Taking your life to Christ

Mark 8:31-38New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Predicts His Death

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainlyabout this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

The Way of the Cross

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “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[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Have you ever had a secret or some other sort of information that you felt that the world was not quite ready to hear?  Or that you felt you weren’t ready for the world to know about just yet?  What comes to mind is the middle school crush that we told one friend about in the hopes of keeping it secret.  Somehow the information we shared leaked and we get embarrassed by this information.  At least for me, this information wasn’t like it happens in the movies when the pretty girl winks at you as she walks by.  Maybe this example doesn’t fit for all of us but I am sure that we have been in a situation during some point in our lives where we knew some information and we were not ready to share it with the world.  I think this is the exact reason we have this scripture this morning.  I don’t think Peter was quite ready for the world to know everything about Jesus.  Whether it were for selfish reasons or he was trying to protect Jesus, Peter was not ready for the world to know Jesus.  Peter was getting nervous about Jesus speaking so plainly about his death and resurrection.  Perhaps Peter was acting selfishly in wanting to keep Jesus for him and the disciples and I am sure this is probably how this scripture has been preached over the years but I want us to look at it differently this morning.  

There is no doubt in my mind that Peter cared deeply about Christ.  We often forget about Jesus, the person that walked the earth, the one that the disciples walked with and learned from.  When Peter spoke of Jesus we have to remember that Peter was much more involved than we remember him and the disciples to be.  These guys gave up everything to follow their calling to be a disciple of Christ.  They spent day in and day out with Jesus the man.  And when Jesus began preaching boldly about his future, it made Peter nervous.  It made Peter think he was going to lose a good friend if he kept it up.  For example, if we had a very close friend, our best friend, saying things about social issues and preaching about ushering in a new kingdom that went against every thought of the time we too would be nervous about their future.  In other words, if we place ourselves in Peter’s shoes we too would worry about the health and well being of our best friend.  It may be true that Peter was driven by some sort of personal selfishness in not wanting Jesus to spread his message to the masses but I believe that Peter was mostly driven by the fact that he did not want his best friend to die.  Even if Peter did understand that Jesus had to die at some point, Peter wanted it to be later rather than sooner.  When we start to see how Peter viewed Jesus the man, Jesus his friend, then we better understand his reasoning for saying what he did.  

In his rebuke of Peter, Jesus hit the nail on the head though.  Peter was concerned more about human concerns and the fault of Peter was that he was probably more of a realist.  Peter was worried about the flesh but I would like to think it was because Peter had the best of intentions about Jesus’ ministry.  I think Peter wanted to keep Jesus alive for several more years in order to strengthen this new ministry because he didn’t think this strength could come anywhere but from Jesus himself.  Peter discounted his own strength.  Peter felt like he was not capable of growing his personal faith and the faith of others.  For whatever reason, Peter was not confident in his own ability without the crutch of Jesus the man walking with him.  Peter did not see the power and glory of the risen Christ quite yet.  This is what Jesus meant when he rebuked him for not having in mind the concerns of God.  If we are being honest, more of us probably align with Peter at this point than we would like to admit.  I know I do.  

We often do things out of faithfulness to God but we aren’t totally sure about those actions.  Peter was following Jesus and he had dropped everything to do so.  But at this point, Peter had not denied himself and taken up his cross.  Again, I think many of us can relate.  I know I can.  When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, I don’t think his intention was for us to sell everything or for us to starve ourselves or to live poorly or whatever way this phrase may have been thrown in our face.  When he called us to deny ourselves, Jesus was calling us to shed our misconceptions about Him.  Jesus was calling us into full discipleship with him.  He was calling us to see the glory and power of his sacrifice and love.  Peter hadn’t denied himself of the worldly things that kept him from seeing Jesus for who he truly was.  Again, I think every single one of us can relate.  We try to place Jesus into the context of the world we live in today, we try to make him fit into our lives.  It’s like putting a square peg in a round hole.  We must deny ourselves, we must shed our insecurities and misconceptions and make our lives fit into Jesus’ ministry.  We must take our lives to Christ.  Not the other way around.

We try to bring Jesus to us instead of going to Jesus and this is the exact mistake Peter was making and Jesus tried to make his point by pointing this out to Peter and the other disciples.  They still didn’t quite get Jesus’ point but we have the beauty of hindsight.  We know what Jesus went on to do.  We know that he died on the cross in an act of supreme sacrifice.  We know that God raised him from the dead in an act of eternal love and power.  And yet we place Jesus into the context of the world as we know it.  This is fairly modern concept in religion and one that makes it “easier” to understand Jesus.  It is one that I do not totally agree with.  I do believe that Jesus loves us for who we are but I also believe that Jesus has called us to something greater.  And we cannot achieve that greatness by understanding Jesus in the context of this world.  We must go to Christ.  We must deny ourselves the insecurities of this world and meet Jesus at the cross and the tomb.  By placing Jesus into the context of how we see the world we are making the same exact mistake that Peter did.  We are placing Jesus based on our human concerns, not the concerns of God.  I know this may come off as a little brash but it is how I honestly believe Jesus wants us to participate in this world.  We must be willing to deny ourselves and go to Christ.  “...whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”  This does not have to mean actual death because Jesus did that already.  This means death to the life that we had without Christ leading it.  

In closing, we are so much like Peter.  I know this scripture gives Peter a bad name (one of many, poor guy) but there is a great lesson to be learned here.  I think many of us would also be rebuked by Jesus just like Peter was and I think it is fair to say that we all need some motivation now and again.  Jesus didn’t make this point to embarrass Peter, he did it to make him better.  Peter was not ready for Jesus to be revealed to the world just yet because he was worried about the health and well-being of his friend and the power and glory of the risen Christ was not yet clear to be Peter.  But Jesus’ rebuke of Peter allows us to learn a very important lesson that we must be willing to deny ourselves by shedding our insecurities and misconceptions so we can make our lives fit into Jesus’ ministry.  We must take our lives to Christ.  This does not mean that we have to die in order for that to happen because Jesus did that already.  Take your life, all that you do, to Christ and see what he can do with it.  Peter, who was rebuked by Jesus and denied him on the day he died on the cross, was a great person of God.  Something that each of us are capable of despite our failings and shortcomings because of the power, glory, love and grace of an eternal God.  Amen.  

A good friend of mine has started a blog and she is such a good writer.  Please read her blog if you get a chance.  Here is the link: http://www.beautyescaped.com/