No Resurrection Without The Cross: A Reflection on Mark 8:31-38

Stanley Harakas, a pastor and ethicist, wrote, “Lent is the time when we struggle to accept an unpalatable truth: growth toward victorious living comes through trial and sacrifice. There is no resurrection without the cross.” To achieve anything in life that matters, it takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Graduating from college, raising a family, making it to fifty plus years of marriage, all of this takes a lot of trial and sacrifice along the way. An old woman looks in the mirror and sees all the wrinkles on her face. And she says to herself, “Goodness, look at all those wrinkles. And I earned every one of them.” I recently heard on the news that contrary to popular opinion, stress doesn’t make your hair turn grey. Some people may take issue with that. Just watch how much grey creeps into the hair of our presidents as they get into the back end of their time in office. Whether it’s being the president of the United States, a master craftsman, or just getting the last of your kids moved out of the house, Harakas is right. There is no victory without sacrifice. There is no resurrection without the cross.

                Jesus’ disciples though seemed to be riding the gravy train. They found themselves in a pretty nice spot, a front row view of Jesus’ ministry. They got to see him heal all those people. They got to hear all of his teaching. And they got to go with him from town to town, spend all those hours walking with him along the road talking about deep issues but also talking about the weather and cracking some jokes. They were insiders, up close and personal with the one they were beginning to think may be the messiah. And what did they do to get this privileged position? Be available I suppose. Or, at least be willing to drop everything, abandon their families and wander around with Jesus for a few years. Their spouses and employers may not have been too happy. But the disciples probably didn’t worry about that too much. They were on an adventure. And maybe something else. Maybe if Jesus is the messiah and he establishes the kingdom of God, maybe they will get to be a part of the royal court. What luck! To be so close to power without having to sacrifice much…those disciples were sitting pretty.

                But Jesus throws cold water on his disciples. As we heard in the scripture reading this morning, Jesus reminds them that victory does not come without sacrifice. No one achieves the great purposes of life without generating criticism, and maybe even a few enemies along the way. Suffering and rejection is part of life, even for the Messiah. Sacrifice? Nothing less than death.

                After offering this bitter pill, that Jesus would be rejected and lose his life in pursuit of God’s purpose, Peter had to pull him aside. Why did Peter do that? It’s hard to know why people do the things they do. Was Peter upset because Jesus just burst his bubble about waltzing into the kingdom? Was Peter genuinely concerned about Jesus or wanted to encourage him? Who knows. But what we do know is that Peter had a tendency to open his mouth before he thought things through. And often that revealed his ignorance. This is one of those times.

                How surprised Peter must have been, even had his feelings hurt, when Jesus responds to Peter by turning his back to him and yelling, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter and Jesus traded rebukes and I’m guessing that Jesus’ rebuke packed more of a punch. Peter, once again, is called out for speaking about things without knowing the whole picture. As Jesus put it, “You are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.” Peter’s perspective was too narrow. Isn’t that often like us? We only think about our own situation, or own needs and wants, and forget there is a bigger picture.

                Just think about getting dinner at a restaurant. All you care about is getting good tasting food at a reasonable price. But think about all that happens behind the scenes to get that plate of food to your table. Of course, there is the server, who has bills to pay of her own, so she could use a nice tip. Then you have the cooks in the back preparing the food for other orders, not just your own. And then all that food had to be trucked in. That food did not originate in a factory, but came from the fields and from the stockyards. Think of all who had to process that food and package it before it was shipped, and those who raised that food and picked it. You get the idea. There is a complex web of relationships that all go into the process of getting to your table a good tasting meal at a reasonable price. But we don’t think about it. We just order it, eat it, pay for it, and go. The livelihoods of so many people are dependent on somebody buying and consuming that food.

