Mark 8:31-38[1]
Most of us have some idea of the “shape” we want
our lives to take. We all have hopes and dreams, desires and goals. Typically,
we direct our hopes for our lives toward things that are good: our homes, our families,
and our careers. We dream of building relationships that will last a lifetime.
We long for work that is not only productive but also provides us with a
livelihood. We plan for financial security so that we may retire comfortably
and have the opportunity to pursue new interests. Because they are near and
dear to our hearts, these are the things we cherish. Our hopes and dreams, our
desires and goals shape our lives.
Seeking what we cherish most in life is only
natural for us. And it is a good thing to pursue these good things. But as
Christians, we have to recognize that we also have a higher claim on our lives.
We are called to seek God with all our hearts, and to follow Christ in the way
in which he consistently obeyed God. We are called to lay down our lives in
service to others in the same way that Jesus laid down his life for us. That’s
not the path most of us envision in our hopes and dreams, our desires and
goals. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges we face as Christians is to
figure out how to live our lives under the call of Christ to “deny yourself,
take up your cross, and follow me.”
Our Gospel lesson for today marks a turning point
in Jesus’ ministry. Up to that time, he had mostly occupied himself with
proclaiming the good news—that he was truly bringing God’s kingdom of justice,
peace, and freedom into people’s lives. That kind of language fired the hopes
and dreams of Jesus’ first disciples, but their dreams were very different from
what God had called Jesus to do. After Peter made a bold declaration of faith
that Jesus was indeed the “Messiah” they had been waiting for, Jesus “burst”
the bubble of their enthusiasm. He told them point-blank that “the Son of Man
must undergo great suffering, and be rejected …, and be killed” (Mk. 8:31).
Peter’s shocked response only put into words that the others were thinking:
this wasn’t what they had signed up for at all!
Jesus pressed the matter home by insisting that
those who wanted to follow him must “deny themselves and take up their cross”
(Mk. 8:34). I think at this point Jesus’ closest disciples must have been in a
daze. They followed him, thinking that he was going to ascend the throne of
David, throw off the yoke of the Romans, and restore the people of Israel to
their former glory. And I’m quite sure they saw themselves playing an important
role in that restored kingdom. Not only did he tell them that was not what he
was called to do, he also told them that wasn’t what they were called to do!
Jesus knew that his path of obedience to God would
lead him to die on a cross. What he revealed to his disciples at this point was
that their obedience to God would lead them to follow him on that path! Some of
the early Christians literally faced the same fate as he did.[2] The
persecution they endured for their faith in many cases forced them to choose
between their faith and their lives. And when the time came, many of them chose
to go to their deaths for the sake of their faith in Jesus.
We don’t have to make that kind of sacrifice for
the sake of our faith. But the call to “deny ourselves and take up our cross”
still pushes us to think about our commitment to Christ in ways that may be
uncomfortable. This language cuts so deeply against the grain of how we live
I’m not sure we can even comprehend it! The kind of self-denial that Jesus
calls us to practice means that we take all the things we cherish most in life,
all our hopes and dreams, all our desires and goals, and we lay them all down
at the feet of Jesus.[3]
What that means in actual practice is difficult to
work out. For some, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it means that we make a break
with all the ties and attachments we have in this life.[4] That’s what the call to follow Christ looks like for some. But those of us to
are allowed to pursue our hopes and dreams in this life still have to figure
out what it means to “deny ourselves.” I think part of the answer lies in
recognizing that all those things we cherish most in life can lead us to become
trapped in the prison of our own selfish interests.[5] But part of the answer also
lies in being willing to give up what we cherish most to God, to recognize that
“whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom 14:5, NLT).
The plain but perhaps startling truth is that we
are all called to make following Jesus the focus of our lives. This means
“denying ourselves and taking up our cross.” It means devoting our time and
energy not simply to fulfilling our own hopes and dreams, our own desires and
goals.[6] It means following Jesus’ example by laying down our lives for the sake of
serving others, especially those who are “least, and last, and left out” in
this world. It means that the shape of our lives is determined by our
commitment to follow Jesus on the path that leads to the cross.
[1] © 2021
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 2/28/2021 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.sh
[2] Cf.
Harold W. Attridge and Adela Y. Collins, Mark,
408.
[3] John
Calvin, in The Institutes of the
Christian Religion, 3.7, defines self-denial in terms of recognizing that
we are not our own, we belong to God. David Garland, Mark, 327 says it means learning to say “not my will but thine be
done.”
[4] Cf.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship
(DBW, vol. 4, 2001), 86-87. He does discuss the possibility (p. 93-97) that
this break may be “visible” (actual) or “hidden,” meaning the disciple
continues to live in the normal relationships of life.
[5] Cf. John Caputo, On Religion, 2-3, where he defines self-interest
in terms of being “caught up in the meanness of self-love and
self-gratification,” and people who “love nothing more than getting their own
way and bending others to their will.”
[6] Cf. Luke
Timothy Johnson, Learning Jesus, 200,
where he insists that nowhere in the New Testament is there “an understanding
of Christian discipleship compatible with a life devoted to one’s own success,
pleasure, comfort, freedom from suffering, or power at the expense of others.”
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