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Read Mark 11:1-11

Jesus walked 120 miles from Capernaum to Jerusalem to attend the Passover feast in Jerusalem.  He walked south down the east side of the Jordan River, crossing over and heading toward Jerusalem through Jericho.  The gospel writer Mark tells us in chapter 10 of His account that as Jesus left Jericho there was a large crowd following Him.

The large crowd and commotion drew the attention of a blind man named Bartimaeus.  Bartimaeus shouted out for Jesus, and Jesus stopped and healed Bartimaeus.

In addition to healing Bartimaeus, Jesus performed many miracles during His 3 year ministry.  Just a short time earlier, He raised Lazarus from the dead.  He healed every kind of sickness, and Bartimaeus was not the only blind person to receive sight. 

From that day to this, people have sought out Jesus for their own reasons.  Some want healing for sickness.  Some want deliverance from slavery or bondage to habit.  Some want wisdom and direction for life.  Some want health and happiness for family and/or friends.  Some want political and economic solutions.  Some want power, peace or prosperity.

We all need hope.  We need hope that life is worth living. 

We all face challenges. 

Challenges come in all shapes and sizes.  Challenges can be financial, physical, health, family, economic, political, legal and the list can get long.

Jesus is our hope.  No matter the challenge, Jesus is the answer.

For thousands of years before His birth, those who knew God looked forward to God sending His anointed One, His King.  This promised One was the hope of the world, for political and personal problems.  The Jewish nation was entrusted with the Word of God and carried this hope.  To this day, the Jewish people carry on the traditions that look forward to the coming of this hope.

For those who care to accept it, Jesus is the promised hope of the world.  Jesus is the promised Messiah, the anointed One of Israel.  Jesus is the great and coming King.

Those who pursue money, fitness, health, happiness and/or all that this world has to offer miss the true meaning of life.  They miss what they were created for.  God created each person unique, and loves each one individually.  Each individual can only find true meaning in God.  This is where hope is.

Jesus showed He is the Hope of the world when He rode into Jerusalem at the beginning of His passion week.

First, we see this in the way He came.

He came fulfilling prophecy.

The prophecy, given 500 years before Jesus was born, is found in Zechariah 9:9.  It says, “Rejoice, O people of Zion!  Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!  Look, your king is coming to you.  He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey--riding on a donkey's colt.”[i]

This is exactly how Jesus came.  He came triumphantly.  He knew He was coming to give His life as a ransom for many, and yet His coming was triumphant and joyful.

It was also in perfect timing. 

Daniel 9:24 says: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy Place."

The idiom of a "week" of years was common in Israel.  The prophecy encompasses seventy weeks, that is, seventy times seven years, or 490 years.  However verse 26 indicates that there is an interval between the 69th and 70th weeks.  A very specific prediction occurs in the next verse: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times (Daniel 9:25).”  The Jewish (and Babylonian) calendars used a 360-day year; 69 weeks of 360-day years totals 173,880 days.  In effect, Gabriel told Daniel that the interval between the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the presentation of the Messiah as King would be 173,880 days.

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 BC.

On [that] day [Jesus] rode into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey, deliberately fulfilling a prophecy by Zechariah that the Messiah would present Himself as king in just that way: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass (Zechariah 9:9)."

This is the only occasion that Jesus presented Himself as King. It occurred on April 6, 32 AD.  When we examine the period between March 14, 445 BC and April 6, 32 AD, and correct for leap years, we discover that it is 173,880 days exactly, to the very day![ii]

Jesus also came making prophecies of His own. 

He walked approximately 6 days to get to Jerusalem.  With no way of communicating to any one in advance, Jesus was able to tell His disciples exactly where they would find a donkey and what would be said.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus demonstrated this supernatural power or knowledge.  He confronted His detractors about unspoken thoughts, demonstrated knowledge of the details of the lives of complete strangers.

He still does this.  Scripture tells us that He knows the very hairs on our head.  He knows the words we mean to speak before we speak them.

Jesus shows He is the hope of the world by both giving and fulfilling prophecy.  He is so in control of the events of History to be able to tell exactly what is going to happen hundreds of years before it happens.  He has promised to come back and make everything right, establish peace and justice and to take away tears and suffering.

Besides fulfilling prophecy, Jesus showed He was the hope of the world by accepting the praises of His people.

Crazy people, megalomaniacs and deceivers also accept praise.  However, by looking at the fruit of their lives and by reading what they said we can easily identify these imposters.

