Date: February 25, 2024 

Scripture: Mark 8:31-38

Sermon Title: “Take Up Your Cross”

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”

As you know, I was away last Sunday for a brief vacation with my family. On our way to New Jersey, we worshipped at Belmont-Watertown United Methodist Church in Boston. It was the church where I first got my appointment as associate pastor. I spent about two years there and have many fond memories, especially working with the youth group. As I sat there in the church, I could tell much has changed. Although there were still some faces I still recognized and shared joy in being united again, most of the youth whom I worked with either got jobs in another city or even married. Some of them have passed away, as I learned some died by accident, some by illness, and some by aging.   

But what caught my attention during the worship was the pulpit and lectern. One of my job descriptions at that time was to assist the senior pastor during the worship and preach once per month. So, three or four Sundays, I would stand at the lectern, which is smaller and lower. Once per month, I would stand and preach at the pulpit which was much higher and bigger. And I tell you how much I was eager to stand in the pulpit and preach for the people rather than stand in the lectern which was lower and smaller. Well, if you are going to be part of the worship, why not stand where you can be lifted higher and look more visible where everyone can see you and hear you better? Many of you may remember when you started your work as an intern, hoping to get the regular job, and finally being promoted as the manager. It is our human nature that we want to climb up the ladder and go higher.

I wonder if that was also what the disciples of Jesus were arguing among themselves, who was going to be greater than others. Who followed Jesus first? Who was his favorite disciple, and who was the brightest of all? Who was going to stand next to him when Jesus entered the City of Jerusalem and overturn the regime of the Roman government. But this is what Jesus told his disciples – how he would undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Marks tells us that Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Pheme Perkins, a commentator, explains that the Greek word for rebuke is used to refer to silencing demons. In other words, Peter is telling Jesus, “You must be insane, and we need to get the demons out of you.”

After Jesus rebuked Peter for not differentiating the divine plan from the human plan, he gathered not just his disciples but also the crowd as if he wants to speak to all of us here today. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Jesus says, “If you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow me.” What do you think he means, “Take up your cross and follow me?” John Wesley comments in his New Testament note, “Embrace the will of God, however painful daily, hourly, continually.” Although many people bear the word Christian often wanting prosperity, self-improvement, or freedom from trouble, following Jesus will often bring us suffering or messiness. 

Mark Yaconelli shares a story of his friend who called him one evening after speaking with her college-age son. Now, she was also a youth minister at some church, and she was a devout Christian. She sounded discouraged as she told him that her son just decided to quit his studies at college to join a group of Americans going to Iraq to be with Iraqi civilians during the U.S. bombing and occupation. These young people hoped that by being a visible presence as American citizens, they might be able to help to protect the lives of civilians as well as increase awareness about the sufferings of Iraqi back in the United States. As mother, she was upset and told her son that he had made a commitment to the education and this was no time to engage in some radical politics. Mark asked her how her son responded. 

After some silence, she answered with a sob in her voice, “He said, ‘But Mom, this isn’t politics. This is about Jesus. We are going as a Christian group. Didn’t you and the church teach me that Jesus was always befriending people who were weak and suffering?’” She was crying over the phone and finally said, “He’s right, you know, Mark. I know he’s right. But if I knew he was going to do something like this, I would’ve taken him out of the church a long time ago.” Just like the crowd and disciples that followed and surrounded Jesus, many people go to the church today and call themselves Christians. Maybe we do so because we are also seeking some healing as Jesus opened the ears of the death, opened the eyes of the blind, and enabled the paralyzed to walk. Maybe we are seeking some bread and fish. We want Jesus to bless our workplace and give us a well-established means to sustain our families and prepare comfortably for our retirement.  

However, once people realize that following the way of Christ, deepening their relationship with God would not lead to gaining what this world values, but often losing it, they are distressed and decide to leave. In the Gospel of Luke, a certain ruler came to Jesus asking, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said, “You know the commandments. You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.” He said, “I have kept all these since I was a child.” Jesus was pleased to hear this and said, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” He was sad upon hearing this and left him alone. We come to the church hoping to hear what we want to hear, but when we find out what Jesus is asking radically different from our expectation, we are distressed, disappointed, and even may abandon him. 

As I was sitting in the pews last Sunday, remembering my desire to stand and preach from the high pulpit, I thought about the altarpiece in Germany. After martin Luther died in 1546, St. Mary’s church in Wittenberg installed an altarpiece the next year, four big painting to illustrate the Protestant Reformation. One of the paintings shows Luther delivering a sermon and preaching the word of God, while his finger is pointing at the crucified Christ who stands in the middle, right in front of the congregation. In other words, for Luther, preaching points to Christ who changed the world by not overturning the government, blaming and accusing those who are responsible for the evil and injustice, or sitting in a lofty place. Instead, preaching points to Christ who gave his life for us through the cross. In other words, preachers are called to point to the crucified Christ by going to the lowly and humble places.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time – death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old person at his call. Instead of pursuing trouble-free life, we who follow Christ are willing to get into trouble by welcoming strangers, loving enemies, caring for the poor and hungry, and speaking the truth in love. It is a way of life that we take our cross, willing to die to ourselves because it leads to new life in God. 

One day, the mother of a nine-year-old boy named Mark got a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son’s school. “Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son’s third grade class. You son did something strange and I thought you should know it now.” The mother gasped and was worried what she might hear. The teacher said, “This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And I told them the story of the ant and the grasshopper.” You know the story that the ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work. The winter comes and the grasshopper starves because he has no food. So he goes to the ant and begs, “Mr. Ant, you have so much food. Please let me eat too.”

Then, the teacher told the children, “Boys and girls, your job is to write the ending to the story.” Your son Mark raised his hand and said, “Can I draw a picture?” “Oh, yes, Mark. You can draw a picture too, but I want you to write the ending to the story first.” As usual, most students wrote the ending like the ant shared his food through the winter and the grasshopper and ant lived happily together. Some children wrote, “No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer. Now I have just enough food for myself.” So, the ant lived, and the grasshopper died. 

But Mark ended the story in a different way than most of us can ever imagine. He wrote, “So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died.” “And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses.”^[1]

Amen.

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^[1] Brad Walden, senior minister at Tates Creek Christian Church; Lexington, Kentucky