the Gospel of Mark: on the road with Jesus (24)

Mark 8:31-37; 9:30-32; 10:32-34


1. sat 9am prayer meeting
2. building going up
3. with thanks to Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

1. I came across this quote in some reading I was doing this week – we’re entering the third age of the human race. The first was ‘orality,’ where people communicated primarily by oral, spoken language. The second was literacy, when suddenly after Gutenberg, the printed page became the main means by which culture was shaped and imaginations were formed. Now we’re entering a third age: the age of ‘visualcy.’ Today we are visually attuned. Photos, videos, graphics, artwork have become more and more expected and essential (Andy Crouch).

2. the Church has been into visualcy for almost 2000 years. What we call the gospel of Jesus Christ – the good news of Jesus’ life, death & resurrection for the forgiveness of sin – is visually portrayed for us by means of a cross.

Early Thursday morning in the dark I was driving to my favorite coffee shop in Boise – the Flying M. Hovering over the skyline of the city was a large lighted cross sitting atop Table Rock – a symbol of Jesus’ death for the forgiveness of sin, the visualcy of our Christian faith.

pivot time in Mark’s gospel
1. we’ve been in Mark’s gospel for 23 sermons. Today we come to the hinge-point of the book. Chapters 1-8 show Jesus bringing in the kingdom of God by teaching, healing, delivering, discipling, loving, feeding, praying…
2. but this all changes in chapter 8. 3xs in 3 successive chapters Jesus is explicit – he is going to suffer and be killed and rise again (8:31; 9:31; 10:33). The whole thrust of the narrative pivots & Jesus’ story is now told under the shadow of the approaching cross:
8:31 – suffer, be rejected, be killed, rise again
9:31 – be betrayed, kill, will rise
10:33 – be betrayed, condemn, hand over, mock,
spit, flog, kill, will rise

3. Mark’s telling of Jesus’ death is the most detailed part of his gospel. We know more about Jesus’ death than we do his life. In all 4 gospels a disproportionate amount of space is given to the last week of Jesus life.

nature of Jesus’ death on the cross
1. there are 3 aspects to Jesus’ death on the cross that I want to share with you this morning – 3 different windows into understanding the cross.

1st voluntary
1. Jesus didn’t ‘have’ to go to the cross; he ‘chose’ to. He went not out of obligation but of love. The ‘cross’ accounts in all 4 gospels make it plain that Jesus was on a mission & the cross was his mission.

2. love is what birthed the cross – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The cross is nothing less & nothing more than an act of love.

2nd sacrificial
1. the Jews, Greeks & Romans of Jesus’ day understood the word ‘sacrifice’ in a manner that we don’t. These 3 cultures regularly offered sacrifices – animals, grain, wine, incense & the like. These people ‘got’ the notion of sacrifice.
2. then Jesus steps into the picture. He speaks: for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (10:45). It is simply impossible to understand Jesus without understanding his life as a sacrifice.

3. Jesus didn’t die for himself; he died for us. He offered his life as a sacrifice for ours. His righteousness for our sin.

3rd temporary
1. each of Jesus’ 3 explicit death announcements conclude with a statement of resurrection. Jesus died but only temporarily. 3 days later he rose from the dead.

2. resurrection. This is what gives us hope. Death is not the end. Sin does not triumph in the end. Satan is not victorious. The death & resurrection of Jesus defeat all 3 for now & forever.

the meaning of the cross
1. Jesus’ was a carefully defined death – it was voluntary, sacrificial & marked by the resurrection.

2. get this, Jesus’ death is a means to life. The cross is a means to salvation. As stated in the Nicene Creed, Jesus died ‘for us and for our salvation.’

3. the only thing we contribute to salvation is sin. Sin makes salvation a necessity.

4. there is nothing, absolutely nothing we can do to earn our salvation – either to save ourselves or obligate God to save us. We can’t do enough, be enough, serve enough, give enough, pray enough, love enough, be nice enough, help enough, smile enough, work enough, or be smart enough to warrant salvation.

5. we contribute nothing to our salvation But we are invited to participate in it.

6. in Mark 1-8 all sorts of people are drawn into the life of Jesus, experience his compassion, his healings, his deliverance, his call, his peace. After Mark 8:31, Jesus becomes more explicit about what it means to participate in his life & mission.

7. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (8:34). Notice the 4 verbs – come, deny, take up, follow. These define our participation.

deny & take up (2 negatives)
1. two verbs leap from the sentence and pounce on us. It feels like an assault, an attack. We recoil (EHPeterson).

2. deny himself. Jesus issues a command to renounce ‘the self’ that is me, you. Take up his cross. Jesus issues a 2nd command to die to ‘the self’ that is me, you.

3. the focal point of Jesus’ work of salvation is a sacrificial death on a cross. As Jesus sacrificed his life, he calls us to sacrifice ours. To follow after Jesus is to go to the cross with our own lives.

4. EHPeterson, For a people like us, trained in a culture of getting things done (pragmatism) and taking care of ourselves (individualism), sacrifice doesn’t seem at all obvious; neither does it seem attractive.

5. Annie Dillard, a life without sacrifice is an abomination.

6. personally I think this is the hardest part of the gospel to move off the pages of Scripture and into our daily lives. What do we know about sacrifice? What have you sacrificed for the sake of Christ?

7. to deny ourselves; to take up our cross is to say ‘no.’ Saying ‘no’ is the pathway to freedom. Only humans can say ‘no’; animals can’t. Animals live by instinct & training.

8. but we – the human race – can say ‘no.’ ‘No’ is a freedom word. I don’t have to do what my glands or my culture tells me to do. The art of saying ‘no’ sets us free to follow Jesus.

9. what are you saying ‘no’ to in order to follow Jesus?

come – follow (2 positives – same Greek words)
1. Jesus is going some place. He invites us to come along. He’s moving, acting, doing something. He invites us to participate.

2. this is a whole life following of Jesus. Daily. 100%. 24/7. At home. In the marketplace. In the community. Morning, noon, night. At school, play practice, baseball practice. Filing your tax return. Meeting with your financial planner. Flying to Boise. Buying a house. Selling your car. Driving to work. The internet, email, blogs, websites. When you’re alone. When you’re with others. When you vote. What you buy. How you treat your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, your boss, your enemies.

3. come is an invitation. Follow is a command. If we’re going to come after Jesus we’re expected to follow him. No half-hearted commitment.

temptation
1. to think that you can save yourself. For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9). Grace – God giving us what we don’t deserve. Faith – our embracing intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, whole-lifely Jesus’ life, death, resurrection & Lordship over our lives.

2. saying “yes” to Jesus – I’m a sinner, I need your forgiveness, be my Savior, come into my life, take control, help me to live for you!

3. to make your salvation about you and not Jesus. This is a huge temptation. Robert Webber in his book the Divine Embrace calls this spiritual consumerism. The danger of treating God as a means to get what I want out of life – happiness, joy, success, passionate marriage, trophy-case kids, the good life, etc.

4. what is your life focus – getting Jesus into your story so he can help you live your life? Or being drawn up into Jesus’ story so he can live his life through you and change not only you, but your world?

5. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.