Prayer: Lord, open our ears, our hearts and our minds to hear your word to us this day and then may we respond by picking up our cross and following you. In the name of Christ, Amen.
Who likes to suffer? Who would do anything to try and stop others suffering? There is so much suffering in the world. And we suffer when someone we love suffers, as a mother I recall the suffering of our youngest daughter, age of 2 having a major epileptic episode, being intubated and flown in a helicopter to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. If I could have traded places with her, or been able to stop the suffering, I would have.
We are generally averse to suffering and would rather avoid it all costs.
However, we read in the gospels that Jesus chose a life of suffering, as he lived on earth. Out of his great love for us, he was obedient to his Father, even unto death, so that we may live.
Just prior to the scripture we heard this morning, we read that the disciple Peter had declared that Jesus was the Messiah. Straight after this declaration however, Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he must suffer many things…and that he must be killed.
This teaching must have seemed very strange from one who has just admitted that he is the Messiah! No wonder Peter rebuked him, he was close to Jesus, he did not want him to suffer.
That was not the picture of the Messiah I’m sure Peter and the other disciples had in mind!! They did not expect their Messiah to suffer and die.
If Jesus was the Messiah, surely he will restore the earthly Kingdom of Israel?
But that is not what Jesus was proposing, his was a path of the suffering servant that the prophet Isaiah spoke of. His battle was not an earthly one, and his death, while seen as a defeat by his enemies, was all part of God’s plan for victory.
He was taking on something much bigger than Roman domination…he was taking on the sin of all humankind…to restore a right relationship with God…he was going to conquer death itself.
It seems Peter and the disciples didn’t hear Jesus when he said that after being killed – on the third day he would be raised. But he clearly said that as we read in verse 31.
How often do we just hear the first bit of a statement, especially if it is something shocking like suffering and death…I imagine Peter was just reeling from hearing that which is why he rebuked Jesus. But how arrogant is Peter…one day proclaiming Jesus as Messiah and then in the next minute presuming he had the right to rebuke him and tell him what to do…or not do as it happens.
Peter didn’t want to hear the hard thing. We can be like that too sometimes. Like only wanting to read the bits about love in the bible and avoid any bits that talk about judgement. Or reading all the bits about how we will be blessed…but not hearing the bits about suffering.
Jesus tells Peter to be quiet…’Get behind me Satan.’ Ooh that must have hurt. Peter had pulled Jesus aside to rebuke him, but Jesus rebuked Peter in front of all the disciples. His words ‘get behind me Satan’ remind us of the temptations Jesus dealt with in the desert before he began his ministry. We heard a very brief description from Mark’s gospel last week, but in the other gospels we read that the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread, to throw himself off the temple and then finally to bow down and worship the devil and he would be given all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus did not give in…rather he said, “away from me Satan…for it is written, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Peter was tempting Jesus to be a King in a different way than the path of suffering and obedience his Father had called him to. Hence, he had to be firm with Peter…he was a stumbling block to Jesus’ path, for his mind was on earthly not divine things. Jesus had to keep his focus on his heavenly Father and not be diverted from the journey he was on.
Jesus sees that the disciples don’t understand – so he goes on to instruct them on what it means to be his disciple. It doesn’t mean pick up your weapons and let’s go defeat the enemy…no, he says in verse 34-35, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
This is a hard teaching…a hard calling. The disciples knew far more what it meant to take up their cross than we do.
To the people of Jesus’ day, the cross was a very concrete and vivid reality. It was the instrument of execution reserved for Rome’s worst enemies, a symbol of death that awaited those who dared raise a hand against Roman authority. Not many years before Jesus and the disciples came to Caesarea Philippi, 100 men had been crucified in the area. After the revolt that followed the death of Herod the Great, 2,000 Jews were crucified.
When the disciples hear Jesus speak of carrying the cross, they would have pictured a condemned person walking along the road carrying the instrument of their own execution on their backs. A man who took up his cross began his own death march, carrying the very beam on which he would hang. As Bishop Richard said in his address in the Cathedral yesterday, to pick up your cross was a one-way journey to death, there was no coming back.
To be a follower of Jesus Christ is to be willing to suffer the indignities, the pain, and even the death of a condemned criminal.
They must deny themselves says Jesus. While some of the disciples including Peter did go on to lose their lives for Christ’s sake, it is unlikely to mean that for us today…though there are still plenty of stories of Christians dying for their faith around the world. Countries where it is a criminal offence to talk about your Christian faith. People who do so will be put in prison. In extreme cases, people are put to death if they convert from their family’s faith, this is especially so for those living in conservative Islamic countries like Iran.
