March 12, 2006
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the Road to Jerusalem: Through Pain and Promise Paul wrote to the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Galatians 2.20). The Protestant reformer John Calvin has written: “We are not our own; therefore neither our reason nor our will should predominate in our deliberations and actions. We are not our own; therefore let us not propose it as our end, to seek what may be expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own; therefore let us, as far as possible, forget ourselves and all things that are ours. “On the contrary, we are God’s; to God therefore, let us live or die. We are God’s; therefore let God’s wisdom and will preside in all our actions. We are God’s; towards God, therefore, as our only legitimate end, let every part of our lives be directed” Interpretation. Mark. Lamar Williamson, Jr. Atlanta. John Knox Press, 1983, p.156). Being a Christian, a church member, part of the community of faith is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We are disciples, not only as members of the denomination that bears his name, but as people of every age, race, and nation who believe that Jesus is God’s anointed son. We have gathered here because we are redeemed, rescued, recovered, saved by Jesus Christ. But the way of redemption, rescue, recovery, and salvation leads us down the road to Jerusalem, and that road is filled with pain and promise. We get glimpses of the promise in the early verses of this chapter in Mark. It seems like a strange way to teach about following him. It has already been an interesting journey. The eighth chapter of Mark has already told us that Jesus has fed 4000 people with seven loaves of bread. He has debated the Pharisees, healed a man born blind, and he has heard Peter declare that he is the Messiah. That is great stuff, we want to follow this Jesus, we love this man Jesus who can best the religious authorities of his day, heal with a touch, save with a word, comfort children and welcome those who have been cast aside by the secular and religious society. Surely, Jerusalem will be the place where the people will throw palm branches at his feet, the religious authorities will welcome him, and the Romans who occupy the city will yield to his influence. But as Jesus begins to teach them, they hear and we hear that the way to the promise requires us to endure some pain. So he begins to teach them one more lesson. When they get to Jerusalem, he will be greeted warmly, at first. But as the week goes on, things will get rough, it will not be all banquets and keys to the city. Jesus will not be the favored Son of the city for long. He wants the disciples to know that Jerusalem is where he will meet the earthly fate that will lead to the salvation he brings to the whole world. He will suffer, he will be rejected, he will die at the hands of others, and after three days he will rise from death. He will fulfill the promise to bring hope and life to the world, but first there will be pain. In the pain there is a promise, any woman who has given birth knows about the pain that precedes the promise of new life. A relationship that has been broken and restored is filled with pain and promise. So is a dream worked for as if nothing else matters, when faced with discouragement, indifference, lack of support, and dashed hopes. Then those hopes overcome the doubt and disparagement so that the dream can be achieved, and the sweet joy of a dream no longer deferred but realized, is a promise fulfilled. That is pain that yields to the realization of a promise. We also know that if the pain is severe enough, we cannot hear the promise. We could barely thank God for lives saved when the Twin Towers fell because the pain of loss was so great on so many levels. And it is hard for us to hear that God wants to do and is doing a new thing here, even with the people who are here, when we are bearing the pain of loss. Peter so clearly hears the painful part of what Jesus says: suffering, rejection, death, that he cannot hear the promise of resurrection. He is like we are, and like Peter does, we would protest too. So we are with him when, just after declaring that Jesus is the Christ, right after he hears words that are so painful he cannot really understand them, Peter pulls Jesus aside. What Jesus says does not square with Peter’s image of a Messiah. God’s Messiah, is invulnerable, beloved by all, and a take charge kind of guy. He must be received without rejection, suffering, and certainly without death. Mark does not tell us what Peter said, but we get the sense that he scolded Jesus, expressed his disapproval in the strongest terms, he reprimands Jesus. He must have really lit into Jesus. I imagine he said something like, “what is up with all this talk of suffering, rejection, and dying. Jesus, that is not who you are. I cannot handle this kind of talk, and you shouldn’t say stuff like this. Stop it Jesus.” Of course, we don’t really know what Peter said to Jesus, Mark tells us what Jesus says to Peter. He tells him to get away from him, to stay back. “His sharp ‘get behind me, Satan’ cuts in two ways. First, the use of ‘Satan’ recalls the temptation of Jesus in 1.12-13. While Matthew and Luke spell out at that point a threefold temptation, of food, worshiping the devil, and having all the power in the world. But in Mark the temptation of Jesus may be defined here. Mark suggests that Jesus is tempted (and so are we) to walk away from this fate that will lead to the cross. Perhaps even Jesus thinks that God’s anointed can avoid suffering, rejection, and death; that God’s rule means power without pain, glory without humiliation. This is