The Cost of Discipleship

and the security afforded by a banker’s pension?

Cheddington, Lent 2, 8 March 2009

Gospel Mark 8 TNIV

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 plainly about 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 will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? ³⁷ Or what can you give in exchange for your soul? ³⁸ If any of you are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Sermon

This is the first prediction of Jesus’ passion. From this point, the emphasis in Mark on miracles and healings is reduced and more weight is placed explicitly on the cross and its significance.

3 passion predictions in quick succession. Jesus predicts own trial and death with accuracy . If his prediction was given in quite such detail and repetitively, it’s difficult to explain disciples’ apparent confusion when events actually occurred. It’s possible Jesus could from this point on see with clarity that his ministry was not being accepted by authorities, that it would inevitably lead to conflict and violence, and that this would mean he would be tried and put to death. From disciples’ later reaction they did not appreciate the full force of this prediction and its impact.

In each of the 3 predictions, Jesus does not say “I will suffer and die” but constantly refers to himself as the ‘Son of Man.’ In Mark, Jesus often talks in this way: the meaning is ambiguous but seems to have to do with his suffering and vindication.

Peter, who just beforehand has confessed that Jesus is the Messiah in answer to the question “Who do you say I am?” now protests. He is sternly put down in the strongest terms. Jesus says his words are from Satan and not his own. The temptation is to divert from the way of suffering and death and pursue a worldly route to power.

Whenever we are most in doubt about our worth and convinced of the weakness of our faith, we can remember Peter and all his failings – Peter who doubted and denied, yet still became foremost amongst the disciples and led the early church.

Mark’s emphasis on suffering and death is a salutary warning to all potential converts reading his gospel. He wants to leave them and us in no doubt about what might lie ahead for the disciples of Jesus, both then and down the ages. As the church gets smaller and more marginal, and attitudes towards the different faiths change, we do face the spectre of increased persecution as we look ahead and see what might be coming in the future. It’s a sobering thought, but we have many models in the early church as to how to face persecution, both state and personal.

Put another way, Jesus is saying the cost of discipleship is high for those who would follow him. The dangers might not be physical here in Cheddington, but the impact may still be life changing. Ask me 12 months ago if I would be doing something like this rather than putting my feet up and enjoying retirement, and I would have told you the chances were slim. Yet here I am.

Ultimately what Jesus is saying is that his destiny is to suffer and die, and we must be prepared to be obedient in our own way to the same degree. Notice that his teaching is not confined here to his disciples but addressed to the whole crowd. Would that all evangelists today were prepared to be as explicit when preaching their message as Jesus was.

In the very early church, with severe persecution and thousands of lives lost, this message must have had a special resonance before the conversion of Constantine.

So as we continue observing Lent, we are asked to identify with the suffering of Christ to the extent that we take up and bear our cross in our own way. It does not mean that in this day and age we may be called to give up our lives, although Christians in some parts of the world are still subject to great persecution even unto death, but we may have to give up all security and claims to look after our own interests.

The message however stark is far from hopeless. Our hope is that in God’s own time the Son of Man will usher in the Kingdom – indeed the Kingdom as we know is already here in the ministry of Jesus and the community of believers, the church.

And the next thing that happens in Mark’s gospel after this teaching is the Transfiguration, the precursor of glory to come and the revelation of the divinity of Christ as witnessed by Peter, James and John.

If nothing else, during Lent, and in the midst of world economic troubles brought about through greed, let the words of Jesus sink in. The things of this world do not satisfy or feed the soul. Will a massive pension provide security and happiness to the hapless banker?

³⁶ What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? ³⁷ Or what can you give in exchange for your soul? ³⁸ If any of you are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."