2 Lent B Mark 8:31-38 16 March 2003
Rev. Roger Haugen
Just verses before we have Peter declaring, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God!” Jesus is the Messiah, the one who has come to save his people, to lift them above the “oppressor’s rod”, to bring about the Kingdom of God where the people of God will be safe, secure and vindicated from all their enemies. Peter and his brother Andrew had left a thriving fishing business and the security of their home to follow this man. They staked their future on the assumption that this truly was the Messiah who would restore the fortunes of Israel. Finally all the laments and hopes of the Psalms will come true.
We share Peter’s hope. The world is a mess, we need leaders who will vindicate us, who will put all things right. People who will take charge, “Tell it like it is.” A Messiah. Someone who can bring peace and security to our world. Someone chosen by God to bring peace to the Middle East, someone to provide stability and justice in Iraq.
Someone to put oppressors in their place and set the captives free. Should not religious faith, after all, protect us from suffering, bring security and give us victory?
Some years ago, one of our Synods hired a consultant to administer psychological evaluations of all seminary students and candidates for ordination. The profiles showed that almost all of the candidates were independent, self-starters, strong egos who liked being up front. “How were these candidates going to fit into an organization which required humility and obedience”, he asked the Synod committee? The committee answered that these were just the kind of leaders our Church needs.
We know how Peter feels. Peter wants to be a leader, not a follower, he knew exactly how Jesus should act, what his goals ought to be, what was acceptable and what was not. We want a leader who will save his people, but do it in a way of which we approve. We want a Messiah who will put evil in it’s place once and for all. We want it done with style. We make big plans for Easter worship, when lots of people show up, but Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are far less attractive.
The human standards of leadership cannot be applied to God’s action in the world. God’s idea of leadership is not to be confused with Peter’s or ours. Peter had assumed the normal expectations associated with a Messiah. For Peter he is a figure of hope, not a figure of failure but of success and power. We know these hopes and dreams.
To these assumptions, Jesus says, “Get behind me Satan.” It is possible to have the words and devotion and yet miss what Jesus is all about. Peter and the disciples are always on the other side of the page when Jesus talks about suffering and death. They do not understand, and neither do we. Peter attempts to force Jesus to avoid the suffering, and is scolded.
The leader we are given, the leader that leads to new life is one who suffers, one who is rejected and one who will be killed. He is a leader who will rise from the dead, and in that is our hope, our salvation. Power does not win over evil and death, victory is won through submission, suffering and death. Peter and the disciples shake their heads in confusion and so do we. Jesus presents for us an alternate way of living, an alternate way of being that is defined by God and not by anything else. Instead of thinking only of ourselves and believing it is good to collect wealth and avoid any path which leads to suffering, we are being challenged to be generous, giving of ourselves, even when it might mean suffering.
What are we to do? Jesus states it rather bluntly. “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” In response to Jesus’ suffering, rejection, and death our response is to be no less clear. To quote that great theologian Mark Twain: "Many people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand."
To deny oneself is to give up our sense of self that we have created with the help of the culture in which we live. The self which says our importance and value comes from the wealth we generate, the wealth we collect. This is the self which seeks to define our value against someone else. To deny oneself opens us to live the self that God created us to live. Free from all those forces which seek to shape us in their image. As an old Confirmation curriculum states it, we are “Free to Be.”
We are to take up our cross. Sometimes people speak about “the cross they have to bear”. This usually refers to a handicap, a difficulty that circumstances have dealt them. This is not the cross that Jesus asks us to pick up. Jesus asks us to pick up the cross that comes with being a part of the Kingdom of God, the cross that we consciously take up because not to do so would be to deny our identity as a child of God.
Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, former President Jimmy Carter said, “In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions. Once we characterize our adversaries as beyond the scope of God’s mercy and grace, their lives lose all value.” President Carter publicly took up his cross flying in the face of much public opinion, certainly the official position of his government and did it very publicly. To take up our cross is done consciously, despite the repercussions.
Many young people today are taking up their cross in defense of child labour in poor countries. Many refuse to wear the popular labels and instead, shop at Thrift shops, because to wear the labels, to choose popular fashion is to contribute to the unfair labour practices in other countries that forces children to work rather than go to school or simply be children. The result can be ostracism for these young people or ridicule, yet they choose to take up their cross. Some are very passionate about fair labour chocolate. Fair labour chocolate is chocolate for which the growers are paid a fair dollar. Most chocolate which we enjoy comes from similar child labour, giving us cheap chocolate but on the backs of children. To take up our cross may simply mean being willing to publicly display our faith and suffer the consequences that such a display may produce. It may be as simple as the decisions we make as we shop. Often a refusal to publicly display our faith is out of a desire to protect ourselves, even if only from a strange look.
Jesus asks us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow. We are to be true to the person God created us to be, willingly get involved in the life around us in a way in keeping with our identity as a child of God. We are to follow. We are not to lead but are to follow. This means being willing to go where Jesus would lead us. This may mean that we find ourselves in uncomfortable situations, situations where we feel ill-prepared to be. To be willing to follow is to trust Jesus completely and take his lead certain that we will not be abandoned but given the skills and words needed. A willingness to follow is to be always watching for opportunities of service, not concerned about the cross that might be left in front of us. A willingness to follow leaves us open to be molded by God into our true self. It leaves us open to address injustices that confront us. In response to a leader who suffered, was rejected, killed but rose again, we are free to act, given power to act, are expected to act.
This is to lose our lives for Jesus’ sake. We lose what we think is true life only to discover the life God has for us. “For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” God’s measure of worth is not in gold. Job 22 says it this way, “if you treat gold as dust . . .then you will delight yourself in the Almighty.”
We do not take up our crosses and follow in order that God would love us, that is already assured, we take up our crosses and follow in response to that love. We will be held accountable for the life we choose. To be ashamed of God, to refuse to live a life of loving response, refusing to take up the crosses we find in our way, will result in the Son of Man being ashamed of us when he comes in his glory. “For those who want to save their life will lose it.”
We worship Jesus, we follow Jesus because he is the one who showed us that only he has power over death and suffering. He rose from the dead. To choose to follow anything or anyone else is to give ourselves over to evil. We journey through Lent to remind us of the true self God has created us to be, we journey through Lent to remind us of the path that leads to life. A path that may have suffering and rejection along the way, but the only true path because this is the path our Saviour chose to walk. He is the one who is our leader, we ask for strength to follow where he would lead us.
