March 8, 2009

Mark 8:31-38

2^nd Sunday in Lent

Who Controls Jesus? 

            This passage is the turning point in Mark’s gospel on the life of Jesus. The public ministry of Jesus ends and the road to Jerusalem and death begins. The disciples had been riding on a bandwagon of good works from their leader. He performed miracles and people were healed. He won all the arguments with their inept church leaders – the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Scribes. Jesus’ popularity was on such an uphill rise that it looked like he was ready to take on the power of Rome and kick ‘em in their teeth. It was all going so smoothly. Hee Haw! He was a winner!  

Then he goes and tells them it is all going to turn very bad and that he is going to suffer and die and on the third day God will raise him from the dead. What is this? No wonder Peter started giving him a piece of his mind and told him to get his head on straight. Peter wants a God who is going to make him healthy, wealthy, and #1. “Suffer and die? Not you! Jesus I’ve got other plans for us. I want to be a winner, not a loser. I need to be your manager and be in control”. This dying on a cross is just not proper behavior for the son of an all powerful God. What kind of God do we have? 

Surely, you can understand Peter’s concerns. What about getting a committee together to develop the specifications for a god who will do and act like a god we really need. If you decide to join this committee, what ideas could you bring for developing the kind of god that gives us some great benefits? We need a god who will not tolerate sickness, pain, and suffering. Agree? Yeah, now we are getting somewhere. While we are at it, let’s do away with hunger; and hurricanes, lightening, and tidal waves; and snow storms and avalanches can go, also. No more sadness and sorrow, OK? So that means death has got to go, too. God needs to be under our control.  We know what we need. Suffering and dying on a cross doesn’t make much sense.  

But we don’t have the kind of power needed to change things. What we see is what we get. But, you know what? Better marketing and better products might solve our problem. We need to develop a coffee bookstore area in our Narthex and serve free Starbucks coffee. We can turn our Fellowship Hall into a food court with food and services unmatched in Huntsville. We can turn our Chapel into a workout room with a rock wall on one side for the children to climb. Get the idea? We need better products and services. 

And while we are at it, we can put a better spin on Jesus’ message and make it appear to be better. What is this carrying your cross? Do you want to carry an electric chair? Those poor disciples.  So while we are trying to change things, perhaps we can put a better spin on Jesus’ message. What do people want to hear? Let’s give it to them. How about happiness as a topic? “How to be happy” followed up by “How to have a happy family,” “How to be happy at work,” and concluded by “How to avoid illness and be happy all the time.” I’m sure this will increase church attendance, and our success is measured by how many come to worship.  

“How to be happy” … can you imagine Jesus preaching on this topic? Jesus’ church just had 12 members and on some days no one showed up. I bet the disciples would have liked to have transferred their membership to this kind of church.  

“Get behind me, Satan! Peter, your eyes are not looking at God any more, just your own self. You want to be in control, don’t you? It does not work that way. God is in control of this group. And let me tell you something else while I am at it. It isn’t just me who is going to suffer. If you follow me after this day, you will suffer, too, serving God; because people will seek to shut you up just like they want to shut me up.  It is your choice to follow or not. 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. Have a nice day.”  

Let me clear one thing up here so you take home no misconceptions.  Suffering and pain is a part of life. A large part of Jesus’ ministry was healing and removing the burdens that people carried. God finds no joy in our suffering. Remember when he said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light?”  

Carrying a cross has nothing to do with the suffering and bad things that happen to us in our daily living. Jesus’ talk about suffering is not what life has inflicted upon us, but a suffering that comes from a choice to be faithful to our Lord. It is a choice that can be avoided. Because we know that we are children of God and His love fills our hearts, we go out into the world putting ourselves in the service of our Lord and preparing the way for His kingdom. And it is not like giving up something for Lent like coffee, or helping your spouse to wash dishes. It has nothing to do with self-actualization, self-improvement, self-realization, self-assurance, or self-anything. There is no “I gotta be me” here. To follow Christ and take up our cross is an invitation to deny our own ego needs and to make ourselves completely available to God so that He can use us for His purposes. Our life is not ours; we have a saved life for God to use.  

Are you saved? You heard me right. Are you saved? Many good Christians are so worried about being saved and going to heaven that they have missed the boat of what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus. If our focus is on ourselves and what we get out of a relationship with Jesus, then all we are doing is trying to control Jesus for our purposes because our eyes are on ourselves and not on Him. Remember, Jesus says it is in saving your life that you will lose it. It is in the giving of ourselves to others in the work of God’s kingdom that we lose our lives, but gain our “souls.”  

The disciples of Jesus were not OK with Jesus suffering and dying and whatever he meant by rising on the third day. But we have become comfortable with it because it is the focus of our faith 2,000 years later. However, this bit about taking up the cross and following Him doesn’t sit very well. We want to side with Peter and focus on the side of humans rather than with Jesus. Jesus asks us to deny ourselves and become completely available to God so that He can work through us for his purposes. We know that He has stuff he wants to do through us where we are. You don’t have to look very hard. You just have to be open to His way. It is not about us. It is about God and what God can do if we get ourselves out of the way and let Him in. We have to give up control. Who wants to hear this in our self-absorbed world?   

Garrison Keillor was right on when he said, “I guess it is time for us to give up the good Christian [safe] life and follow Christ.”

.