Lent 2: Preparing

If there was ever a status check moment for Jesus and his disciples, this is surely one.

Up to this point, we’ve heard the stories of Jesus calling the disciples, receiving his own temptation in the wilderness, early accounts of his healings and miracles, and rumblings about him being the Messiah, the one the Hebrew people have been waiting for. Today’s text comes in the context of a crackle of expectation. And in typical fashion for the Gospel of Mark, it gets right to the point — this is what is next.

Let’s hear our reading.

Mark 8:31–38 NRSV

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.”

This is not an easy text to palate. It is rich with many insights into who Jesus is, and some of them don’t sit as comfortably in us as we might like.

Let’s explore it.

First, Jesus begins to teach. He has been doing this for a while now, helping his followers to get a picture for what it happening, what his purpose is. Now, he gets clear with them. Good leaders get clarity and share that clarity with their followers, in order to prepare and guide them.

So, he gets clear about a few things:

- The Son of Man: This title can be thought of interchangeably with the Messiah, in the sense that that Son of Man is in the popular imagination of God’s people as the promised divine ruler. Son of Man is a term we find in the prophet Daniel’s writings. This Son is the hoped for one. The title also conveys a difference about what Israel expected for the Messiah — there is a humanity to this role. While many civilizations in the ancient world spoke of Divine beings who would come intermingle with humanity, there is something different about the Judeo-Christian understanding of God’s promised one, particularly that they are enfleshed, human, with us. This is why the birth of Christ, in that manger in Bethlehem, is at once so surprising and confirming — the humility of God indwells in this human person. Not a king, not a prince, at least in the earthly sense, but a human like us. The Son of Man has a purpose that he is now communicating to his followers. The prelude is over. Now it is time to move directly to Jerusalem and to set about his purpose.

And what is going to happen to the Son of Man — well, he’s going to be rejected. By who? Well, it seems that all of the authorities who hold religious power. The elders, the chief priests, the scribes…all the members of the establishment are going to…what’s that…they’re going to kill him!

It seems, for Peter at least, that Jesus gets a little too clear for comfort.

He pulls Jesus aside and, our text says, he rebukes him.

Think of this, for a moment. You’re a new member of this movement and you have been faithful so far to follow where he leads. But now you hear he knows to expect violence and death, the movement clearly threatened by the powers that be.

What would you do? Would you be able to sit quietly and take that in? Or would you want to “have a word” after to set this leader straight? I can imagine many of us doing exactly what Peter does — “you can’t say that, you’ll undermine the whole thing!!”

I get it. I’m sure you do too. We don’t want to present a negative direction and this is what Jesus is clearly starting to do, in Peter’s mind.

And in response, Jesus offers Peter one of his most famous lines — “Get behind me, Satan.”

Let’s pause there, as well. We’ve heard of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by Satan, the evil one. We know he was confronted by evil and had to wrestle with his own response. He has emerged from the temptation portion of his journey and now, before his disciples, begins to share where things are going. And as he is rebuked by Peter, so Jesus rebukes him in return — get behind me. Get out of the way, you don’t know what you are speaking of.

Peter’s earnest desire to protect and fight for his friend and leader makes sense. But we also know that so often, we do not see the full picture of what is going on.

I wonder about whether Peter would have offered a different response if he knew the whole story. If he knew the trajectory in its fullness, where he would witness these persecutions that Jesus has just outlined. He would be there in Jerusalem as Jesus is paraded through the city, bearing a cross. Peter, as we know, will go on to deny that he even knows Jesus — what if Jesus could have revealed that all to him in this moment? What would Peter’s reaction have been? “But I would never abandon you, Jesus!”

We say such things, but we, like Peter, also don’t see the whole story. We miss out on what God does to prepare us and we focus on our own understanding. We expect Jesus to act a certain way and when he doesn’t, we are frustrated and confused.

Jesus takes this opportunity to get clear, once more, with the disciples and the crowd.

He has called his followers together. Peter tried to pull him aside, but Jesus, in response, speaks beyond this 1-on-1 interaction to the whole group. I imagine Peter’s embarrassment. Jesus doesn’t really give him an opportunity to save face. Instead, Jesus uses this interaction as an opportunity to teach more about what this will mean for him and his followers.

He says, in vs. 34,

Mark 8:34 NRSV

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.

If we want to follow him, we need to let go of our preconceptions and our own purposes.

As I studied this text, I was curious about how Jesus includes this section on “taking up our cross” as a part of following him. Mark’s Gospel is the earliest written gospel. But for Jesus to include this note about a cross seems out of context if we do not know that is where he is headed. It is a challenge, I find especially during the season of Lent, not to assume and take for granted the parts of the story that have yet to occur…where does this language of taking up a cross come from?

Crosses were known, in this time, as an instrument of death and torture. It cannot be argued with what Jesus is getting at in his statement — “taking up a cross” means exactly what we think it means — carrying this heavy burden on the way to death. There is no denying the gravity of this statement.

But Jesus says any who follow him are to take up their cross.

How does that sit with us?

Are we ready to do this? Would we be willing to shoulder this burden and walk with Jesus?

He goes on, and speaks in more dramatic and even clearer terms:

“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, the Good News, will save it.”

From the sounds of it, if we are truly going to follow Jesus, we will have to shoulder this burden. We will have to learn to let go of our lives, our plans, our meddlings that we hoped some how would allow us to avoid suffering or pain. We are presented with a choice: Will we protect ourselves, which sounds ultimately futile? Or will we relinquish our control and prepare to journey with Jesus into the most difficult, painful, and it seems, life-giving places.

Do you hear that? To journey with Christ to the cross is to find life? How is that?

We go through our days seeking answers to purpose and direction for our living. But Jesus is telling us that if what we spend our days preparing for is to protect and hold our own lives in safety, we will fail. To try to grasp for this is to miss the point.

So what are we to do?

——

This is a fulcrum point in the Christian journey. We may be filled with the Spirit and passionate about a particular line of service in God’s kingdom. We may have all the hope for revival and spreading the good news. We may believe in revolution and be willing to fight for it.

But the question isn’t whether we are prepared for what we expect…but rather, are we ready and willing to be surprised, humbled, and for our eyes to be opened?

Eugene Peterson’s the Message offers us a fresh take on Jesus’ words. This is really about preparing to sacrifice, to give ourselves away, for this glorious purpose Christ has for us.

Mark 8:34–37 (MSG): “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

Will we let Jesus lead?

A good leader will prepare their followers. They will point out the direction they are headed. They will make plans to ensure they have what they need. They will not be deterred by alternative ideas or routes, but will, instead, be faithful to the journey they know they must take. They will invite others along, but not compromise the purpose of their work.

Will we let go of our designs for a good life so that we might find the real life?

Where are you at? Are you confronted with this reality that protecting what is your life might lead you to miss out on the fullness of life?

I also wondered about what it means for us to be ashamed and the Son of man to be ashamed. Certainly, there is the heartbreak of trying to lead others, but finding that they will not follow or want to go their own direction.

But this word, ashamed, has an air of the reverential to it. It’s about regard, reverance, respect. To follow Jesus means we are to revere and trust him. To release our own directions and follow. And it is mutual — we are revered, beloved, held by Christ as followers. To turn away is to miss this glory of God.

In this season of Lent, will we follow him? Or will we get in our own way? Will we let go of our plans and prepare to embrace suffering with Christ, knowing that the glory of his way is greater than the challenges we will face?