2 Lent, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
2 Lent, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Mark 8:31-38 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifying Spirit. Amen.
Up to this point in the Gospel of Mark we hear stories of Jesus restoring life:
giving sight to the blind,
driving demons out of the possessed,
restoring mobility to the lame,
giving speech to the mute,
and feeding the hungry.
Then today’s gospel opens with these words:
“Jesus began to teach his disciples
that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering,
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes,
and be killed….”
With this text…
the powerful, life bestowing Jesus shifts to become the suffering servant.
And Peter doesn’t like it.
Who would?
Peter was hoping for a triumphant, political Messiah
who would overthrow the oppressive government…
not a messiah who would suffer rejection and be killed.
When Peter recently claimed Jesus to be “the Messiah,”
his was a vision of a Messiah who was to defeat the enemy with worldly power.
The Messiah would triumph!
So, this talk of Jesus’ suffering and rejection and even death just doesn’t compute.
Suffering?
What’s that about?
The Messiah is supposed to do away with suffering.
And to make matters worse…
not only does Jesus announce that he himself will suffer and die
but he takes it a step further by saying that anyone who wishes to follow him
must take up their own cross and follow Jesus along the same road.
So, Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him.
You would think Jesus’ announcement wouldn’t be a surprise for the disciples:
John the Baptist’s beheading should have indicated the risk!
“If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Discipleship is costly, Jesus is saying.
There is no such thing as “cheap grace.”
Grace is a gift from God,
and sometimes,
or perhaps always,
Jesus says that Grace leads us into suffering.
German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, knew well the cost of discipleship,
and the life-affirming ways of suffering.
Bonhoeffer said,
“The cross is not the horrible end of a pious, happy life
but stands rather at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ.
“Every call of Christ leads to death….
“Self-denial means knowing only Christ,
and no longer oneself.
“It means seeing only Christ,
who goes ahead of us,
and no longer the path that is too difficult for us.
“Again, self-denial is saying only:
[Jesus] goes ahead of us;
hold fast to him.”
“The cross is not adversity,
nor the harshness of fate,
but suffering coming solely from our commitment to Jesus Christ.”
(taken from “Discipleship and the Cross” in Bread and Wine, pp. 49-51)
We are told that Jesus talked about his suffering, rejection, and death quite openly.
After Peter rebukes Jesus,
Jesus rebukes Peter:
“Get behind me, Satan!
For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Perhaps the strength of Jesus’ rebuke of Peter shows us his humanity…
his own struggle with the temptation to preserve his life through power.
Satan had already tempted Jesus in the wilderness with human things…
with power and glory and wealth of the human variety.
In this world, it is easy to get caught up in setting our minds on human things!
I mean…we are human after all.
Jesus then calls the crowds along with his disciples and 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 for the sake of the gospel,
will save it.
“For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”
Jesus’ new teaching to the disciples is not that there is danger on the journey
but that we must knowingly and willingly walk straight into that danger.
Let me be clear: we do not choose danger for danger’s sake,
but if in walking the way of the gospel of love,
we find ourselves walking into danger,
then so be it.
Following Jesus does not mean making minor adjustments to our ordinary lives…
it requires a radical change
and the willingness to walk headlong into suffering and pain –
and possibly even death.
We must be willing to risk our lives for the sake of others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a prime example of walking straight into danger for the sake of the Gospel.
Bonhoeffer deliberately chose to return to Germany to oppose Hitler instead of remaining safe overseas. And his choice cost him his life.
Being from Memphis, I am reminded of the Sisters of St. Mary,
who lived during the Yellow Fever pandemic there.
Four nuns, who had gone to Memphis as school teachers,
chose to remain in the city during the outbreak
so that they could physically care for those stricken with the disease.
They remained in a place of danger in order to live out the Gospel,
and they all lost their lives as a consequence of caring for the ill.
I also remember the story about a man standing on the platform at a New York City subway station who witnessed another man accidentally fall onto the tracks.
Not having time to pull him out,
the man jumped on top of him,
pushing him out of the way of the oncoming train.
It is worth noting that all of these folks were going about their ordinary lives in the midst of history unfolding.
There was nothing terribly remarkable about them.
But, they chose to walk headlong into danger for the sake of the Gospel,
that is, for the sake of their fellow human beings in need,
discounting any suffering they might endure,
and not seeking the glory of the world.
God, enfleshed in Jesus, reveals to us such suffering for the sake of love.
God refused to become trapped in God’s own glory.
God became available to us through Jesus, the Christ.
Through Jesus, God joins us in our pain
and embraces us from the cross.
As Jesus’ disciples we are to participate in the work of Jesus,
And Jesus tells us that life is sometimes found by treading the pathway of death.
The first suffering we experience is the call to surrender our ties to this world.
This is the death of our “old self” in our encounter with Jesus.
If we choose to not be bound by our own egos,
we no longer need to preserve our selves…
we die to self: our pride,
our lust for power and influence,
our need to be right,
our gluttony, etc. …
and instead we live for others.
Then all worldly goods,
including our very lives,
are dispensable.
Our commitment to follow Jesus is a daily commitment,
an hourly commitment,
a commitment we must choose moment by moment.
Fortunately, we gather as a community to remind us of and encourage one another
in God’s call to us and…
to be nourished at the Table with Christ’s Body and Blood
so that we may have the courage to follow Jesus on the journey.
“If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves,
and take up their cross,
and follow me.”
Amen.
