WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO FOLLOW JESUS?

A sermon for the second Sunday of Lent (year B)

Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 8:31-38

There is a story from the life of Paul that reminds me of today’s Gospel text. Paul is in a big hurry to get to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost. When their ship lands in Caesarea, a prophet warns him that the Holy Spirit told him that if Paul goes to Jerusalem, he will be bound and handed over to the Gentile authorities. So what do Paul’s friends do? Of course, they try to convince him not to go. He is their companion and leader, they don’t want him to meet with a terrible fate. So—in tears—they beg him to stay.

Paul gets absolutely incensed by their plea. “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?” he replies. “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:8–12). And sure enough, about a week after they land in Jerusalem Paul is arrested. It eventually leads to his death—just as his friends so dreadfully feared.

But what would Jesus have had him do? Should Paul have hidden out and not traveled to Jerusalem for Pentecost in order to avoid those wicked conspirators? Would he have been better able to proclaim the gospel if he’d been able to stay alive? I mean, wasn’t Paul just throwing his life away?

In today’s gospel, Jesus quizzes his disciples about his identity. “Who do people say that I am?”

They have answers ready for him: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets.

Jesus, then, presses them about their personal understanding of his identity. “But who do YOU say that I am?” he asks.

Peter answers him boldly, “You are the Messiah.”

Jesus sternly orders them to keep this a secret for now. Then he launches into a whole speech about how he 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.

Now this bad news just doesn’t sit well with Peter. So he pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him.

Now this rebuking doesn’t sit well with Jesus. We’ve got a real conflict bubbling up here and it results in an explosive statement by Jesus that shocks us all. “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Satan? I mean, come on, isn’t that a little bit strong for your right hand man? But that’s what Jesus says. Satan. Peter is setting his mind on human things instead of the divine things despite all Jesus has taught him.

Then comes an even bigger bomb. Jesus turns to the whole group of disciples—and to us as well as we read these pages of scripture—and says quite plainly: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

This is a famous passage of scripture, one that many Christians can recite by heart. But whatever does it mean?

If read out of context and with our modern western understandings, Jesus words can be understood as a glorification of suffering, as a strong encouragement to become a victim. In this way of interpreting it would follow that I should deny myself—that is, sacrifice myself, wipe out any real sense that I have of myself, my individual personality and embrace the cross—which undoubtedly means suffering. To be Jesus’ follower, then, I should stop being me and throw myself into a life of miserable suffering.

Now this is a dangerous road to go down. Many women have failed to develop their own identities because of this interpretation. They have hidden their talents and strengths in order to embrace suffering that could be alleviated because that’s what they thought Jesus wanted. And so they stayed in abusive situations when they should have found a way to freedom. Other marginalized groups have gone with this interpretation and believed they should stay in their low stations, never challenging the powers that cause them to suffer. More than anything, they want to follow Jesus and so they go on suffering.

Is that what God wants? It is important, especially when we look at the strong statements of scripture, to look at it in the literary context of the whole scripture and in the cultural context into which it was actually spoken.

Since we really want to know what Jesus means, we must first take up the question of the literary context. Let’s think about Mark’s gospel as a whole. Mark does not glorify either self-sacrifice or suffering. In fact, Jesus in this gospel does just the opposite—he announces to all the kingdom of God. And in order to make this message clear, he alleviates suffering and empowers others to do the same. He is ever about the good news that God’s kingdom—God’s rule—is breaking in on our fallen world. This rule brings with it great joy, healing, feasting and the end of suffering.

Not only Jesus but others who join God's rule also have power over suffering. Jesus sends out the disciples to preach, heal, and exorcise, and they do it successfully! (6:7 -13). Jesus also tells the disciples to trust God's power over nature: he expects them to trust that the storm will not destroy them and to be able themselves to feed thousands with little food (4:35-41; 6:3544; 8:1-10). Once, somebody who hasn’t even met Jesus throws his name around and is able to successfully exorcise in his name! (9:38-39). Throughout Mark’s story, we see signs that the marvelous new reality of God's rule has broken into our world and things are changing for the better.

So when we look carefully at the literary context, we see it does not support the theory that “deny yourself and take up your cross” means that God specifically wants you to suffer for the sake of suffering. Indeed, Jesus’ message is one of liberation from suffering.

