"Cross Road: Taking It Up"
(Mark 8:31-38)
Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn
Mark 8:31-38
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
35 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.
36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?
38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
LET US PRAY:
A little boy who was just learning about addition and subtraction in school looked up during Worship one Sunday, saw the cross sitting on the altar and hollered, "Look, Daddy! There's a plus sign in our Church."
The cross really is a plus sign in our Church. It's a plus sign in our lives daily. It tells us of the advantages of being a Christian and accepting the forgiveness God offers through the cross. Through the cross God did what only God can do. God transformed a horrible instrument of torture and death into a symbol of life and hope. God transformed tragedy into triumph; humiliation into glory; despair into hope. God took what was ugly and cruel and violent and transformed it into a thing of beauty and a symbol of peace.
I love the cross. I love it for what it stands for. I love it for the memories it holds. I love it for the promise it holds. Every time I look at a cross I'm reminded of how much God loves me.
I have a friend who collects crosses. He has crosses from all over the world. His walls are covered with crosses of every shape, size, color and style. I don't collect crosses but I do have a few that are favorites. Do you have a favorite cross? Most of us do.
I have a little cross I carry in my pocket all the time. It was a gift from friends and members. On one side is a little reminder about how God holds pastors in his hands. The other is a cross.
This cross was a gift on my Walk to Emmaus. It was made by a member of a former church. We both moved about the same time, me to a different Church, Emerson to a different Conference. He had always wanted me to go on the Walk to Emmaus and kept up with our conference until I did, and he made these crosses for the pilgrims on that Walk. That's why it's special.
This cross is special because Mary's grandfather made it. It was one of the last things he made in his shop. It's made out of red oak. He made it out of lumber that he and I cut there on the farm. We cut down the trees, we had our own mill and sawed the lumber. Most of it we used for trim in the house we built. But there was enough left over for Grandpa to make this cross for me. It's dated and has his initials on the bottom. It was 23 years old this year.
These crosses are special because of who made them or who gave them to me. They are special because of the love involved and the sacrifice of time and effort that went into making or buying them. There is another cross that is special for the same reason. And it's the one that all of these crosses represents, and that is the original cross of Calvary. The cross of Christ.
No greater sacrifice has ever been made. No greater sign of love has ever been given. The Son of God willingly and knowingly gave his life and faced the cruelty of the cross so that we might know how much God loves us. Through his sacrifice we find forgiveness. Through his brokenness we find wholeness. Through his death we find eternal life.
Peter didn't understand that yet. For Peter and the other disciples the cross and Jesus talking about going to the cross was one of the most scandalous things they had ever heard. It was the worst possible way to die of all. It was a disgrace saved for the most hardened of all criminals. It wasn't just punishment, it was a message to the community of how horrible and abhorrent an individual was in the eyes of Rome and in the eyes of the community. The Jews believed that anyone who was crucified got a one way ticket to Hades.
No wonder Peter objected so much to what Jesus had to say about going to the cross. Peter had no idea of the amount glory and the full impact that the cross would have upon him and the world. It changed everything. It changed everyone. Jesus knew that. That's why He told Peter and the others: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
A. Have you ever really thought about that passage? Especially in today's climate? When was the last time you and your neighbors got together over juice and water and talked about denying yourself even one of the pleasures of life? Probably never, right?
We don't live in a time when self denial is talked about very much. I'm not sure there ever was a time that self-denial was ever taught as a great virtue for everyday life. Especially not now.
What are the most popular television shows in America? "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," "Twenty One," "Winning Lines," and the one that sums them all up "Greed". At least FOX had the common decency to name the game what it really is all about.
Even though Greed is listed as one of the seven deadly sins, it has become one of the major gods in America. We are obsessed with making money. And not even making money. At least that's industrious. We are obsessed with everything about money. We gamble more than ever before. State after state has started Lotteries to help raise money.
Here in Texas they sold the lottery as a way to raise money for the schools. And then when it passed they said, "Oh, what we really meant was that education might be ONE of the places we could put the money."
Week after week people buy ticket after ticket or they sit by their phone, dialing repeatedly trying to get on Millionaire. And no one is denying themselves anything.
B. Deny ourselves? Absolutely not. Oh, we will deny reality. We'll deny we've gotten older. We'll deny that we have wrinkles. We'll deny that we've lost hair. We'll deny we've gained weight and swear that we wear that same size jeans as in high school even though we've put on 75 pounds and we can barely get the jeans past our hips and buttoned. We'll deny the truth. We'll deny we know what the preacher's talking about. But we won't deny ourselves.
Apart from the people involved the Weigh Down Workshop, when was the last time you told yourself "No?" When was the last time you said to yourself or someone else, "No, I just can't do that, that's not what God wants me to do."
As the country western song said, "Denial ain't some river in Egypt." Self denial is one of the significant spiritual practices. You don't say "No" to yourself just to say "No". You say "No" to your self in order to be able to say "Yes" to God and "Yes" to Jesus.
I will never forget one baptism that I did. Lauren was eight and loved the church. She loved coming to worship and Sunday School. She liked children's church but wanted to stay in big church too. So, some Sunday's she did. And soaked up everything like a sponge.
Lauren and her family were expecting a baby brother, and even before brother was born, Amanda was a proud big sister. About two months after John's birth, Mom and Dad brought John to be baptized. As I was asking them the standard questions, "Do you repent of your sin." "Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior?" and "Will you nurture John that by his teaching and example he may be guided to accept God's grace for himself." Mom and Dad both said, "Yes," in that adult, this is serious business but part of the ritual sort of way.
