Read Mark
8:31-38
Jesus
caused quite a stir during His 3-year ministry.
Herod
thought that maybe Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead. (Luke 9:9)
Some
thought that the Old Testament Elijah had appeared.
Mark 8
gives an account of Jesus feeding a crowd of 4,000 people. This was a second occurrence of Jesus feeding
a large crowd with a small amount of food.
Large
crowds gathered wherever Jesus went. He
would leave on a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee and people would run around
the lake to meet Him on the other side.
(John 6) These “feedings”
occurred because people followed Him into the wilderness without preparing food
and such.
The crowds
and attention Jesus gathered got the attention of religious and national leaders
and even of the King.
In the
midst of constant teaching, travel, crowds and activity, Jesus asks His closest
followers a question. “Who do people say
I am?” (Mark 8:27)[i]
In response
they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are
one of the other prophets.” (Mark 8:28)
Then Jesus
made it personal. “He asked them, “But
who do you say I am?”
Peter
replied, “You are the Messiah.” (Mark
8:29)
At this
point in Mark’s account Jesus warns them not to tell others who He was.
As these
events are unfolding, the disciples are competing amongst themselves for
position. At different times they argued
about who would be greatest in Messiah’s kingdom when He set it up. James and John had their mother ask Jesus for
a favor. (Matthew 20:20) She asked, "In your Kingdom, please let
my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other
on your left." (Matthew 20:21)
The other
disciples were then indignant, and Jesus called a family meeting. The quarrelling was a reflection of what
James teaches in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2.
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war
within you? You want what you don’t
have, so you scheme and kill to get it.
You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight
and wage war to take it away from them.”
The
attention of the crowds, the leaders and the knowledge of who their teacher
was, was heady stuff. At times, they
showed over-confidence (Peter). At other
times, they showed pride (James and John).
Jesus
wanted to teach His followers a better way.
He did this by using His own example and by teaching them what was truly
important.
Before we
look at Jesus’s example and His teaching, let’s consider how much like these
followers of Jesus we are.
In Mark
8:36, Jesus asks a question that is at the center of what we are talking
about. He asks, “And what do you benefit
if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”
This is
what is at stake. The attraction of
attention, power, success, fame and all the world has to offer was pulling at
the followers of Jesus.
Do they
pull at us?
Remember,
it was these very things that Satan used to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.
Another
question is, “What do we value?”
What price
do we put on our integrity? It is
easiest for me to think in terms of money.
However, we value other things as well.
Someone might hate to be alone, and rather than be alone they might
compromise their sexual purity. Some
give up their integrity in order to be liked or accepted.
As Jesus
talked with His disciples, telling them plainly that it was necessary for Him
to die, Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him. In Jesus’s reply to Peter, we see the
danger. He said, “Get away from me,
Satan! You are seeing things merely from
a human point of view, not from God’s.”
(Mark 8:33) Here we see the
danger is looking at things from a merely human point of view.
From a
merely human point of view, following Jesus is foolishness.
In Mark
8:31 Jesus told His disciples that the religious leaders would reject Him. John 6:60-69 tells of those who were
followers of Jesus, but when they could not stomach His teaching, they turned
away and deserted Him. “The message of
the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the
very power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Not
everyone wants to be a follower of Jesus, but for the one who does, Jesus lays
out the way to a richer, fuller, more abundant life. It is contrary to the
human way of looking at things. It runs
counter to logic.
Jesus
teaches this way of life by example and he states it in His teaching.
Mark 8:31
shows His example. “Then Jesus began to
tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected
by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he
would rise from the dead.”
Jesus also
said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends. You are my friends if you do
what I command.” (John 15:13-14)
Jesus
taught by example that the way to live life is with unselfish love for others
and complete devotion to the will of the Father.
With His
words, Jesus stressed the same thing.
Luke 9:24 says, “Whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (NIV)[ii] In connection to this, the 2002 edition of
the NIV Study Bible says this in the notes:
This is “A saying of Jesus
found in all four Gospels and in two Gospels more than once. No other saying of Jesus is given such
emphasis.” (pg. 1589)
Mark 8:35
is one occurrence of this saying.
Mark
8:34-38 contains Jesus’s statement of this teaching:
34Then,
calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my
follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow
me. 35If you try to hang on
to your life, you will lose it. But if
you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will
save it. 36And what do you
benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37Is anything worth more than your
soul? 38If anyone is ashamed
of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the
holy angels.”
Notice that
He says, “You must turn from your selfish ways.” Other translations of this passage say, “Deny
himself.” This is a more literal
translation. The same word for “deny” is
used when the Gospel writers describe Peter’s denial of Jesus, where he swore
he knew nothing of the man.
It is contrary
to a mere human way of thinking to say one must give up his or her life in
order to save it, or that we must so entirely repudiate self.
Jesus
switches to talking about the soul, thus equating life and the soul.
The soul is
you. The body without the soul is a
corpse. Your soul without your body is
still you. According to Jesus, to value
anything up to and including our own life more than Jesus is to give your own
life or soul in exchange for that thing.
The
companion statement to denying one’s self is taking up one’s cross.
The cross
was the Roman instrument of execution.
The condemned person was required to carry the cross beam on which he
would be hung to the place of execution.
Taking up one’s cross is a clear reference to dying to self.
The New
Testament has much to say on this subject.
Romans 12:1
says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship.” (ESV)[iii]
Galatians
2:20 says, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me.”
Colossians
3:1-3 says:
Since you have been raised to new
life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits
in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life
is hidden with Christ in God.
Jesus
created quite a stir during His three-year ministry, but only a relatively
small number actually accepted what He said.
Since that
day, many millions have chosen to follow Jesus.
Those who profess to follow Jesus are both the largest religious group
and the most persecuted religious group in the world.
Taking up
one’s cross does not mean that everyone needs to be a missionary, pastor or
minister or even a martyr. It does not
mean that following Jesus needs to be a hardship. We are promised that in this world, we will
face hardship, and we all do.
If I can
use myself as an example, I love what I do.
It is not a hardship. It is a
privilege.
A person
gifted in a certain area will find joy in doing that thing. Taking up one’s cross does not mean that one
will not find joy in his or her work.
Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your
heart, as working for the Lord.”
Can we
rejoice in the Lord having taken up our cross?
I certainly
hope so, because the Bible commands both.
Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is
light.” (Matthew 11:30)
It runs
contrary to mere human thinking but the way to life is to give it up for the
Lord. Another Scripture puts it this
way, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3, NIV)
[i]
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New
Living Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved.
[ii]
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International
Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by
permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[iii]
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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