Know your role

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1. Here are couple resources that help explain the season of Lent and how to practice it: Sarah Phillips, “What Is Lent: Honoring the Sacrifice of Jesus,” Crosswalk, June 19, 2020, https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/lent-101-honoring-the-sacrifice-of-jesus-1382259.html; and “Lent,” BBC, June 22, 2009, Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) readings for Lent 2021 can be found here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=B&season=Lent. Note that the RCL website will have updated passages for subsequent years. The lectionary operates on a three-year rotation (Years A, B, and C). Check the year for the current Lenten season to locate that year’s verses.

2. Jesus’s reference to the Son of Man carries significant weight when considering his death. Walter Wessel explains, “‘Son of Man’ is by far the favorite expression Jesus uses in the Gospels to refer to himself. It occurs eighty-one times; and, with the possible exceptions of Mark 2:10 and 28—where the title ‘Son of Man’ seems to be part of Mark’s editorial comments—no one else, neither his friends nor his foes, refers to Jesus as the Son of Man. ‘Son of Man’ occurs in the OT. In the Psalms it means simply ‘man’ (cf. Pss 8:4; 80:17); and in Ezekiel, where it occurs over ninety times, it is the particular name by which God addresses the prophet. These OT passages throw some light on the NT usage. The most helpful text, however, is Daniel 7:13–14” (Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in Matthew, Mark, Luke, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 8 [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984], 695, Logos).

3. In Mark 8:32, Jesus calls his disciples to comprehend the intent of his coming. They didn’t understand why he had come, but his coming death was always on his mind. The loss of their beloved teacher would have been difficult enough for the disciples to hear about, but the appearance of failure was foremost on their minds. Though we can speak of the resurrection as the answer to Jesus’s death, the disciples couldn’t even fathom a dead Jesus. Wessel says, “Jesus now spoke plainly about his suffering role as Son of Man and Messiah. Before he had veiled it. The message got through to Peter, but he refused to accept it. Peter had the greatest difficulty in conceiving of messiahship in any other than the popular theological and political categories. A suffering Messiah! Unthinkable! The Messiah was a symbol of strength, not weakness. So Peter took Jesus aside and, amazingly rebuked him. The word translated ‘rebuked’ (epitimaō) is the same one used for the silencing of the demons (cf. 1:25; 3:12)” (Wessel, “Mark,” 696).

4. The death of Jesus is an act of obedience, not of negligence or misguided understanding. Jesus came to die for the sins of the world. Believers must understand that Jesus’s death was the only way we could experience the freedom we seek. Key to this is recognizing that Jesus chose to die. He exercised both divine and human free will to go to the cross. Lamar Williamson explains: “His freedom, however, is subject to the will of God: ‘the Son of man must suffer … be rejected … be killed … and rise again.’ The sequence of verbs outlines the narrative of chapters fourteen through sixteen. The scenario is inevitable: ‘The Son of man must (dei) suffer.’ The necessity of Jesus’ passion (‘had to,’ NEB; ‘was destined to,’ JB) lies in the divine ordering of history (see also 9:11; 13:7, 10). More precisely, Jesus must suffer because his understanding of the will of God runs counter to that of the religious authorities: members of the governing council, officiants in the community’s liturgical life, and authorized interpreters of Scripture. Obedient to God, Jesus is on a collision course with God’s human surrogates. Members of the Jewish religious establishment are not the only ones who find Jesus’ teaching unpalatable. So does Peter, and again he speaks for all of Jesus’ disciples” (Lamar Williamson, Mark, Interpretation [Atlanta: J. Knox Press, 1983], 152–53, Logos).

5. Sometimes we see the Lenten season as a time to give something up; however, Robert Webber suggests we see Lent as a season of taking on something—namely, living out the paschal mystery of Jesus’s death. “Let us say, then, that Lent is a double journey—a journey together (and alone) toward the mystery of God’s redemptive embrace in the death and resurrection of Christ. At the same time, it is a journey into the depths of our humanity. Without a shared, living memory of who Jesus Christ was, there would be no faith community with a distinctive Christian identity. Without a living encounter over time with who Christ is in our midst, there would be no unfolding of Christian life and ministry. The double journey of Lent, then, is a baptismal journey” (Robert Webber, The Services of the Christian Year, The Complete Library of Christian Worship 5 [Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994], 228, Logos).

6. Here is a simple presentation of Lent that can be posted on a website, shared to social media, or used as an intro to the season: https://youtu.be/Xo1mjuy1NA0.