But make no mistake, this good news is not good news to everyone. Jesus has made powerful enemies who will soon take his life. He does not want his disciples to be surprised by the fact that following him and proclaiming God’s rule of justice and peace will have its consequences. Keep in mind that John the Baptist has already died for the cause, Jesus is about to die, and most of the disciples will go on to die in the line of duty also. Yes, along with the good news, there comes the reality that persecution will face the followers of Jesus.

Nevertheless, you should not lose heart! That is what he is trying to convey when he tells them they must take up their cross. They must resist the temptation to let go of their mission just because it threatens their safety. Yes, there is the inevitability of persecution. However, the blessings of God's rule are even greater. They far outweigh the suffering to be endured. That’s why they should hang on with everything they’ve got and follow Jesus.

Okay, that may explain the suffering part, but what about the “deny yourself” line? Exactly what is Jesus getting at? Let’s look at the first-century cultural context to get a handle on this question. Most Christians are ill-informed about the vast cultural differences that our modern society has with the ancient Middle East. To our modern ears the command to “deny yourself” sounds like a call to self-sacrifice. Today many do read this way—as a demand to deny your individual self and always put yourself last. But that is not how a person of the first-century would have heard it.

To begin with, their sense of self was so very different from ours. People in Jesus’ time had little, if any, idea of individual identity. Their sense of “self” was completely connected to their family. The question: “Who are you?” was really asking: “Who is your family?” That defines who you are. Families lived and worked together as a solid unit. If you left your family, you would have no identity and probably no means of earning a living. When I finished college, I had the desire to live in Montana. So I simply packed up my car and left—off to make my way in the world as a young adult. That kind of thing would be unheard of in ancient society. But that is precisely what Jesus was calling his followers to do.

In asking them to deny themselves, Jesus was asking them to leave their family unit in order to follow him. At one point in his ministry Jesus says: "'Who are my mother and my brothers?” He looks around at the group gathered and says: “Look, here are my mother and my brothers! For those who do the will of God, they are my brother and sister and mother.'" (Mark 3:33-35). To accept Jesus’ invitation— to leave their own families in order to join Jesus’ family was completely against societal expectations. It was a radical act, an act that threatened the social order of the entire empire. No wonder Jesus and his followers drew such fierce enemies.

Therefore, when read in the context of the first century and the overall message of Mark’s gospel, Mark 8:34 is not a command to suffer and be a victim in general. Not at all! It is an exhortation to remain faithful to Jesus and the liberating kingdom of God even in face of persecution by political authorities. It is an invitation to leave family and other alliances behind and become part of Jesus’ family first and foremost.

The question then remains: what does this mean for us today? We don’t have to stay in our family units to be socially accepted. Like I said, I myself ran off to a far away state to live and my parents did not disown me as they would have in ancient times. In fact, they were quite proud of me. Furthermore, we live in a country that has, as one of it’s pillars, freedom of religion. Here, we can follow Jesus all we want and never get arrested or executed for it.

These things put us in a totally different position from the first generation of disciples. Yet look what they accomplished! They turned from a ragtag group of misfits who were hiding out after the crucifixion of Jesus into zealous evangelists who spread the good news far and wide. Just as Jesus exhorted them, they were not deterred by political persecution or the threat of death. Like the story of Saint Paul I told you at the beginning of the sermon, they marched headlong into danger if it would further the mission. In short, they changed the world. We would never have heard of Jesus and his story of redemption had it not been for their courageous evangelism.

What’s our excuse? To deny ourselves and take up our crosses actually costs far less for us today than it did for the early disciples and yet we seem to follow with far less passion. Oh, we might alienate a friend by taking about faith too much or we might be known as “those” Christians but we honestly don’t have much to lose.

Do you want to follow Jesus? Then go for it! What does it take? Deny yourself—love Jesus, embrace him as your heart’s heart. He is your family even more than your own family and you owe him not part of all of your allegiance. Take up your cross—whatever it costs you is nothing next to the incomparable riches of following Christ and letting him lead you. If Peter, who was called Satan for his blunder can rise to the task of discipleship, so can you and I. The good news of God’s kingdom must be heard and it’s our job to share it. Amen.