Hitler, Stalin, Nero and such accepted praise and their legacy in history is that of monsters, murders and liars.  There are hardly any redeeming factors to their reigns. 

As an extreme opposite, Jesus’s life has changed the world for the better.  One has only to read what Jesus said to know that He was not crazy, a megalomaniac or a deceiver.   No one in history has ever taught with such wisdom, insight and understanding.

The main word in the people’s praise carried the message of the triumph that Jesus carried with Him.  Jesus was entering into Jerusalem in victory.

The people were shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna.”

This would be like people in our day shouting, “SAVE NOW, SAVE NOW, SAVE NOW, SAVE NOW.”

This is exactly what Jesus came to do.  There could be no more appropriate praise.  Luke 19 tells us:

³⁹But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

⁴⁰He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

He is worthy of all of our praise.  Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no one else!  God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

Jesus showed He is the hope of the world by fulfilling prophecy and by accepting the praises of His people.  He also showed He is the hope of the world by what He expected in return.

Mark 11:11 says, “So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple.  After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon.  Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.”

What was He looking for?  Why did He look around carefully?

Throughout the week, Jesus gave hints of what He was looking for.

He cleansed the temple, accusing them of making His Father’s house a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer.

He cursed the fig tree.  This was a symbolic gesture pointing to the fruitless condition of the nation.  It was a picture prophecy of what happened to Jerusalem in 70 AD when Titus and company destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

He gave the parable of the evil farmers who killed everyone the landlord sent to collect the rent, including the landlord’s own son.  This was a clear reference to the reception Jesus received from the nation’s leadership.  They knew He was talking about them, and they tried all the harder to kill Him for it.

The cleansing, the fig tree and the parable all point to what Jesus was looking for.  He was looking for true, unfeigned religion.  By religion, I mean love for God.  This is the first and greatest commandment. “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”  (Deuteronomy 6:5)

He is still looking for the same thing.

 “It is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”  (John 1:12)

“And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life.  Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”  (John 3:36)

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[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] http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2007/1190/print/

Why Jesus Had to Come

Read John 3:1-21

In a public place, at the most crowded time, in the most conspicuous way, Jesus announced His presence to Israel.

The Gospel of John, chapter 2, gives the story.

Jesus made a whip out of small cords and drove those selling cattle and sheep, along with people changing foreign currency, out of the temple grounds.

This act got the attention of the national leaders.  They demanded proof that Jesus had authority to do this thing.

However, one of the leaders, a man named Nicodemus, was curious.  So, one night after dark, he went to speak with Jesus.  

Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we all know that God has sent you to teach us.  Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”  (John 3:2)[i]

He said, “. . . we all know.”

Here it is . . . evidence that the Jewish leaders who were demanding proof knew already that Jesus was from God.  

Of all the leaders, Nicodemus was the only one who came to find out why God sent Jesus.

Jesus starts by challenging Nicodemus to consider spiritual truth.  He uses the physical world to illustrate and talk about spiritual truth.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”   (John 3:3)  This statement baffles Nicodemus and Jesus explains that He is talking about a spiritual truth.

We know from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 that we were all once dead because of our disobedience and many sins.  This death is clearly spiritual.  Because of sin, we are born spiritually dead, separated from God.  Jesus is pointing out to Nicodemus that this is why He had to come.  This death due to sin needed to be fixed, and this necessitated a rebirth.

Nicodemus was incredulous.  “How are these things possible?”  He asked.  (John 3:9)

Jesus chided Nicodemus for being a respected Jewish leader and religious teacher and yet being unable to understand this most basic of spiritual truths. Then Jesus says this most interesting thing.  “If you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”  (John 3:12)

Contained in this statement is more spiritual truth about why Jesus had to come.  He explains, “No one has ever gone to heaven and returned.  But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.”  (v. 13) Jesus is drawing a picture of our lost condition.  Not only are we spiritually dead, but we cannot even begin to understand God and heaven.  From the Apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome, we know that God has given plenty of evidence of His existence and even of His Divine attributes.  However, who can explain Him?  Jesus shows that we cannot understand or even see God.  Without Jesus, we are lost.

To explain this, Jesus uses the example of people bitten by a poisonous snake; without help they are certain to die.  This is a picture of how lost we are.   

The example Jesus uses is from the Old Testament.  God used Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of their slavery in Egypt.  Numbers 21 tells us:

⁴Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.  But the people grew impatient with the long journey, ⁵and they began to speak against God and Moses.  “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained.  “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink.  And we hate this horrible manna!”

