"Losing Our Lives In God's Grace" March 12, 2006 Lent 2

(First read the text: Mark 8:21-38)

In Mark’s version of the Jesus story, here’s how the first disciples respond to Jesus’ call:

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

You know that’s how things happen in the first chapters of Mark, because that’s what we’ve been reading on recent Sunday mornings: events happen at once. People respond immediately.

By the time we get to this morning’s reading in Mark, a number of people have responded in that way to Jesus’ call to follow. They have been listening to Jesus, and watching what he has been doing. Now, watch their response, when Jesus tells them plainly what it means for them to follow him.

Then [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Peter takes Jesus aside. Peter patronizes Jesus with his words. And this is a violent exchange of words. The Greek word translated “rebuke” is the word used in the stories of Jesus silencing demons! Does Peter think Jesus is insane and that he needs to be exorcised? (We read earlier in Mark that Jesus’ own mother and siblings think that is true!) Faced with such a rebellion from Peter, Jesus speaks his own words of violent rebuke. Jesus clearly groups Peter with the forces of evil. He says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!” “Get behind me.” That’s where disciples are supposed to be!

This is a shocking passage. First, Jesus presents the outrageous image of a criminal, carrying his cross to his execution. Second, Jesus is willing to accept what God chooses. In obedience to his purpose on earth, God in human flesh is willing to suffer. Third, it is inevitable that there will be suffering. Jesus must undergo great suffering because, in him, God is so much in conflict with the religious leaders’ idea of what God wants!

Then come these verses, spoken to all who are listening – including, now, you and me:
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "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."

Are those words of comfort for you? (I didn’t think so.) What makes them so hard for us? Well, denying ourselves does not sound like much fun. And who wants to lose his or her life? Does that summarize two of your problems with this teaching of Jesus? Happy Lent!

Hang in there, though, because here is what is truly stunning about this passage: This teaching reveals to us the pathway to deep joy. The person that God has created you and me to be is deeply fulfilled when we follow Jesus by carrying our crosses.

Your cross is your ministry. It is the work that God has called you to do.
Does carrying your cross mean suffering? Perhaps. I doubt that any of us will be put to death because of our faith, although there are places in the world where that is a distinct danger.

Here’s what I think. Only your false self will suffer when you carry your cross and follow Jesus. What makes Jesus’ teaching so hard for you and me is that we work so hard to protect the image we have of ourselves.

When are you propping up a false image of yourself? It is the effort you put into convincing yourself that you are in control. It is energy you spend convincing yourself that you can “handle it yourself” (whatever “it” is), and that you don’t need any help. It’s the model of Jackie Kennedy not shedding a single public tear at her husband’s funeral. It’s the ideal of John Wayne’s movie characters – managing every crisis without becoming the least bit upset.

Many of us have internalized that message: that that’s the way we’re supposed to act! But it takes such hard work to cover up when we’re scared to death, and when we desperately need help from others. And what we’re most afraid of is appearing weak, and so we don’t want to ask for help. In particular, our emotional wounds threaten that false image, because they tell us the truth: that we can’t handle it ourselves. So we cover up our wounds, and that takes enormous amounts of energy.

Whew! What a way to live.

How have you been wounded? Have you been wounded by a period of grief? Has it been the agony of your body not performing as it once did? Have you been wounded by a colleague’s betrayal? Has it been a cancer diagnosis, or another fear over health?

When you’re covering up your wounds, and spending so much energy propping up your false image, of your “in control” self, then you cannot receive the Good News of grace: that it is in God that you and I are fulfilled as human beings. The truth is that you and I are drawn to God. You and I long for God. And here’s the thing: God is able to enclose us in arms of love when we offer up to God our woundedness, when we cast off our false selves, and when we embrace who we are, the person God created us to be, the genuine person, the one who God loves, unilaterally and unconditionally.

That is what Jesus is talking about when he says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” That is an invitation to freedom! That is a call to deny our false selves. Jesus said to them, “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.” Here is why that is good news. It is because Jesus is calling you and me to lose our false selves, to lose that charade, to die in that sense so we can live – as who we are, deeply loved by God.

How exhausting it is to prop up my false image of who I am: that I am in the center; that everything revolves around me; that I am in control; that I can handle everything; that I need no one else. If all of that is true, then, of course, I certainly do not need God.

Instead, it is in our woundedness that you and I know God’s salvation, in our neediness, in our longing for God, in losing our lives in God’s grace. What good news there is in Jesus’ saying: 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.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia