Second Presbyterian Church

"Living And Dying"
March 16, 2003

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for March 2003

2^nd Sunday of Lent, Year C
by The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Genesis 17: 1-17
• Mark 8:31-38

The passage that we have just heard from Mark is a pivotal passage in the Gospel. The disciples have just confessed that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus has told them [sternly] not to mention it to anybody.

In our lesson Jesus begins to tell the disciples that he will suffer greatly, be handed over by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. Then after three days he shall rise again.

Huh? This man of power who casts out demons, heals the sick and preaches about the Kingdom of God being at hand is going to be rejected and be killed? That's not the way it is supposed to happen! No Way!

So, Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to say to Jesus, "uh, Lord, that's not the way it's supposed to be done. You are the Messiah and Messiahs are not supposed to be rejected and die, they are supposed to be popular and successful and to raise armies and drive out Romans…"

"Get behind me, Satan! You are setting your mind on human things and ways, and NOT on divine things and ways!"

Jesus then brings the disciples together and gives them his understanding of what it means to follow him. "Look, if any of you want to become a follower of me, then you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me!"

"Do you really want to save your life, then be prepared to lose it for my sake and the Gospel's! Because if you try to save your own life you shall lose it, if you are willing to lose your life for my sake and the Gospel's, then you shall save it!"

"What good is it that you might possess the entire world and lose your life! And if you become ashamed of me and my Gospel, then I shall be ashamed of you when I come in the glory of my Father."

The disciples had a lot to adjust to. They were learning that the way they understood how a Messiah behaves is wrong. And they were beginning to learn what it means to be a Christian, what it means to follow Jesus.

One can see that the context for Mark writing the Gospel helps explain Jesus' words. We had mentioned a few Sundays ago about the struggling Christians to whom Mark was writing, they often found themselves in great difficulty and outright danger.

The synagogue leaders sometimes expelled Christians from the community. They would have them beaten and put in jail. And the Romans were also persecuting them, throwing them into prison, and finding horrible ways to torture and kill them.

Mark had good reason to tell believers in his day that if they were to follow Jesus, then they were literally taking up their cross: they were literally risking their lives for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel.

And Mark was actually encouraging those beleaguered believers. He expressed to them that as they risked their lives they were living. But if they were ashamed to practice their Christianity in order to avoid persecution, then they had died already.

Sure! If you keep your faith a secret, you may save yourself a lot of hassles, serious hassles! I mean, who wants to risk being dipped into tar, place upon a pole beside the road and then set afire! Who wants to become a human lamppost?

But, if you tried to save your life in that manner, then you had lost your life in the eternal manner. Not just eternally, but that person had sold his soul to save his physical life.

We all know what that is like. Who hasn't, somewhere along the way, done something, or failed to do something that we knew was right, because we were afraid to stand up and say or do what we really believed?

Who hasn't, somewhere along the way, failed to speak up when we witnessed an injustice, because we were afraid of the consequences if we had spoken up?

Those are small examples in which we wanted to save our lives and actually lost it at that point. Fear kills and it causes us to sell our souls for that which is false. And the result is the deadly feeling it brings to us inside!

So it is quite easy to have sympathy for the struggling Christians in the time of Mark, to have a sense of appreciation for their temptation to keep their faith in Jesus a secret. It is very easy to appreciate why people either turned away from Christ or never accepted Christ, because it seemed too risky.

And Jesus, through Mark, is telling the people that they have it all backwards. The way people try to save their lives kills it! Salvation through money, security, prestige, etc. does not save our lives. In fact when we depend upon these, and other, things for salvation and meaning in life, we die; we have lost our life!

No, that is backwards! If you want to save your life, then be willing to risk the whole caboose for the sake of Christ and the Gospel!

Now, today, we are somewhat fortunate. At this moment, if we publicly profess that we are followers of Jesus Christ, the chances are good that we have not literally put our lives in mortal danger. We do not know how long this will last. It is not true for every Christian in every place on our planet. And it could even change here in the United States.

Yet, even today we run the risk of other dangers. Now, more than ever, we run the risk of death by discount and put-down. It you profess to be Christian, people will look at you, roll their eyes. Children in school and adults in the work place are often teased and harassed, because fellow students and workers know that they are Christian. They are judged as if they can never sin again. They are condemned when they do.

It is still easy to sell one's soul and not allow others to find out that you are a Christian. We are still in situations where one can feel embarrassed to talk about their faith in Jesus Christ.

In addition, just watch a little television, or a movie! Almost every time a minister, or priest is portrayed he is portrayed as stupid, naïve, or irrelevant. The Christian ministry becomes an object to scorn and make fun of, to laugh at. It is very tempting to keep quiet about our Christianity, so that some of the ridicule does not turn upon us.

I don't know about you, but, for Lent, I believe God is calling us to renew our determination to be Christ's followers. God is calling us to be willing to risk our reputation if being a Christian ruins it. God is calling us to be willing to risk our material resources if being a Christian means we have to lose them. God is calling us to even risk our lives, if being a Christian means we have to die.

God is calling us to take up our cross, each day, and follow him. And if we do this. If we are willing to do this. We shall experience, even now, what it means to really live, and that life shall last forever!

As the world sees it, it will look as if we are choosing to die. But as God sees it we shall be choosing life, life at its fullest, most abundant, life eternal.

None of the disciples understood this, yet. They still could not comprehend how victory would come by way of the suffering and death of Jesus. They could not understand that the glory of Christ was in his death and resurrection, not in humanly perceived glitter and pomp.

This is indeed a pivotal passage in Mark. And to those of us who read it seriously it is pivotal in our lives. One does not walk away from Mark 8:27 through verse 38 the same person. Why? Because we have encountered the love and grace of God through Jesus and we have heard what it costs us to accept the grace of God and to follow Jesus. It simply costs us everything, who we are and what we have! It kills our old way of understanding life, yet it offers us real life, true life, life that shall not leave us - ever!