                The complex web of relationships behind our lives is even greater. You know last week I talked about how each of us has to make our own way through the wilderness, making our own path because no one has lived our life before. This is true, but this does not mean that our lives are meant to be a self-focused pursuit. The path you make through life is just one strand of a complex tangle of paths. Our lives weave around the lives of others. And all these lives that are being lived, all these paths put together, I believe, fit some larger purpose designed by God. You know how one piece of string is pretty flimsy. But if you take several strings and weave them together you get a much stronger rope. It’s the same way with our lives. We are meant to be woven together rather than just doing life on our own. And this means that your life is not just about what you want. Sometimes you have to yield your own needs, wants, plans and goals in order to let others have their way. Just like when you are driving along on the highway where there is a lot of traffic, sometimes you have to let people merge in front of you or you have to wait until somebody lets you in. Someone has to yield. And that’s how life is. We don’t always get to just put the pedal down and keep pushing through our life with no thought of anyone else’s needs. Sometimes we have to yield. And so Jesus says, “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 the sake of the gospel will save it.” Living your life in a God honoring way requires from time to time your need to yield, to submit to others, so that this rope of lives can be woven together.

                But let’s face it. We don’t always want to yield. Another way to say it is, we aren’t always willing to submit to others, to let others have their way or pursue their interests at our own expense. Now in some situations we may be willing to submit. We will do what mom and dad tell us to do as long as we are living in their house, or they hold the keys to the car. We’ll do what our professor tells us so that we can pass the class. We’ll listen to our boss so that we can keep our job and hopefully get a promotion. If we see some benefit for yielding to the demands of others, and painful consequences if we fail to do so, then we are willing to submit, even if the work is demanding, or we don’t completely agree with what we are being told to do, or sacrifices must be made. The payoff promises to make the pain and suffering worthwhile.

                But when it comes to relationships, with a spouse, your family, your friends, with God, submitting sometimes is more challenging. Hopefully your desire to keep these relationships healthy is sufficient to be willing to yield to the other’s needs, and to make necessary sacrifices from time to time. But if you are no longer invested in the relationship, what’s to stop you from breaking the relationship off? Think of it this way. Your boss could fire you, so you will submit. The law can throw you in jail, so you submit. The professor could fail you, so you submit. The one you are in relationship could withhold connection with you, but if you don’t believe you really need that person, or if you think they are holding you back from what you want to do, then, so what if they withhold their connection with you? You don’t think you need them anyway. You don’t think you need God anyway. Besides, God said He will never leave us or forsake us, so really, what have you got to lose? Right?

                Jesus is making it clear to his followers that if they want to continue in this relationship they are going to have to submit to God and deny their own self-interest, hopes and dreams, and individual pursuits of happiness. They will have to let go of the need to call all the shots and direct their lives as they see fit. Jesus is calling them to a life of submission. This is the heart of the matter. We all get to choose. Will I submit to my own agenda or will I submit to God’s agenda? Will I be my own guide in the journey through the wilderness or will I submit to God’s directions? Either path we choose will include a cross. Getting the most out of life will be hard no matter what. Sacrifice and misunderstandings can’t be avoided. What is really at issue is how you will go about making your journey.

                Now here’s a little bit of irony. To truly live, to get the most out of life, to achieve all you are meant to achieve, requires letting go of control over your life. Life at its fullest is found in submission to God’s rule. By losing self-focus and instead being God-focused, you end up being the best you that you can be. Your life becomes more abundant, more meaningful, in spite of all the sacrifice and hardship. When all the sacrifice, the trial, the criticism, the cross-bearing, when it is done for the sake of Christ, life becomes all it is intended to be.

                There is a traditional prayer many Christians recite during Lent that was written by a Syrian priest named Ephraim many centuries ago. “Lord and master of my life, give me not a spirit of sloth, vain curiosity, lust for power, or idle talk. But give to me Thy servant a spirit of soberness, humility, patience, and love. O Lord and King, grant me to see my faults and not to condemn my brother: for blessed art Thou to the ages of ages. Amen.” This simple prayer gets at the heart of the matter between the two extremes. Will I set my mind on human things or divine things? Will I suffer in the pursuit for that which passes away or will I suffer in the pursuit of that which is everlasting?

                Today, let us dedicate ourselves anew to submit to the way of Christ, to the rule of God. Let us focus not on the trivial matters of what other people think are important and worthy of pursuit and instead focus on the matters of God, which are the matters of the heart. Let us submit to the rule of God over our lives, not with a spirit of bitterness but with a calm assurance, even anticipation that life will have so much more meaning and purpose. With humble trust in the One who created us and loves us deeply, let us deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Jesus Christ our Lord and our God.