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The Second Sunday In Lent
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from thy ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word, Jesus Christ thy Son; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Scripture citation(s): Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 7:13-25; Mark 8:31-38
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 7:13-25; Mark 8:31-38
✛
Christ's Cross: God's Mission
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For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
On the face of it, today’s Gospel is bad news on two scores. First, our Lord tells his disciples plainly that he must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. Second, when Peter privately remonstrated with him about saying such things, Jesus declared openly before his disciples and the multitudes that if anyone would be his disciple he must deny himself, take up his own cross and follow him; must lose his life for Jesus’ and the gospel’s sake to save it.
Just over a month ago our clergy and vestry clarified the mission of Saint Thomas Church, which is, “to worship, love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ through the Anglican tradition and our unique choral heritage.” This is clear and true. But what if, at the very heart of worshiping, loving and serving our Lord, there is this hard saying about taking up the cross? Won’t this put people off? Recently from this pulpit I said Saint Thomas Church needs to move from “maintenance” thinking to “mission” thinking. I want our pews to be full; but if the cross is the standard of our mission to follow Christ, won’t it reduce the congregation to very manageable size?
Just before today’s passage in Saint Mark, Peter had confessed his belief in Jesus as the Christ; that is, the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Peter’s confession triggered what Jesus says in today’s Gospel about the necessity of his suffering and death. Learning that necessity was the hardest lesson the first disciples had to learn.
The necessity of Jesus’ cross arises from 1) his mission from God to save human life; 2) the hostility of sinful human beings to such a mission; and 3) Jesus’ refusal to oppose violent hostility with his own force and power[1]
The reason for Jesus’ discretion about his messiahship and his reserve about publicizing his miracles was precisely his knowledge that it was necessary that Christ suffer and die before entering into his glory. The revelation of this necessity was so unwelcome to his disciples that they hardly heard Jesus’ last phrase, “and after three days rise again.”
In order to prevent misleading misconceptions, Jesus broadcast the necessity of self-denial, taking up our own crosses, in order to follow him.
When Saint Mark wrote his gospel, he was conveying these words to the Church in Rome, which was under heavy persecution, beginning with Nero. First century Roman Christians were faced with a stark choice. They could confess Christ and be killed on the spot. Or they could deny Christ and save their lives for a while. Jesus said that to save your life in such a way is really to lose it. You buy time in exchange for your integrity. Some Christians apostatized, and perhaps it resolved their problem. But we should ask why so many of the lapsed, after the persecution was over, wished to return to the Church and undertook penance in order to be readmitted to the Christian fellowship.[2]
Christians facing persecution in the world today are faced with this same stark choice. For Christians who enjoy freedom, as we do in the United States, the choice presents itself more subtly.
What is our life about? Is it about survival, personal comfort, acquisition? Or is our life about something more – for example, about love, honor or vocation? Love, honor and vocation cannot be acquired by money, power or possession. They are gifts bestowed upon those who believe in them and try to live up to them! If we care dearly about love, honor or vocation, we may find we must sacrifice possessions, comforts, even safety, for more important things.
Jesus’ hard saying about the cross in today’s Gospel reminds us that we were not created simply to occupy space and time and to consume the world’s resources, but rather to know God and to enjoy eternal life. Human beings are so commonly blinded by low views of life and by worldly concerns, that we knowingly and willingly devalue or corrupt our lives or even abandon them to destruction. Jesus challenges us: What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and to forfeit his life? Many scholars now prefer the old King James Version’s “soul” to “life” in translation, because “what is at stake is the inner core of the person, what constitutes the self.”[3]
Listen to Jesus’ invitation again, especially the two hard parts. If any one would come after me, let him 1) deny himself, 2) take up his cross, and follow me.
Jesus is not asking me to deny myself some particular thing. Jesus says that I must deny my self. He means I am no longer to be the center and object of my life’s purposes and activities. He means my self must give place to God. When I return to God that place which my selfishness has usurped, God’s grace replaces my self-absorption and self-will. This is a relief – to me and to those who must live with me!
When Jesus bids us to take up our cross, he does not refer to some particular irritation. He means bearing the cross and walking in the way of the cross after him. Sufferings and irritations are mankind’s lot; they come our way on schedule. The question is how do we take them on? We cannot be said to bear the cross if we do not willingly “bend our shoulders to it,” said a great commentator, who added, “A wild and refractory horse cannot be said to admit his rider, though he carries him.”[4]
The person who takes up Christ’s invitation to self-denial and bearing of the cross discovers a paradox: The way of the cross is the way of life and peace. Far from losing his life, he has found his life, found it truly and permanently. Whatever he lost in the exchange was insubstantial and fleeting. What he gained was solid and eternal.
The cross is the heart of the Gospel. Voluntary self-denial and bearing of the cross are what it means to worship, love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine that the Anglican tradition conveys; it is the text our unique choir sings. The way of the cross is the way of eternal life now and the road to heaven hereafter. If we follow it, we discover to our wonder and amazement that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We discover that God provides. And if we devote ourselves to the cross as a congregation, rest assured, Saint Thomas Church will grow and prosper.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
[1] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., Vol. 8, p. 694.
[2] The debate in the early Church over how to deal with the return of the “lapsed” resulted in the victory of the “forgiving” over the “hard-line” position and the salutary development of the sacrament of Penance.
[3] John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Mark, Sacra Pagina Series, p. 263: “To translate psyche as ‘life’ (as many modern translations do) probably says less than Mark wished to say.”
[4] John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke, XVI, II, p. 304.