⁶So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.  ⁷Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you.  Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes.”  So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole.  All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”  ⁹So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole.  Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

This was a picture of what Jesus came to do.  Humanity is spiritually dead because the snake in the garden deceived it.  Those bitten by the snake in Moses’s time had the option to go ahead and die, or to look at the bronze replica and live.  We also have the same option.  We can remain dead in our disobedience and many sins or we can look to Jesus and live.  

There was no power in the physical replica of the snake.  There is no power in the physical replica of a cross.  It will not stop or burn vampires, nor will it ward off evil spirits, disease, sickness or problems.  The power of looking at the replica of the snake was belief, belief that God could and would save.  The power of looking to the cross is the same.  The power is Jesus Himself.  

In using the example of the snake on a pole, Jesus is showing that He knows exactly what kind of death He is going to die.

This is part of what makes John 3:16 so precious.  It says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

This is a spiritual truth.  Jesus explains it using the physical example of the snake on a pole.  There was no physical merit in looking at the snake on a pole.  In other words, there are no anti-venom properties associated with looking at replicas of snakes.  In the same way, there are no anti-sin properties associated with religious practice.  The only hope is to look to Jesus.  Jesus uses the word, “believe.”  

Jesus anticipates a problem that Nicodemus might be having.  

The Law that God gave through Moses, condemned everyone.  There were stiff penalties for breaking the Law, and Nicodemus would have understood that He had not kept the Law perfectly.  In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman believers, he explains that by conscience and the law we all know that we deserve condemnation or judgment.

Therefore, Jesus explains in verse 17 and following that God did not send Him to judge or condemn, but to save.

On the cross, Jesus paid the price for all sin for all time.  There is no sin too great or too small.  Jesus paid it all.

However, this creates a difficulty.  Jesus explains it like this, “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.  But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”  (v. 18)

God loved the world so much that He gave His One and Only Son, and in verse 18, we see the consequences of rejecting that gift.

Why would anyone reject such a gift?  It seems hard to believe that such a loving and kind gift from heaven would be rejected.

Jesus explained to Nicodemus our spiritual condition and why Jesus had to come.  He explained how belief works by simply believing and looking to God for eternal life.  It is a spiritual transaction, which we cannot fully understand.  Jesus uses earthly illustrations here to explain heavenly truths that are beyond our ability to understand.

He ends His lesson for Nicodemus by explaining why people reject this gift.  This is especially significant for Nicodemus because he is a member of the ruling council of Jewish leaders who were starting down the road to crucifying Jesus.

Jesus says:

¹⁹And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  ²⁰All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  ²¹But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

I might be too simplistic, but I believe that this gives the one and only reason that anyone rejects Jesus.

This does not mean that my neighbor who does not believe in Jesus is any worse than I am.  The snake called sin has bitten us all.  Therefore, the only hope for any of us is to look to the One who was lifted up on a cross.

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[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.

My Father's House

Read John 2

Jesus was not a typical man.  He performed many miracles demonstrating this fact.  The Apostle John calls these miracles “signs.”  These “signs” served as a mark or token to authenticate Jesus’s identity.

As an example of this, in chapter 2 of his account, the Apostle John tells of a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  At this wedding, Jesus turns water into wine.  John says, “This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory.  And his disciples believed in him.”  (John 2:11)[i]

After the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus walked the 20 to 25 miles to Capernaum with His mother, His brothers and His disciples.  According to John, Jesus was in Capernaum a few days before leaving to walk the 120 miles to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.

The Law of Moses required the Jews to observe the Passover every year.  The Apostle John records 4 Passovers that Jesus attended.  One at the beginning of His three-year ministry (John 2:13), two in the middle (John 5:1, 6:4) and then the last one at which He was slain as the Passover Lamb (John 11:55). 

The Passover, of all the Jewish feasts, clearly portrayed the sacrifice Jesus was born to fulfill.  The blood of the Passover Lamb kept the judgment of God from falling on the Jewish household when God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt.  In the same way, the blood of Jesus keeps the judgment of God from falling on us when He delivers us from slavery to sin.

Jesus was not a typical man.  He was the Son of Man, also known as the Son of God.  John the Baptist called Him “the Lamb of God.”

He walked 120 miles from Capernaum to Jerusalem to be at the temple for Passover.  He was not alone.  Jews from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover.  The city was crowded with these pilgrims.

