Mark 8:31-38 Good News—Worth Dying For

 

Hailey, what a special day for you: a faith milestone, a day where you’ve taken a deeper step in your relationship with Jesus by telling the world that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, and committing to being a member of the Bethel family. Our Scripture passage this morning gives us a glimpse into what this faith milestone means, how it shapes your life as a follower of Jesus.

Jesus has just asked the disciples what are the people saying about him. Many think he’s a prophet, then Jesus asks, “what about you,” and Peter jumps in, “You are the Christ.” Christ means “the anointed one,” and for the Jews this means “the Messiah, the King to end all kings, the King who’s going to put everything right,” as Timothy Keller writes. This is good news, news the people have been waiting for, for centuries! Jesus basically says, “You’re right, you got it,” and then turns and tells them things that they don’t want to hear, that he’s going to suffer, be rejected, killed, but then raised from the dead. Jesus knows this is what being the Messiah from God means, what the King who’s going to make all things right again has to do; it’s going to be a rough road, one the disciples didn’t expect.

Listen to Jesus’ words, “the Son of Man must suffer and be rejected, he must be killed and rise again.” Tim Keller points out, “By using the word must, Jesus is also indicating that he is planning to die—that he is doing so voluntarily. He is not merely predicting that it will happen. This is what probably offends Peter the most. It is one thing for Jesus to say, “I will fight and will be defeated,” and another to say, “This is why I came; I intend to die!” that is totally inexplicable to Peter.” Peter is having a hard time wrapping his head around what Jesus is saying. Jesus has shown he has power over demons, he raised a dead girl from death, he fed thousands of people with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish, how can someone with such power have such an attitude? Jesus should be aiming for the throne, not the cross.

Peter takes Jesus to the side and began to rebuke him. Peter rebukes Jesus! Rebuke is a word that is used in other places to describe what Jesus does to demons. Peter is condemning Jesus with powerful language; it shows just how upset Peter is as he listens to Jesus talk about his upcoming suffering and death. Jesus reveals what kind of Christ he’s come be: a suffering servant, as the prophet Isaiah kept saying. The disciples expected the Christ to be a strong political leader who would crush their enemies! They didn’t understand that only the way of the cross would bring the kind of salvation that humanity needs more than anything else, salvation from our sins and transformation of our sinful nature.

Don’t we often have the same feeling, that because Jesus is king and has power over everything, we should be able to tell the world how they should live and what they should believe. Yet Jesus keeps calling us to humility and servanthood, to wash feet instead of sit on a throne. How many of you became followers of Jesus with the intention of suffering for him, of carrying a cross and a towel instead of a sword? We focus so much on what we get from following Jesus: forgiveness, grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, a new identity as a child of God, that we ignore what we’re called to give up or to do: to love our enemies, to serve in the humblest of ways, to make disciples of all nations. We’re called to love others so much that we put aside our wants in order to share the good news of Jesus. Telling someone how they should live, before you share with them who Jesus is and help them come to really know Jesus, doesn’t work.

Jesus’ reaction to Peter is quick and harsh, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Jesus is accusing Peter of setting himself up against God, making his concerns more important than God’s concerns, it’s harsh and yet sometimes it’s harsh that breaks through our own deafness to Jesus’ teaching and leading. Why do we so often seen Jesus’ concerns as aligning with ours when that’s so seldom the case. We’re more like Peter than we want to admit, thinking we know better than Jesus how things should go and who should be in charge. We all need to listen more and follow and imitate Jesus better.

Hear Jesus’ words, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Just as Jesus said he must suffer and he must die, he tells us that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus. This isn’t a suggestion, if we’re going to be disciples of Jesus, it begins by denying ourselves, making Jesus first always. Jesus doesn’t call us to an easy life, he calls us to crosses; to God’s ways over our ways, obedience over self-determination, slaves over ruler. Karoline Lewis writes, “To “deny yourself and take up your cross” invites us into what the cross can also mean — not just death and suffering, but God choosing human relationships. The cross represents God’s commitment to humanity.”

Marilyn Salmon writes, “According to Mark, Jesus defines discipleship as a contrast between human values and God’s values… Jesus contrasts the life of discipleship with the ways of the world. Jesus rebukes Peter for focusing on human values rather than God’s values.” The disciples are focused on power and greatness, on the throne in Jerusalem, and they naturally assume that Jesus wants the same thing they want. When we live our faith out publicly, persecution and death can become the result of our mission work in our communities. In Canada we have become comfortable with holding to a private faith that costs us nothing. Are we willing, like many of our brothers and sisters around the world to put our very lives on the line for Jesus instead of chasing our own kingdoms? In 2015, 21 Coptic Christian men were executed by ISIS for following Jesus. They were told that if they renounced Jesus, they would be saved. Every one of them died with the words “Ya Rab Yesua!” on their lips, “Oh, Lord Jesus.” Jesus warns us in John 15:20, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” People don’t want to hear that they are sinful and need a saviour, that they need Jesus; that we are called to a life of sacrifice instead of power.

Are we open to speaking the good news of Jesus, even if it offends others to the point they persecute us? Do we value others as much as Jesus does? Are we willing to be misunderstood as followers of Jesus, are we willing to truly follow Jesus into the uncomfortable and scary places of our community and culture with the grace and love of Jesus leading the way? Do we really care about the lonely and lost, the broken and hurting enough to seek them out and come alongside them to share with them the love of Jesus and the hope and strength he brings to us, before we ask them to change their behaviour? We’re called to live out the good news; loving the unlovable, protecting the vulnerable, while calling for all of us to “Go, sin no more.”

Jesus isn’t done yet, he turns to the crowd and asks two really important questions, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Have you ever thought about these questions? What can you give in exchange for your soul? Psalm 49:7–9 tells us, “No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay.” We can’t even redeem our own lives because of our sin.

Mythology is filled with people willing to give up their souls for some kind of a benefit, stories that many of Jesus’ listeners would have been familiar with, but how can you get it back once you’ve given it away? Satan knows us enough to offer us our desires in exchange for our souls, yielding to Satan’s offer to fulfill our desires instead of trusting in Jesus and God. This is what lies behind Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, an offer to do things the easy way.

The only reason we get our soul back from Satan’s grasp is that Jesus exchanged his life for our souls, he exchanged his life to wash our souls clean after we’ve mucked them all up. Jesus exchanged heaven for earth in order to save our souls from death. This is the good news that we hang onto, the good news that Jesus loved us so much that he considered us worth dying for, and now he calls us to be willing to give up our own lives to proclaim this good news to the world!