Brad Sullivan
2nd Sunday of Lent, Year B
Sunday, March 8th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Jesus. Imagine seeing those words advertising some company or product on the market. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Use our product. I don’t think the advertising agency that came up with that one would be around for very long, and yet with Jesus, it kinda seemed to work. How in the world did the pitch, “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me,” ever attract anyone? Well, for one thing, these weren’t the first words out of Jesus’ mouth. He had done a bit of teaching and healing before the command to deny oneself and take up one’s cross. Still, the cost of discipleship, the cost of truly following Jesus may seem rather high. Deny yourself, take up your implement of torture and death, and follow Jesus. Lose your life in order to gain it. Well, there are several things to note about the language of this passage. When Jesus says whoever seeks to gain their life will lose it, and whoever seeks to lose their life for his sake will gain it, he is not necessarily talking about our physical, biological lives.
The word he uses could more accurately be seen as our soul or our inner life. So, one could say that those who seek too much the protection of their own lives, those who look out for “number one” at the expense of others, will lose this inner life. Those, on the other hand who are willing to give of themselves, to sacrifice, to put others first for the sake of Jesus and the gospel will gain this inner life. In short, by being Jesus’ followers, we’re not running around begging people to kill us for Jesus’ sake. More importantly, sacrifices we make in order to follow Jesus are worth the effort.
Have you ever followed someone or followed an idea which was difficult, but which you knew would benefit you? For one example, athletes do this all the time. Practice and exercise are difficult, but they know the reward of their endurance, of the discipline will be worth the effort. Athletes could be seen as disciples of their coaches, living and training as the coaches tell them, in order to achieve a good result in their sport.
Students of any kind follow this pattern of discipleship. Look at musicians, doctors, actors, business people. Most anything we do involves discipline of some kind. Any profession requires sacrifice in order to follow a particular path, and any profession involves some level of discipleship, learning and following a particular way in order to be successful.
Jesus too, then, has a path he wants his disciples to follow, and following on that path requires sacrifice. Further, following Jesus requires that we give our lives to following Jesus, like many other fields. Ask a musician who is at the very top of his or her field what it took to get their, to be a master of the instrument, and I think that person will tell you, he gave his life to the study and practice of the instrument, gave his life to the music. To be a master of a field, to be a true disciple in a field, takes one’s life. I’m going to run with this musician analogy for a while.
I’m a dabbler in several instruments. I sing. I play some guitar. I play the didgeridoo; I used to play the trumpet. I dabble in these things, I enjoy them, but I’m not disciplined in my practice. I’m not great at any of them, and I’m ok with that. They’re fun. I enjoy them, but I haven’t devoted my life to any of these instruments.
Jesus is asking that we devote our lives to following him. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean we dabble in discipleship the way I dabble in music. Being a follower of Jesus means we devote our lives to following Jesus, like master musicians devote their lives to their instruments. Master musicians, by the way, can also devote their lives to following Jesus. Being a master at one thing does not mean we cannot also follow Christ.
Following Jesus does mean we need to be disciplined in following him. Musicians practice every day, a lot. Following Jesus means practicing our faith, being intentional in prayer, in reading scripture, in serving others, in talking about the joy of the Gospel. If we don’t practice our faith, we aren’t going to be very good at having faith, at being faithful followers of Jesus.
Following Jesus also means that we persevere in practicing our faith even in adversity. Top musicians do this. While the definitely love music and love their instruments, even the very best musicians get tired of their instruments. They find times when practice is difficult or seems to be pointless. They have dry spells or hit brick walls they just can’t seem to get past. The very best musicians continue practicing through those times, and they seek the help and advice of others in order to do so. The very best musicians in the world still have teachers, and their teachers also have teachers.
For us too, as followers of Jesus, we persevere through the rough patches. We keep practicing during the hard times, the brick walls. We keep practicing when our faith seems pointless, and we seek the help and advice of others. Following Jesus means we’re never done. We never arrive and suddenly get to say, “I’ve made it.” “I’m a master of following Jesus and have nothing more to learn.” Practicing our faith will always continue, and we will always need each other for support, advice, and correction.
Look for a minute back at the Gospel at what transpired just before Jesus told us how to follow him. Peter had rebuked Jesus for telling the disciples that he would be imprisoned, killed, and resurrected. Jesus then tells Peter, “Get behind me Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” That’s a pretty harsh rebuke of Peter, but I would also call it support, advice, and correction.
Looking first at the harshness of Peter’s rebuke, imagine being Jesus for a second. I think Jesus might have been saying, “stop tempting me, Peter.” Satan means tempter. So, maybe there was something tempting in Peter’s rebuke of Jesus. We know from Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane that dying on the cross wasn’t really a T.G.I.F. kind of moment. So even at the point in today’s Gospel reading, perhaps Jesus had finally gotten his head around having to be crucified, finally come to terms with that fact, and then here comes Peter saying no, no, you don’t have to die by crucifixion, Jesus. That would sound really tempting. Have you ever told someone, “don’t tempt me!”? “Don’t ask me again, or I might say yes.” Jesus was likely tempted by Peter’s rebuke. How wonderful not to have to die on the cross. So, Jesus had to rebuke Peter. Get behind me Satan. Stop tempting me.
So yes, Jesus’ rebuke of Peter was harsh, but his rebuke was also support, advice, and correction. He told Peter what he was doing wrong, “setting [his] mind not on divine things but on human things.” He also gave this rebuke in private and then taught publicly the lesson about needing to lose our lives for the sake of the Gospel. Then, a week later, Jesus took Peter to the top of the mountain for the transfiguration. So, Jesus rebuked Peter, but he also continued to teach him, continued to love him, and made amends with him.
For us too then, as followers of Jesus, there will be times when we need correction, like Peter did, and there will be times when we’re the ones giving correction, like Jesus did. Sometimes our correction may need to be a little harsh, but we should always correct one anther with love and will continued relationship. “Get behind me Satan” were far from the last words Jesus spoke to Peter. Imagine if, “you’re doing it wrong” were the last words a music teacher told his or her student. That student might not keep playing. Music teachers, if they aren’t careful, can kill a love of music in their students. So too can we push people away from Jesus in our advice, and correction, if we’re not careful and supportive in how we give that correction and advice.
So, considering that we’re being called to follow Jesus, to give our lives to him as musicians do to music, I want to leave us with a few questions to think about. How’s practice going? Writing this sermon, I realized I need to get back to practice, get a better routine going. Having a son threw off my practice schedule, but it’s been over a year, and that excuse just ain’t gonna work any more. So how is your practice going? Do you need to pick up your instrument and dust it off a little bit?
Are you not quite sure how to practice? Maybe you need some lessons, some advice or correction. Talk to someone: a friend, a co-worker, clergy, someone whose walk with Jesus you notice and admire.
Maybe you’re in a dry spell and really need to push through with practice and support. Maybe your practice is going great, and you’re able to help teach others. Whatever the case, keep practicing your faith. Jesus didn’t ask us to be dabblers in following him. He asked us to give our lives to following him. I can dabble in guitar and other instruments. We can all dabble in various things, but we’ve been asked to give our lives to following Jesus. Discipleship comes with a cost, but so does anything worth doing. Like true musicians who give their lives to their music and get so much beautiful music in return for themselves and others, we’ve been asked to give our lives to Jesus, and we’ve been promised to get our lives back with so much more life for ourselves and others, so keep practicing. Amen.
