Mark 8 31ff. 2006
Lent 2
Mark 8:31-38
March 12, 2006
“You Want To Do What With Your Life”
after G. Bass
Introduction: When a person makes a radical statement about his or her purpose in life, most people react with equally radical answers and actions. They may express disbelief, doubt or even shock, by vocal opposition or, perhaps, even by laughter. There was a man who lived his life by just getting by. Then he announced that he was going to study medicine. When he said, "I’m going to be a doctor," his friends almost laughed in his face. He had never been a good student in high school, he was next to last in his class. To the surprise of most who knew him, he turned into an "A" student and was accepted into medical school, and graduated from medical school in the upper 10% of his class. He became a reputable and successful physician. No one is laughing now.
Disbelief is often the reaction a person gets when they announce that they intend to enter the full-time ministry of the church. "Do you mean to tell me that you are going to be a pastor? You?" Friends often see their friends as being strangely unfitted - perhaps due to demonstrated lifestyle, character, and opinions - for the ministry of the gospel. They say, "You must be kidding."
Sometimes, even worse, is the opposition of loved ones. They may say, "Have you ever considered what you are giving up? Look at the careers your friends are preparing for and take another look at the ministry." One of the biggest comments is, “So, you want to do what with your life?” In other words…”your throwing your life and potential away”. Our parent’s reaction… In the end, after years have passed, sometimes they understand, except and even praise the decision that was made.
Jesus received rather heated opposition from Peter when he announced a radical course that his life would take. Our Gospel records Jesus words, “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Jesus understood himself to be the Promised One of God, the Messiah. He understood that He must be rejected, suffer and die, but then He also knew that he would rise again from the dead. Then we have Peter’s reaction, “Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.” That was that Peter took it upon himself to warn, strongly admonish and even threaten Jesus. It was if he was saying, “you want to do what with your life” and, may it never be…you are a good person, a healer, a man of God who speaks God’s word, you have raised the dead. Rejection, suffering and death must not be part of your life.
And how could it be any different, Peter and Jesus’ disciples loved Jesus too much to see him suffer and die. Peter’s action brought an equally strong response from Jesus: "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men."
Peter really didn’t want the Suffering Servant sort of Savior described in the scriptures. Peter was a disciple because, at this point in his life, he believed Jesus to be the Messiah, the kind of Messiah the Jewish nation was looking for: a political leader who would free them from Roman domination and restore the prestige and power of Israel. But perhaps Peter also understood what Jesus was saying and understood it’s ramification for his life. Up to this point Peter was living a life of glory. Can you imagine walking around with a miracle worker, one that heals the sick, casts out demons, and even raises the dead? Can you imagine being there on the mountain top seeing Jesus transfigured before your very eyes? It was the life of glory, honor and praise, and Peter was part of the inner circle, one of the 12 called disciples. And here Jesus is talking about rejection, suffering and death. Perhaps Peter understood that if Jesus was to be rejected, suffer and die…so would he. Perhaps Peter thought to himself, “So, You want to do what with Your life, but what about my life?...Because what ever happens to you, Jesus, may happen to me.
Perhaps Peter understood, that as awful as it is to contemplate the death of the innocent Son of God, that whether we believe in Him or not our lives are eternally impacted. Perhaps, the most significant thing about Lent is that it lays Jesus’ cross upon us all: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life?" The gospel doesn’t allow us Christians to go through Lent simply as interested onlookers. If we follow Jesus to the cross, claiming that we love him, he expects us to become his disciples - without any reservations. If we call Jesus our Lord and Savior, we are to pick up his cross and carry it faithfully, telling the world the good news, and serving God and humanity with love and compassion. And, as I said, everyone’s life is impacted by Christ’s death on the cross. That is true even for unbelievers. Because of His death everyone’s life is changed forever.
Oswald Hoffmann once told about a man, a father, who accidentally struck a boy with his car. A crowd quickly gathered, and the man picked up the boy, announcing that he would take him to the hospital.
There was another man who did the same thing. He struck a child on the street with his car and gathered the boy into his arms and said that he too was taking the child to the hospital. But there was a difference between the two men. The second man did take the boy to the hospital, where he saw to it that he was cared for. But the first man, the father, who struck the boy, simply drove five blocks away from the scene, "where he heartlessly put the seriously injured boy out on the street because he did not want to become involved." But he was involved, of course, and, says Dr. Hoffmann, "Before he was finished he had involved his whole family, his friends, his business associates, and many other people in the ruin that came to his own life, his financial resources, and his reputation."
Hoffmann’s states "Attempting to avoid involvement often results in hopeless involvement," this sounds much like Jesus’ word: "For whoever would save his life will lose it ..." To turn away from the Tree, Jesus’ cross that becomes our cross, can cost us our lives, our souls. If we claim to love the crucified Christ, the gospel makes us comprehend the cost of being Christians and followers of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus claims our lives, too - usually in terms of discipleship and sacrifice rather than actual death.
There is a comedian named Yakov Smirnoff. When he first came to the United States from Russia he was not prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, "On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk--you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice--you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to my self, What a country!"
Smirnoff is joking but we make these assumptions about Christian Transformation—that people change instantly when they are saved. Some people call it repentance and renewal. Some call it Sanctification of the believer. Whatever you call it most Christians expect some quick fix to sin. According to this belief, when someone believes in Jesus Christ, there is an immediate, substantive, in-depth, miraculous change in habits, attitudes, and character. We go to church as if we are going to the grocery store: Powdered Christian. Just add water and disciples are born not made.
Unfortunately, there is no such powder and disciples of Jesus Christ while they are instantly born again, and receive God’s promise of forgiveness and eternal life, they are slowly raised to new life in Christ through many trials, suffering, and temptations.
We are the children of God. We are baptized, redeemed, forgiven and born again. And we are called and equipped by the Holy Spirit to carry the cross of Christ…That is His message of God’s Law and God’s salvation through Jesus. To be Christian means that the world will see the cross of Christ in the way that we live out our lives. And it won’t simply be a matter of announcing to the world, "I believe that Jesus is Lord." It means that our lives will reflect, in words and deeds, the reality of our confession of faith.
We confess with Jesus that the reality of it all is that Jesus must be rejected, suffer and die. This is what Jesus wants and must do with His life. It doesn’t make sense to us in our modern world. But through His death his satisfies the justice of God in the payment of sin, and He satisfies the love and grace of God, that through Him all people would be given the grace and favor of God, even eternal life, that through Him, those that believe in Him would receive this grace of God.
And now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we too follow Jesus. When asked, “So you want to do what with your life, even though we may be rejected, suffer and even die, this is what we want to do…what we are called to do…we call ourselves Christians, we live according to God’s law and will, not according to the way the world lives. And most of all we follow Jesus and understand why He was rejected and must suffer and die. He did it for us. That as He was raised to life on the third day we to shall be raised and have eternal life…Yeah! That’s what I want to do with my life. Yes! That is what has been done for me in my Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