These travelers were a good business opportunity.  Food and lodging were necessary.  Since it was a religious festival, animals for sacrifice and religious ceremonies were also necessary.  People traveling from other regions brought money from other countries.  This money had to be exchanged for local currency.

We exchange money for local currency even today.  I have money from Mexico, Canada and Japan that cannot be used at the local convenience store.  It has to be exchanged.  I have always exchanged my money at banks, and they always take a cut.  They buy low and sell high.  Like any industry, the unscrupulous can take advantage of this system to rob people.

When Jesus arrived at the temple John says, “In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.”  (John 2:14)  To be fair, this says nothing about any cheating or robbing.  It is a market.  People are buying, selling and trading.  Sheep are bleating, cows are lowing and doves are cooing and flapping.  And, yuck, the animals are indiscriminate about where they relieve themselves.  Can you imagine the smell, the noise and the commotion?

Jesus made a whip and drove them all out of the temple.  He said, “Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”  (John 2:16)

When Matthew and Mark deal with the account of Jesus chasing the money changers out of the temple they mention that He said, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it 'a den of robbers.'"  (Matthew 21:13, NIV)[ii]

This quote refers to the word of the Lord given through Jeremiah the prophet.  In chapter 7 of Jeremiah, it says:

⁸Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here.  It’s a lie!  ⁹Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, ¹⁰and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are safe!”  —only to go right back to all those evils again?  ¹¹Don’t you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears my name, has become a den of thieves?  Surely I see all the evil going on there.  I, the LORD, have spoken!

The state of the temple reflected the heart of the people toward God.  The people of Jeremiah’s day suffered judgment that they never thought would come.  The people of Jesus’s day also suffered judgment.  Jesus promised them that not one stone of their temple would be left upon another, which happened about 40 years later.

When the disciples saw Jesus clearing the temple they thought of another Old Testament prophecy, “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”  (John 2:17)

The Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing?  If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”

Two things are going on here.  First, they were doing something wrong and knew it.  Otherwise, they would have stopped Jesus.  Second, they recognized that Jesus was acting with God’s authority.  This is why they asked for a miracle.

Jesus agrees to give them a sign.  “All right,” Jesus replied.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  (John 2:19)

There is a significant change in the wording here in John’s Gospel that is missed in the English translation.

When John says that Jesus saw merchants selling in the temple, the word he uses for temple means “the temple area.”  When Jesus says, “Destroy this temple,” He uses a different word.  The word points to the sanctuary rather than the temple in general.

This reminds me of where the Apostle Paul says:

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?  You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.  So you must honor God with your body.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

The word for temple used in this statement by the Apostle Paul is the same word used by Jesus in John’s Gospel. 

John says:

When Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.  (John 2:21-22)

In several places, the Gospel writers quote Jesus as saying, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign, but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah."  (Matthew 12:29, 16:4, Luke 11:29)

Jesus was not a typical man.  He did many things that were signs.  He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, walked on water, turned water into wine and calmed the sea.  His ultimate sign was rising from the dead.  By this, He proved beyond doubt that He is the Son of God.

Notice that He says, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign.”

The condition of the temple showed the condition of the religion.  The temple practice of Jesus’s day had become a commercial operation.  Jesus confronted this with His actions and in this confrontation stirred up resistance.

Our hearts can be much the same. 

Our bodies are designed to be temples, but we clutter our hearts with so many things.  The gods we serve might be self, money, pleasure, greed, bitterness, envy, jealousy and many such things termed the lust of the flesh.  When we meet Jesus, He confronts these things.  In this confrontation, He stirs up resistance.

In our day, just to say sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is wrong, is to invite condemnation and criticism from a culture that insists that sex is a personal matter controlled by biology.

Sex is not the only issue.  The Apostle Paul says:

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  (Galatians 5:19-21)

When we meet Jesus, He confronts these things.  Our first defense is to demand a sign.  “What right do you have to say what I am doing is wrong?”

Just as the condition of the temple reflected the spiritual condition of the nation’s religion, the condition of our inner temple reflects our spiritual condition.  This is why the Apostle Paul says, “Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  (Galatians 5:21)

Do we love the Father the way Jesus did?

Does passion for the Father consume us?

What or where for you is “My Father’s House”?

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[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.

Losing Our Souls

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)

True freedom and joy comes in doing all things for the Lord and not for ourselves.

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[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.