Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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My friends, I greet you today in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Our lesson comes to us from the 8th chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel.
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
One of the truly awesome things about the gospels is that they are narratives.
They are stories.
They put us right in the middle of the action.
We read or hear these words and we suddenly find ourselves standing next to Peter and watching in amazement as Jesus takes the hand of his mother-in-law and heals her.
We watch with dropped jaws and the roof over our heads is removed and a man on a mat is lowered through, and Jesus forgives his sins and heals his body too.
Well, here we are again.
In the midst of another amazing scene.
Can you see it?
We are walking with Jesus and his disciples in the villages around Caesarea Philippi.
It is a beautiful and fertile area.
You hear the wonder in the voices of the disciples as they recount the past miracles they have witnessed and what it all means.
And while they are walking Jesus asks a question.
Now it is not unusual for Jesus to ask questions.
But this one causes everyone to stop in their tracks.
“Who do people say that I am?”
The question hangs there in the air for a moment.
Then you look at the faces of the disciples as they offer up their answers.
“John the Baptizer.
Elijah.
One of the Prophets.”
Jesus responds with another question.
“But who do you say I am?” Peter says, “You are the Messiah!”
And Jesus orders them not to tell anyone about him.
Now you and I have the benefit of hindsight.
We know that Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone who he is because the disciples don’t fully understand what is going on.
They don’t realize what it means that Jesus is the Messiah.
You see, the disciples thought that Messiah was the one who was going to come in and liberate the people from their Roman oppressors.
It was not a pretty situation.
The taxes were outrageous.
The soldiers were mean.
It was not fair and life stunk.
But there was hope.
The Hebrew Scriptures spoke about Messiah.
He would liberate people from their oppression.
He would save them.
It wasn’t unreasonable for the disciples to expect that Jesus would lead an uprising that would give the Romans the left foot of fellowship and kick them out.
But they didn’t get it.
That is not who Messiah is.
Not at this time.
The disciples were expecting a lion, not a lamb.
Jesus tells them very clearly though.
He tells them that the Son of Man would have to suffer a lot.
He would be rejected by the leaders and the chief priests and the scribes, he would be killed, but after three days he will come back to life.
Can you see their faces become long, eyes opened wide in shock.
Their shoulders droop down.
They probably loss Jesus after the word “killed.”
They probably didn’t even hear him say that after three days he will come back to life.
From the perspective of the disciples there is only one word for this kind of talk coming from Jesus, nonsense.
So Peter pulls Jesus aside.
Probably just far enough to be out of ear shot of the others, but you and I know what is being said.
Peter voices his objection.
He rebukes Jesus.
St.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Peter said, “Heaven forbid Lord! May it never happen to you.”
And Jesus turns to look at his disciples.
He knows that the road to their life is the road to the cross.
He has to suffer and die for them.
In his death and resurrection their sins would be forgiven.
They would have a relationship with God.
The same goes for you and me by the way.
Through the death and resurrection your sins are forgiven.
My sins are forgiven.
And we life our lives in relationship with God.
Jesus looks at his disciples, still outside of ear shot and he responds to Peter’s objection, “Get out of my way, Satan!
You aren’t thinking the way God thinks but the way humans think.”
Ouch.
Now I don’t know how you hear these words.
Are they loud?
Are they angry?
I hear them with a firm but gentle tone.
It is firm because Jesus knows what he has to do, and he is not going to let anything get in the way of that.
And yet it is gentle because of Jesus’ love for people that he will not let anything keep him from the cross.
His love for his disciples, for the crowd, for the Romans, for you and me and all people, is what keeps him on the road of the cross.
Poor Peter.
He has to be shocked.
Did Jesus really just say, “Get out of my way, Satan!”?
But remember.
Peter doesn’t get what it means that Jesus is Messiah.
But Jesus wants him to understand what it means.
And so the story doesn’t end there.
Jesus calls over the crowd and the other disciples.
He says, “Those who want to follow me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses, and follow me.
Those who want to save their lives will lose them.
But those who lose their lives for me and for the Good News will save them.
What good does it do for people to win the whole world yet lose their lives?
Or what should a person give in exchange for life?
If people are ashamed of me and what I say in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of those people when he comes with the holy angels in his Father’s glory.”
In this scene that we have just witnessed Jesus turned upside down the disciples’ understanding of messiah and being a follower of Jesus.
It is not one of military might and political freedom, as was commonly thought.
No it was a road that went to the cross.
It went to the cross because of the sins of the world, the sins of the disciples and of the Romans, the sins of all people, the sins of you and of me.
It went to the cross because there the price for those sins would be paid.
And three days latter Jesus would be raised to life.
This victory over sin and death and the devil is greater than any military or political victory could ever be.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been restored to God. Being restored to God means that your sins are forgiven.
You have been washed clean.
They have been removed from you as far as the east is from the west.
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