The Way of Christ Mark 8:34-38
In Mark 8 verse 29 we have a great revelation; “’But what about you?’ Jesus asked, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah.’” Here for the first time in Mark’s Gospel it’s announced to the world who Jesus is.
Verse 34, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples…” As we moved through chapter 8 we see Jesus has been talking to a large crowd. They are following him, listening to him and learning from him, but are they followers of his message?
In these next lines Jesus is going to explain to his disciples, the twelve, what it means to be a disciple and he needs to do this before they set off for Jerusalem. The crowd, it’s comprised of people who see and hear Jesus and are interested enough to continue to listen but eventually they have to decide if they will continue or if they will abandon Jesus along the way.
We who know Jesus need to know what is expected of us. We accept Jesus and we are saved, yes; but what does it mean to be a modern day disciple of Jesus? Many people hear of Jesus and his message; social media, TV, evangelism, more people are hearing about Jesus than ever before and they need to understand it’s not simply a confession of belief and life is glorious. Being a Christian places demands on you and here Jesus is explaining those demands.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) Deny yourself; Jesus is not talking about self-denial, the giving up of necessities or even luxuries. Jesus isn’t as concerned about what we do as much as he is about what we are.
Jesus does not mean self-denial he means denying self and this is different. Denying self necessitates us to give up the idea that we have the final say in what we are going to do or where we are going to go. As humans and especially here in the United States we claim and protect our rights.” You can’t tell me what to do or how to do it. Our leaders need to stay out of our personal lives.” When it comes to our life with God Jesus tells us this is not how it works and we need to get this idea out of our heads.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price." The price for our salvation is Jesus death. As his disciples we no longer have the ultimate authority over ourselves, Jesus does. Jesus tells us to deny our self-trust, deny our self-sufficiency, deny our belief that we can handle life by ourselves. Christian businessman Howard Butt wrote, “It is my pride that makes me independent of God…I am the master of my own fate, call my own shots, go it alone. My pride is the idolatrous worship of myself. And this is the national religion of hell!”
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves…” Put another way; whoever wants to be my disciple, let them give up his rights to run his own life. Let him submit to my leadership. Let him submit to my Lordship. True discipleship cannot exist without this for this is the foundation of being Jesus disciple.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must…take up his cross and follow me.” How many of us have used the phrase “That’s my cross to bear.” We usually mean some kind of inconvenience or small problem we must deal with.
Jesus had difficulties and trials he dealt with in his life, So I don’t think minor things is what he’s talking about here. To see what he means we have to look at the cross and the events surrounding it.
Luke 22:42 finds Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” Jesus shows us he understands human fear, human uncertainty at the calling of God. In Luke 22:64-65 we have Jesus being mocked by the Temple guards, “They blindfolded him and demand, ‘Prophesy! Who hit you?’ And they said many other insulting things to him.” As followers of Jesus we can expect to be ridiculed, joked about, insulted.
Jesus responds to these insults in Luke 22:69, “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” We can endure the taunts directed at us by focusing on God and his glory.
John 19:23 “When the soldiers crucified Jesus they took his cloths…” Here is a Jewish man with strong cultural beliefs in modesty and decorum exposed for all the world to see. Here is a Jewish man hung on a tree with all his sins (even though they are our sins) visible to all who saw him. And he endured all this because the greater good is all of us.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must…pick up their cross and follow me.” I want you to imagine someone coming into church, listening to us and then asking me “Why should I follow Jesus?” I can give scripture verses as to what God thinks of sin and how Jesus offers salvation and how our lives are changed by Christ. But if I then imply I always followed Christ, that my life has always been a blessing, things didn’t change much for me because they didn’t need to but your going to change; what kind of a testimony is that? To pick up our cross means to face our fears and uncertainty. To pick up our cross means to be exposed for our sin. It means we will be humbled, we will be ridiculed for our faith. Jesus faced all this and we may too.
To follow Jesus means we don’t hide those parts of ourselves that make us uncomfortable or vulnerable. It means we allow others to see them because that is our greatest testimony. We allow others to see these things because like Jesus we put the salvation of others above our embarrassment and discomfort.
To his disciples all this must have been new and if they understood what Jesus meant by what he was saying I don’t imagine it was very appealing to them. In fact I’m sure they would have resisted just like we may resist.
Jesus knows we will resist so he gives us the motive that will move us to action. Verse35, “For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the Gospel will save it.”
Life, who doesn’t want that? But Jesus tells us here there can be only two attitudes we can have about life. One, save your life now; take care of yourself, trust only yourself and live each situation with the attitude “What’s in it for me?” Millions of people live this way.
But the other way to live, the way Jesus tells us to, is to disregard any advantage we have, and to look at each situation with the attitude “How can I elevate God, how can my actions benefit others not just myself?”
Jesus tells us to lose our lives; lose the superiority, lose the entitlement, lose the “me first.” This is how Jesus says we will save our life. This is how we will see the glory of God. Our hearts will be full of the love of God. Our lives will make a difference to others. Our lives will be our testament to Almighty God. Paul says it this way in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to…complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
Verse 38, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this world, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when they come to the Father’s glory.” Men cannot ignore Jesus, claim they don’t need him, live their lives entirely for themselves and their advancement and then expect heaven. Jesus puts in this verse the meaning; it is our deeds not our words that show our heart for Christ.
I tend not to say grace when I’m in a restaurant because I don’t want people staring. Is this being ashamed of Christ, possibly but I don’t think things like this are what Jesus is talking about. We all can get nervous about expressing our faith at times Jesus knows this and he doesn’t hold it against us. Look at Peter. He denied Jesus three times and still he remained a disciple. I believe Jesus is talking about the overall way our lives demonstrate our conformity to him. Claiming Jesus and being tempted or unsure is not sin. Claiming Jesus and living in self-servitude, living out hateful and prejudicial attitudes is.
We see this morning that accepting Jesus as your savior immediately causes God to forgive your sins, but it comes with demands on our lives.
First, it must be sincere. And sincerity comes with an open heart and a willingness to leave behind prejudices. It comes with the demand that you be honest. That you let others see your exposed sin and how Christ changed your life. To follow Jesus means another’s salvation is more important than your comfortability. And it comes with the demand that you deny yourself and submit to Jesus Lordship. That you forgo a life dedicated to your advancement and live a life dedicated to the advancement of others. A life dedicated to the glory of God.
Amen.