Peter’s human way of thinking, and Jesus, tempted for a moment, overcomes this tempting suggestion, and identifies it as coming from the devil. Second, Jesus rebuke reminds Peter where disciples belong. The words ‘Behind me’ and ‘come after me’ are identical in Greek. Disciples are not to guide, protect, or possess Jesus; they are to follow him” (Williamson, p. 153). We understand. We see Jesus from our very human point of view. We want him to be all that we project on to him and onto us. We agree with Peter, we want no talk of death, no talk of rejection, no talk of suffering at all. If you are the Messiah, and we want to believe that you are, then just bring us the good life and salvation now. Why should we have to watch you suffer, and God forbid we suffer with you. We want it easy for Jesus and we want it easy for us. But life does not work that way. Our projection, our desire to avoid anything that is difficult leaves us open to what Gandhi called the seven deadly sins. That is, we are prone to wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality, and worship without sacrifice. On this road to Jerusalem, Jesus knows that he is about God’s business, and he invites us to join him in his mission. At the Equipping the Saints gathering last week, the keynoter David Emery (pastor at Middletowne Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky) told us that the mission of his congregation is to Connect people to Jesus Christ and his church, to Grow people into life long followers of Jesus Christ, to Equip people for gift-based ministry, and to Send them into the world as ambassadors for Christ. Now we can respect and appreciate another congregation’s ministry focus, we can even learn from it, but how much better if we claim and live our own, and we can. We have named here three core values – Knowing God through the spiritual disciplines of worship, prayer, and continued learning. Building Relationships as we get to know each other, mourn and rejoice together, celebrate and lament, talk it out and work it out, and care for each other as we do. Doing Justice as we declare that God’s amazing love and grace knows no human boundaries, and we will not put up false barriers to people either. And we are about welcoming others into this part of the body of Christ and sharing our lives and Christ’s table with them. What makes our mission and vision possible is that we have joined our mission and vision to the mission and vision Jesus has for us. That is why he turns from Peter to the crowd and offers a three-fold mission of discipleship: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. Take up my cross – no that sounds too painful. Follow you Jesus – I don’t like where you are going! But if we bypass the pain we cannot get to the promise of following him, serving him, representing him in the world. In other words, being his disciples. Denying ourselves, and taking up our own crosses, bearing the suffering as Jesus did, makes it possible for us to follow Jesus. Listen carefully, the call is not to deny oneself something, but to deny self. Jesus is not telling us to hate and deny who we are, self-hatred is not the way of Jesus. Rather Jesus is calling us to deny that part of our instant pleasure, I want it now, even if it takes years to pay for it, but it’s all about me! attitude. He is calling us to understand the true nature of discipleship that is understood in scripture this way: “if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him, if we disown him, he will also disown us, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (II Timothy 2.11-13). “The cross Jesus invites his hearers to take up refers not to the burdens life imposes from without but rather to painful, redemptive action voluntarily undertaken for others. “What does it mean to be a Christian? In answer to this question Paul and John emphasize believing in Jesus Christ. Matthew stresses obedience to the law as authoritatively interpreted by Jesus. For Mark, to be a Christian is to follow Jesus on his costly way in an imitation of Christ that understands the pain and promise of being a disciple of his.” (Williamson, p.154-155). Being a disciple of Jesus is to know that if all we are about is mere survival, we will surely die because disciples are not called to self-preserving, small vision, tiny dreams, and low goals. Instead we are called to give ourselves away to bold vision, big dreams, and grand goals. And if we give our selves away for the sake of Jesus Christ, we will find our lives in Christ forever. We can be all about ourselves, and we will lose ourselves because we will never be satisfied. There will always be churches that have larger budgets, fuller pews, and positive publicity. There will always be others whose lives seem to be better than ours. Being a Christian, a church member, part of the community of faith is to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. We are disciples, not only as members of a denomination that claims the name, but as people of every age, race, and nation that follows Jesus. My prayer for us in this season of Lent, in this time of discernment is that we will become even deeper, more faithful, more joyful disciples, we will follow Jesus through the pain of the cross to the glory and promise of the resurrection. We are not our own, our life is in Jesus Christ who lives in us, by us, and through us. He invites us to join him on the journey to Jerusalem, and as we do, he also calls us to be his disciples who have denied ourselves, taken up our cross, and who have decided to follow him.Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Street Christian Church
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