But Lauren's eyes were big and wide and serious and totally in tune with God and the joy of the moment. For her answers weren't just simple responses. They came form the heart. And when I asked "Will you nurture . . .?" Lauren's answer was , "Oh, Yes."
That's the kind of response we should be giving to God all the time. And that's what self denial helps us do. When we say "No!" to ourselves then we are better able to say "Yes!" to God. And that's what Jesus wants for us, to be able to say "Yes!" to God.
A. The self denial part of this passage isn't the hardest part. The hardest part is taking up our cross. Peter and the other disciples didn't want any part of the cross. They weren't ready for it. They had other plans. I mean really, there was a time when they were arguing over who would get to sit next to Jesus when he came into his kingdom. There were twelve of them and only two seats. That's what was on their mind.
And to be truthful, the cross isn't what's on our mind either. That's not why we came to Jesus, is it. No. Most of us came to Jesus because he made us feel good about ourselves and our relationship with God. Many of us suffered from low self esteem and rejection. We lived a dysfunctional life. Or we were filled with guilt over all the things we had done wrong. Or maybe it was all of those things. But then along came Jesus. And through our surrender to him, through our relationship, He gave us new life, self respect, acceptance. He made us productive. But most of all, changed everything by offering us forgiveness. And to be honest, most of us have stayed there. The call to Take Up The Cross, is simply a call to do something with what Christ has done for you. It's a call to mobilization. It's a call to reach out. It's a call to tell our story whenever we are asked.
B. The cross we bear isn't some bad habit we don't think we have the ability to control or do anything about. The cross we bear isn't some burden we think we have to bear alone. The cross we bear is the story of what Christ has done for us. That's not a burden because He lifted all of our burdens. He lightened our load. He set us free. Our cross is telling others about Jesus. We have to be intentional about that.
I recently read about a time when Mother Teresa heard of a family whose nine members were starving to death. She hurriedly obtained some rice and went to the family, giving them enough rice to prepare a meal. But the woman divided the rice into two piles, placed one in a bag and started to leave. Mother Teresa asked where she was going. The woman said she was going to visit another family who she knew was starving also.
That's denying oneself. That's taking up the cross. That's being intentional and single minded about your faithfulness. You see taking up the cross isn't about believing in Jesus. Taking up the cross is about being obedient to Jesus.
A lot of us are like the teacher who confronted one her students who had been misbehaving all day long. "Didn't you promise to behave?," she asked. The student replied: "Yes, Ma'am."
Then the teacher asked: "Didn't I promise to punish you if you didn't behave?" The student replied: "Yes, Ma'am, but since I broke my promise, I thought maybe you'd break yours, too." (1)
God doesn't break promises. God is faithful. And God expects us to be faithful as well. We're faithful when we take up our cross and take the risk of telling our story.
A. Jesus said, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." While the denying yourself part and the taking up the cross part are hard, the following part is exciting and challenging and even fun. It fill us with joy and gives our life purpose.
There was a young man who came to a pastor's office and said he wanted to be a Christian but he didn't know what being a Christian was all about. The pastor told the young man to read the Book of Acts as preparation, then come back and they would talk about what he had learned and how to apply it.
A week went by and then another week and then another. The preacher began to think that he'd made a serious mistake in his suggestion. Finally, almost a year later, the young man finally came back. When the surprised pastor asked where he had been, in all seriousness the young man said, "You told me to read the Book of Acts. Well, every time I started reading it, it told me to get up and do something. So, I did. I got up and I went and did it. I've been too busy to come back and talk about it. I've been living it. And in living it, I met Jesus. And in meeting Jesus my life changed. Thank you, now I know what it means to be a Christian."
I don't believe that what Jesus said, here is so much about being willing to die on the cross like He did, though that is definitely implied. But rather, I believe Jesus was giving us an image of complete and total obedience, like this young man followed.
The young man in the story saw and felt the authority of the Scripture and the authority of Jesus and he obeyed. That's what Jesus wanted out of Peter and the others. he wanted them to look beyond themselves and obey. And that's what Jesus wants out of us.
B. There is a chorus that Christians in Liberia love to sing. It speaks about obedience to God. The words are:
"I say yes, Lord, yes, to your will and to your way.
I say yes, Lord, yes, I will answer and obey.
When your spirit speaks to me, with my whole heart I agree . . .
I say yes, Lord, yes." (2)
Jesus is calling us to say "Yes, Lord, Yes." That's what the cross is all about.
Tommy, age 7, attends St. Mary Catholic School. On Ash Wednesday the entire school attended Mass. The students had been learning about Lent and the sacrifices that Jesus made. After school Tommy asked his mother, "I have to give up something that is very important to me right?"
She told him it was entirely up to him. He then asked, "This is for 40 days right?"
"Are you having trouble making up your mind?" his mother asked. Tommy was silent for a while so his mother told him that he could give up soda pop, desserts or even cartoons. He replied, "Now Mom, I like those things but I should give up something I LOVE… So I've been thinking that since I LOVE school so much I think that for the next 40 days I could just stay home!"
A lot of us are like Tommy. We have a hard time making up our mind about things like what to give up. We know we should practice the spiritual discipline of denying our self. But we don't really want it to be too hard.
Jesus says that we should be willing to give up everything for his sake. And while that's hard, remember that He gave up his life on the cross for you.
_____________________________
Bibliography
1. Autoillustrator
2. Morgan, Robert C., Lift High The Cross (Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1995) p. 123.
3.
4.