Mark 8 31-38
Lent 2
Mark 8:31-38
March 16, 2003
“Follow the Leader”
Introduction: Are you going to lead or are you going to follow? There is a favorite childhood game called “follow the leader”. There are many ways to play the game. The way that it was originally played was to select one person as a leader. Players would then fall in line behind the leader holding tightly to the belt or clothing of the person in front of them. Each person would then have to duplicate the required movements of the leader. The leader quickly changes these movements and speeds up or slows down. The player who can’t “follow the leader” must drop out of the game.
The text of our gospel lesson follows Peter’s great confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter is leading the way with his wonderful confession of faith. Then follows our text for today, Jesus says that He must suffer, be rejected and killed in Jerusalem. To this Peter tries to lead again by rebuking Jesus and in a way saying that Jesus should not go to the cross. Jesus takes Peter aside. Jesus tells him how it is, how the Christian life is to be played out. It is not a childhood game but a matter of life and death. Jesus tells Peter who the leader is and what His followers must do. They must get in line behind Jesus. Standing as close as they can to Jesus, and holding onto Him, they must fall in line behind Jesus. Then like Jesus they must pick up the hundred pound weight of their own cross, made up of the burdens of other men, and carry it to their death. To live, followers of Jesus must do everything that the leader does, failing to do so results in eternal death. Are you going to lead or are you going to follow? Are you ready to follow the leader?
The cool kid in school was the one with the newest clothes, the latest gadgets, the freshest slang; he’d seen the latest hot movie and was the fan of the latest and greatest musical group. He always seemed like a leader. In the end though, he was just a follower…a follower of the latest trend. He tried to find satisfaction but in the end he was lead like a pig with a gold ring in its nose being pulled along towards a bucket filled with the slop of self satisfaction, materialism and novelty. This was the direction that Peter wanted to follow. Going to the cross, that didn’t sound like fun. Instead, Peter wanted to lead on the road towards the good life, satisfaction and glory. Peter wanted Jesus to be an earthly king. There is a bit of the cool kid and Peter in each one of us. We want to lead our own lives but usually that means following the trends that are set by others. We look for satisfaction for our own lives in the trends of the world, its gadgets, games and its philosophies that tell us they can make our lives better. We are attracted to them like pigs to slop. While it appears that we may find satisfaction in these things there glory soon fades and everything rusts. Ultimately after years of following the slop bucket we are lead to the slaughter house and our own death. The ways of the world lead to death. Are you going to lead or are you going to follow? Are you ready to follow the leader?
Jesus leads Peter and us on the road that leads to life. Not just life equated with years on this earth, but life that that is not counted in years – eternal life. It is life that is truly lived in a restored relationship with God. This life that Jesus leads towards is rooted in Himself. It is a life that flows from our crucified Savior. It is a life of cross bearing and discipleship as we follow our leader Jesus.
As followers of Jesus we must follow Jesus. The first thing that we must do to follow Him is to speak as He has spoken. Peter follows Jesus when He says that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Then, when Peter tells Jesus that he must not suffer and die, he fails. Such a failure, without correction, would lead to Peter’s eternal death. To follow Jesus our leader we must confess that He is the Son of God who came into the world to suffer and die for our sins. Without a cross we have no Savior, no hope and no life. For us, who have been born of the Spirit of God, this confession of faith often taken for granted. We might think, “Of course I believe in Jesus, His death on the cross, and the forgiveness of sins.” We might think, “Doesn’t everybody.” Here we take for granted a miracle of God within us. Jesus said, that such a confession does not come from flesh and blood, but though the Christ’s Father revealing it to us and creating faint in us by His Spirit. As we confess this faith we are followers of Jesus.
Then to follow Jesus we must do what He does, we must pick up our cross and carry it to our own death. It is the cross of discipleship. It means laying down concern for our own lives in this world and picking up the burdens of other people. The people of the world have many physical burdens. They are to numerous to mention here. Charity upon charity exits to help bear these burdens. There is a burden that no charity can bear. It is the burden of sin that rests on the shoulders of people that have not heard about Jesus. Jesus calls us to bear this burden because we are the only ones that can do it. We have what the world needs, forgiveness of sins for the sake of Jesus death on the cross. We must follow our Leader Jesus, who bore the sins of all men on His shoulders and now calls us to shoulder that burden also. Are you burdened with the sins of men? Are you going to lead or are you going to follow? Are you ready to follow the leader?
It’s not easy being a disciple of Jesus. It is not easy to follow our leader. In many ways it is like being trained as a soldier for war. Soldiers are trained to follow their leaders, their commanders. They are trained to do what ever is asked without hesitation. Hesitation might mean death. Obedience to command meant life, not only for the individual soldier but for his fellow troops. Following commands precisely does not always guarantee life. Soldiers do die in battle. But they don’t die for themselves. They die so other people may live and be free. That is what Jesus is asking of us. He wants us to die to ourselves so that other people might live and be free from the burden of their sins. We live for a purpose and that purpose is to let the world know about Jesus, first in our own homes and then to the world. It means sacrifice, of time, talent and money. It means taking less for ourselves and giving more, in whatever ways there is to give. We are at war with the spiritual powers of darkness. Though Christ has proclaimed victory through his death on the cross and His resurrection the battle continues. We are engaged in the battle for people’s souls. Like soldiers of war we must be disciplined. St. Paul wrote, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” George Washington wrote about discipline to the Virginia regiments in 1759 saying, “It make small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak and esteem to all”. The Apostle Paul wrote, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others, I myself should be disqualified.” The apostle preaches the good Word of the Gospel and then he applies it to his life. Even though we are weak, we are strong in the Lord as He guides us to be His disciples.
What Jesus asks us to do He has already done. He has given His life for us. He has given the ultimate sacrifice of His holy body on the alter of the cross. He has generously given us His Spirit that enables us to do what we would not choose to do on our own, to pick up the cross that lays before us and willing carry it on our shoulders. Through Jesus Christ and His power we are able to walk in His footsteps and speak His life giving gospel to a dying world. We have been blessed by Him not so that the blessing rests only on us. We have been blessed to be a blessing.
Conclusion: Are you going to lead or are you going to follow? Are you ready to follow the leader? As Jesus disciples me must both follow and lead. We follow Jesus in speaking the good confession of faith. We follow Jesus as we stand beneath His cross watching Him suffer and die for us. We follow Jesus to His grave and finally we follow him out of His empty tomb, a tomb of eternal death that was meant for us. Free from sin and death we are now able to pick up our cross and lead…lead people to Jesus who leads us all in the way of eternal life. Our Lord explains the importance of being His disciples. He points out the blessed result of discipleship. The person who suffers the loss of his life for Jesus will find that he has lost nothing, but gained everything for Jesus sake. Amen.