Mark 8:31-38

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 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? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Let us pray,

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer…

How can you tell if someone is a Christian?

Can you tell by the way a person dresses? By the way their wear their hair? Maybe you can tell by what they post on social media. Or maybe you can tell by what kind of car they drive?

I wish it were that easy. You actually can’t tell if a person is a Christian just by looking at them. Because a Christian is a person trying to follow Jesus in their everyday lives. Being a Christian is more about how a person behaves than about how a person looks.

Today we’re going to reflect on how we can tell if a person is a Christian during the difficult times. During the times when we may feel abandoned by our friends, and maybe even by God. As we journey with Jesus to the cross. We’ll look at what it means to follow Jesus to the cross. 

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is clear with his disciples about where he is headed. He is not going to live to a ripe old age. Healing the sick. Speaking to the masses. Overturning the tables in the temple. Then die a peaceful death surrounded by his friends and family. No, he is going to be killed and in three days he is going to rise from the dead. Jesus will die because powerful humans reject his healing mission. Other powerful humans reject his challenge to the way that they have always done things. Jesus dies because Jesus will not dial down his ministry to spare his own life.

Like us, Jesus’ disciples are not accustomed to the way of the cross. At first, they get angry at Jesus. “You can’t be serious Jesus” Peter tells Jesus. “We have a good thing going for us here. Why do you want to end it by dying a humiliating death? One reserved for common criminals” he asks Jesus. Peter doesn’t understand that Jesus’ ministry is bigger than healing, teaching, and prophesying. Jesus came to do something for us that we cannot do on our own. To restore the right relationship between God and humanity. And in order to do that, Jesus must die, so that we might live. 

By our human nature we want to be prosperous, strong, successful and influential. Jesus has other priorities. Jesus invites us to serve. Even if this puts us at odds with the powers that be. Even if this puts our own lives at risk. And when we follow Jesus into the unknown, we will be persecuted by people who do not understand what Jesus is trying to accomplish. Christian persecution did not end with the cross. Think of Christian martyrs like Martin Luther King Jr. Mother Theresa. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Oscar Romero. Faithful women and men who followed Jesus to the point of death.

But I actually don’t think our Scripture passage for today is encouraging all of us to be martyrs. Most of us will not be asked to give our lives for the sake of another. But all of us will be given opportunities to put the needs of others above our own. Even and especially when doing so comes at a great personal cost to us. In other words, all of us will be given opportunities to take up our cross and follow Jesus in our daily lives. Let me give you an example of what this could look like.

When I was doing my field education internship, my supervisor introduced me to a woman named Betty. Betty was a member of the church I was interning at. Betty had a teenaged daughter named Angel. And Angel had autism. It was incredibly difficult for Angel to sit still in church. She would often get up and roam the isles of the church while my supervisor preached. When she wasn’t roaming the aisles, she would loudly play on her iPad. 

When my supervisor told me about Angel, I wondered how the rest of the congregation would react to Angel’s behavior during worship. Would they be annoyed that she was distracting them from the sermon? To my delight I watched the congregation figure out how to worship with Angel. One member brought Angel a pillow so she could be more comfortable in the pews. Another gave her a fidget spinner to play with during the coffee hour. When the church updated their technology in the sanctuary to include a screen and a projector, the worship committee asked Angel to run the PowerPoint during worship.

Now the congregation’s treatment of Angel didn’t cure her behavioral challenges. Angel continued to have outbursts from time to time. But it was really beautiful to watch a congregation rally around one of their members instead of casting her off as a “problem.” Betty shared with me that church was the one place she felt safe to bring Angel. Where she could just be who she was. And Betty could get a break from constantly worrying about Angel making everyone uncomfortable. 

When Jesus invites us to take up our crosses and follow him, he’s often talking about the everyday moments where we have a choice between doing what is right and doing what is easy. Where we can do the hard life-giving thing that makes us a bit uncomfortable. Or do what the easy comfortable thing that involves no sacrifice on our part. Jesus never promised that following him would be easy. But part of being a Christian means believing that the hard parts of following Jesus are worth it.

I’m sure you know where this sermon is headed by now. This week I want to encourage you to reflect on what cross Jesus is inviting you to bear. And to take one small step towards figuring out how to do so. 

Let’s say, for example, you serve on a committee that has been asked to keep in touch with homebound members during this pandemic. But you absolutely, 100% hate calling people on the phone. Maybe you send the ones with emails an email. And set a goal to call two people a week. In doing something you don’t want to do, you are faithful to your call to care for the least of these.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that to ‘deny yourself’ really means to keep your priorities in harmony with what Jesus told us in the two greatest commandments. To love God and to love your neighbor. So if doing something you don’t want to do helps you love God or love your neighbor, it’s probably worth doing. Ultimately nothing in this world compares to new life in Christ. Let us now go from this place excited to do the things we’d rather not. To show our love and gratitude to our God who loves us a whole lot.

Thanks be to God,

In Jesus name, 

Amen.