So, what may suffering for the gospel look like for us? How do we deny ourselves and pick up our cross?
Peter went on to talk about suffering for Christ in his letters. In 1 Peter 4: 12- 16 we read,
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
After being one who followed his earthly responses, even denying Christ at his hour of need, Peter did become the rock that Jesus said he would be, and he went on to teach the message that Jesus taught him. Like Jesus, Peter says we are not to be ashamed of being a Christian and we should rejoice as we suffer! But it wasn’t until after Jesus’ death and resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Peter was able to boldly proclaim his faith in Christ. Peter did learn to deny himself, and eventually gave his life for his faith.
Lent is a good time to consider what it means to deny ourselves; to pick up our cross to follow Jesus. And it doesn’t mean just denying yourself chocolate or alcohol for 40 days before Easter!
It means really living our lives for Jesus, following him in all we say and do. It might mean a sacrificial financial giving, even foregoing an expensive steak dinner so that you can give financially to CMS so our link missionary Maurice can have his back operation, or giving to Hobart City Mission or overseas aid for refugees…
But more than that, it means being daily transformed by the love of God.
To spend time in God’s presence, reading his word, praying. Asking him to daily renew us by his Holy Spirit that we may follow him more and more closely until our attitudes mirror those of Jesus. Denying our desires to live as the world says we should, the world would tell us not to deny ourselves anything. But we are to put others before ourselves. We are not to be ashamed of the gospel but be bearers of the good news that the gospel offers.
As we approach a State Election, I see many who are passionate followers of certain parties or leaders and will proudly display their allegiance with placards on their fence, encouraging others to vote the same way. I sometimes think we lack passion in our Christian witness. That we do at times feel ashamed to speak of it. I am not saying that we should put a placard on our fence saying ‘Vote 1 Jesus’! But I hope that people will see that we are his followers, that our love for Jesus will be evident in our faces, our lives, our conversations. That we will tell others of his love for them.
To follow Jesus, bearing our cross also means loving our enemies sacrificially, forgiving and being people who seek reconciliation and restoration in our world – both within our own family and community and in the world.
At our Lenten prayer and reflection time on Wednesday evenings we are following a series by Tearfund. Last Wednesday we reflected on being called to reconciliation, to be people who forgive. The readings were from Genesis where Joseph forgave his brothers, and from Luke 24 where Jesus is hanging on the cross asking his Father to forgive those who had put him there.
If you feel yourself being tempted to seek revenge or feel hate rising up inside…follow Jesus’ example…and say get behind me Satan. Deny yourself and earthly urges and ask God to fill you with his love and grace instead, pray for your enemy.
Picking up our cross to follow Jesus means listening to his call on our lives, like Luke who has come to join us in Christ’s ministry here. Some are called to be ordained like those at the Cathedral yesterday, but the call to be a disciple, an ambassador for Jesus is for us all.
We may suffer some humiliation at times for being a Christian. Some people might think we are ‘losers’ for not following the patterns and pleasures of this world, so we need to remember that ultimately by losing our life for Christ’s sake we will find it. What did Jesus say would happen after he had suffered and been killed – that after 3 days he would rise again. Jesus conquered death and when we deny ourselves, pick up our cross and put our trust in him, we also will be raised with him.
Until Jesus returns, we will suffer in all sorts of ways on this journey of life. Jesus does not promise that a Christian life will be easy. But he does promise to be with us, to fill us with his strength and grace for the journey. We may not choose to suffer, but there are times when we cannot avoid it. Like when illness comes as I shared at the beginning of this sermon.
I pray however, that we will also choose the path of suffering if that is what it means to proclaim Christ. So far, we will not be put to death in this country for being a Christian, but it is getting harder to be a Christian in our secular world, so let’s ask God to help us follow him wholeheartedly, denying ourselves to live for and proclaim his gospel.
There is no better path than to follow him. As we do, Jesus will fill our lives with his Spirit of peace and love and joy, and we have the promise of eternal life.
Are we willing to pick up our cross and follow Jesus?
Let’s pray: Thankyou Jesus, for suffering, dying and rising again that we might have life. Thank you for calling us to follow you. Lord, help us to daily die to self, pick up our cross and live for you. May we never be ashamed of our faith; fill us with your Holy Spirit, and like Peter, may we be transformed and proudly proclaim your gospel in all the world. In Jesus mighty name, we pray.
Amen.