someone in the hospital, a funeral visitation, or the repetitive conversation shared with someone suffering from dementia when you can think of a thousand other things to do with your time.
It’s denying what we may choose to do on our own for the sake of others and bearing the cost of that choice, the giving up of what we would otherwise be doing or what we had planned.
The other day Raymond Beebe, who is an intragal part of unloading the thousands of pounds of food delivered on the truck from the Food Bank every other Tuesday was watching his beloved Chattanooga Mocs Softball Team play a game.
And although he loves watching that team he got up and left early in the game in order to do the hard work of loading and unloading food for the sake of others.
That is denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Jesus…
…and it brings more peace and joy than anything else in the world.
This is what Jesus showed us over and over again---in washing His disciples’ feet, in His compassion for the blind, the deaf, the lame, in His reaching out to strangers, in His forgiveness of sinners and ultimately in His sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary.
This is the Good News!!!
This is floating down the river on the stream of God’s love—going with God’s current rather than trying to swim against the way things were created to be.
It’s the only way to be happy.
It’s the only way to find peace.
It’s the only way to live.
Jesus models to us how to live into the REALITY of how we were created to live in the everyday here and now.
And so, Jesus as the suffering Messiah denies Himself and leads us to eternal happiness—if we are willing to follow.
A Crucified Jesus conquers death…both His and ours—if we will accept His invitation to join Him.
It’s all free.
And it is the way things are meant to be.
And the Good News doesn’t get any better than this.
If you have not done so already, won’t you make the decision to deny self, take up your cross and follow Christ?
This is ONE thing in life you will never have to say, “I wish I hadn’t done that” about!!!!
Amen.
