Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Denial, Cross, Follow Jesus

Mark 8: 31-38

March 12, 2006

Denial, Cross, Follow Jesus

Leonard Sweet begins his thoughts on today's gospel reading with these words: "Lent often employs a 'journey' motif, sending Jesus' disciples towards Jerusalem and Golgotha. This week's theme reminds us that if we faithfully intend to follow Christ, we must be willing to step outside the door. We must be willing to leave our safe sanctuaries, our 'wombs with a view' and risk entering the world naked and vulnerable, clad only in our faith."

I love that phrase describing the sanctuary as a "womb with a view". It paints the picture of worshipers safe, warm and protected and only observing the world outside. I like the word picture but not if it is an accurate description of who we are. What Sweet means to say is that true Christianity is not lived only within these walls, safe from the world's temptations and dangers, but must take the risk of taking the gospel through the doors into the world by doing what Jesus did.

think the WWJD stuff is still around, although it isn’t as popular as some years ago. What Would Jesus Do? It's a good question. And the answer can always be guided by a similar question – WDJD. What Did Jesus Do? Jesus made very clear to his disciples that they were to do what he did. "He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'"

A follower of Jesus must first deny himself. Notice that is "deny oneself," not "deny oneself something." The kind of denying that Jesus is talking about is not denying oneself donuts or caffeine or television. That is depriving oneself of something. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, period.

What does it mean to deny oneself? It is to say “no” to self. The safety net in denying ourselves "something" is that the self is still the focus of attention. The sacrifice benefits me. I will deny myself donuts so that I can lose weight. I will deny myself television so that I will have more time to read. No matter the sacrifice, the result is something good for me. True self-denial is to remove ones self from the center of our concerns.

Denying one's self is concerned with the will - that one's own will should not be the controlling factor in one's life. Soren Kierkegaard, a famous 19^th century Danish philosopher, in an essay on humility, suggests that we conceive of an arrow racing on its course when suddenly it halts in its flight, perhaps in order to see how far it has come or how high it has soared above the earth or how its speed compares to that of another arrow (or to see and admire the gracefulness with which it flies): at that very moment when it stops to consider itself the arrow falls to the ground. So, the philosopher insists, self-preoccupation is always dangerous and self-destructive.

If the Christian is the arrow, and the flight is his life, the Christian does not stop until he hits the target, and the target is Christ's will for his life.

A follower of Christ must take up his cross. The world invites us to climb ladders; the gospel invites us to lift crosses. The business model in our society has led us to the point where the central motivating symbol in life is the ladder, rather than the cross. A seminary professor related a conversation he had with a prospective student who had decided to enter the ministry after a successful, six-figure-income career in corporate America. The conversation illustrates the lethal power present in the business preoccupation with the climb-the-ladder lifestyle.

The once career-ist said, "Once I reached the top of the ladder and looked around, I realized that all the struggle, all the costs to my family and friendships, all the sacrifices I had made to reach the pinnacle were not worth what I found there, the lack of meaning I felt there. Suddenly it hit me: I had propped my ladder up against the wrong building."

Perhaps what is most needed in society today is some "career regression." The symbol embodying the most fundamental meaning of discipleship is the cross, not the ladder. We glory in the cross of Christ, not the ladder of success. Christians need to go down the ladder of success that they might lift up the cross of Christ.

It is absolutely essential that you remember that bearing a cross and suffering a thorn in the flesh are two different things. If you are cross-eyed, have arthritis, or have been dumped by your girl friend, this is not your cross to bear but the thorn in the flesh that you must endure.

To take up one's cross is a voluntary depriving of oneself for the benefit of another. It has something to do with sacrifice. As one commentator on Mark writes: "The cross Jesus invites his hearers to take up refers not to the burdens life imposes from without but rather the painful, redemptive action voluntarily undertaken for others."

Some years ago when I was serving a church in Algona, I received a letter from a teacher at the high school that gave information on an event that was going to happen the next week. The theme, she wrote, will be "Something for others - something for you." One component of the even would have students invest approximately two hours to do yard work, just socialize, wash windows, bake cookies, etc., for elderly or shut-ins singles or couples who would benefit from this activity. She closed the letter with these words: "We need to offer altruistic opportunities to our youth - they need to realize the great intrinsic feelings they can provide." I know that this might sound knit-picky but I wish she would have left the second half of that sentence out, “they need to realize the great intrinsic feelings they can provide. Why the need to sweeten the challenge of giving time and energy with the promise of getting a “good feeling”? To take up one’s cross is to give with no expectation to get.

The last requirement of a follower of Jesus, says Jesus, is to follow Jesus. I know that sounds simple, even redundant. But too often we stop short of the actual doing. We read what Jesus did. We study what Jesus did. We debate what Jesus did. We discuss what Jesus did. We pray about doing the things that Jesus did. But what separates followers of Christ from watchers of Christ is that followers do what Jesus did.

And that means not only walking in his steps but also walking with his courage. Jesus had no illusions about what awaited him in Jerusalem. It says in Mark, "Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." He knew that he was walking to the cross, walking toward a painful, humiliating death, but from this time on in the Gospel of Mark Jesus does not veer from his straight path to Jerusalem until he fulfills God's purpose on the cross. Jesus invites us into that same courageous walk.

Christianity is not for the faint of heart. I am told that when spell checkers were new some of them did not recognize the word "sacred." Every time the word "sacred" was used it wanted to substitute the word "scared." There might be some truth to that. Faced with the invitation to enter into the sacredness of Jesus' example, we might indeed be scared.

This sign is posted in an African game reserve: "Advance and be bitten." Paul posted the same sign at the entrance to the Christian life. These are his words to the Philippians (1:29): "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake..." In other words, suffering for the sake of Christ is as much an honor and a blessing as believing in him.

"Jesus asks 'Who do you say I am?' If your response is 'The Messiah! The Son of the Living God,' you are one of God's favored ones. But remember this: Your calling as God's favored one cannot promise you success. Your calling as God's favored one cannot promise you prosperity - or popularity - or a life passed only in pleasure. Your calling as God's favored one can only promise you hardship, weariness, suffering, disruption and, in the end, the invaluable privilege of standing with Jesus in his eternal kingdom." Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.