This is an excerpt from my recent sermon on Mark 8:27-9:1 entitled, “The Savior’s Demand.“
In 8:34 Jesus called “the crowd to him with his disciples,” indicating that what is about to follow is for all disciples, not just The Twelve. He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself . . .” Self-denial here does not mean the mere resistance of material desires. It means the complete renouncing of self – ceasing to make self the central focus of one’s life. “. . . and take up his cross . . .” Cross bearing doesn’t refer to putting up with irritations or annoyances in life, but it involves the path to crucifixion. It was normal procedure for the condemned person to carry the crossbeam of the cross from the place of judgment to the place of execution. Crucifixion was view as the most ignoble of deaths. To bear the cross, thus meant obeying to the point of humiliation, extreme suffering, and death. “. . . and follow me.” Jesus is simply saying, “My path is your path.” I will suffer and die, you must be willing to follow in my footsteps. This is what disciples must do.
Understand how radical this would have been for the disciples to hear. They understood Jesus role as Messiah to be one of political victory and triumph, they probably were thinking they’d soon have seats of honor next to His throne when He overthrew the Roman Empire. But Jesus said He would suffer and so they must be willing to suffer. Each of these phrases were like little sticks of dynamite blowing up the disciples’ notions of what it meant to come after Jesus.
8:35-38 now gives us four statements that put some practical meat on the theological bones of 8:34. Notice how each verse begins with the word “for”:
- 8:35: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
- 8:36: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
- 8:37: For what can a man give in return for his soul?
- 8:38: For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
We need to see two ways these verses reason unto us a rethinking of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
- Cross-centered discipleship demands us to rethink confession versus denial. 8:35 and 8:38 are linked on this point. It would have been a powerful temptation to the 1st century Romans Mark originally addressed to deny Christ in order to save their life. But Jesus is saying denying Him here on earth means losing Him there in eternity. So, confessing faith in Christ here – no matter the cost –means gaining Him there.
- Cross-centered discipleship demands us to rethink humiliation versus honor. Sin, Satan, and the world call you to strive for honor here and forego any humiliation at being associated with Christ. But Jesus turns that notion on its head in 8:36-37. Would you flee the humiliation that often comes from believing in Christ to gain honor in this world, but in so doing forfeit your soul? Jim Elliot surely right to say, “He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Simply put, cross-centered discipleship will ordinarily demand earthly loss for eternal gain, and that pursuit flies against the common goal of “the good life” – saving one’s life and gaining the whole world. I wonder tonight what occupies your mind most, earthly profits or eternal pursuits? Are you striving for the honor of this world more than the humiliation that comes with faithfully following Christ? Are you quicker to confessing Him as Lord or hide your Christian convictions?
The section concludes with a somewhat puzzling statement, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” It seems best to understand that Jesus is referring to what comes next in Mark’s gospel, which we will study next week, the Savior transfigured in glory on a mountainside.
Slowly but surely, Jesus is moving the disciples from being spectators to being participants. Participation means seeing who Jesus is, seeing what Jesus must do, and then seeing what disciples must do.
A CROSS CENTERED CHURCH
Do you see the centrality of the cross in this passage? In 8:31 Jesus says His Messiahship is necessarily barreling towards the cross. In 8:34 He says discipleship is summed up in self-denial and cross-bearing. Christian life and mission is all about a cross – the cross of Jesus Christ. This is thus necessarily true about a Christian church. Let’s begin to close by considering what this text tells us about a cross-centered church:
A cross-centered church knows Jesus intimately. It all begins with a confession of Christ, seeing Him clearly, knowing Him intimately. Faithfulness to Christ depends on accurate knowledge of Christ. If we are to be church that displays and declares God’s glory we must be about knowing Jesus intimately. One practical outflow of this truth is that we would be a people who help each other grow in our knowledge of the Savior. We would make it our delight to help our spouses, children, and fellow church members know the Savior intimately. That knowledge would lead to the second point . . .
A cross-centered church follows Jesus sacrificially. Jesus clearly assumes that His followers would suffer, be rejected, and even die. Faithful obedience requires sacrifice. In our culture that might not be the sacrifice of our lives, but it could mean the sacrifice of money, time, relationships, or reputation. Those sacrifices will ordinarily stem from our third point . . .
A cross-centered church proclaims Jesus eagerly. We are to model the plain, yet bold, teaching of Christ in 8:32. A crucified and risen Savior is the gospel that saves; it’s good news so glorious that we must proclaim it. It must be the sum and substance of our gathered worship time, but also the aim of our daily conversation.
Know Him intimately, follow Him sacrificially, and proclaim Him eagerly; three regular responses of a cross-centered church.
GOODBYE TO SELF-CENTERED LIVING,
HELLO TO CROSS-CENTERED LIVING
One of my favorite theologians is a Scotsman named John Murray. He was the youngest of eight with five older brothers and two sisters. When World War I came his older brothers were some of the first called to service. The unspeakable grief, for the families of such summoned men, is hard for us to capture today. When Murray’s brother Tommy was called to France his father said, “Goodbye Tommy, I’ll never see you again.” And Tommy indeed never returned home alive.
Jesus, the King of Kings, has called His people to Himself, opened their eyes, and is summoning people to the war of the ages as they follow Him. It’s a summons that demands we say, “Goodbye self, I’ll never see you again.” He came to die that we might live and now calls us to the same, die to self that we might live to Christ. Because He went to the cross we are to carry a cross. Christian life and mission is all about a cross.
For the last few weeks I’ve been preaching through Mark 15 and the events of Good Friday. Sadness and loss imbued the first century followers of Christ as our Lord was rejected, beaten, mocked, and killed.
