Second Lent
Mark 8:31-38
Yogi Berra, a baseball manager known for his unusual way with words has said some amazing things. "Baseball, he said, is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical." About the stadium he said, "No wonder nobody comes here it's too crowded." And once he said, "When you come to a fork in the road take it."
That seems to me a pretty good summary of our text for today. When you come to a fork in the road take it."
Clearly our gospel lesson is the fork in the road for Mark's telling of the story of Jesus. This moment, is where it all comes together. By now in Mark's gospel Jesus' disciples had been with him a long time. They sat at his feet while he taught; they marveled at his healings, they basked in the reflected light of his notoriety. They think they have gotten to know him fairly well. He had even asked them the crucial question, "Who do you say I am?" and they had answered with confident sincerity, "You are the Christ" Everything seemed to be going so well. But "Then he began to teach them that the son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected and be killed."
The shock is almost more than they can take. Is this any way for a Messiah to act? Peter took Jesus aside and urged him to stop talking like this. Such talk will cause people to begin having negative thoughts. They might get depressed. "How do you expect us to attract people to your movement if you talk like this? ", Peter might have asked,
Jesus rebukes Peter's rebuke and then calls together the crowd with the disciples to say, "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 the sake of the gospel will save it."
It was all very strange. No doubt there were many following Jesus that day who were following precisely because they thought that, by following him, they could make their lives better and more fulfilling. Now these are tough words from Jesus. They come at a pivotal moment. From here it's downhill all the way right into Jerusalem. So for the disciples it's a fork in the road.
Mark doesn't say this but I expect that after this teaching, the crowds around Jesus got smaller as the gap between who Jesus was and who people expected him to be got greater.
Gerhard Ebeling once said that "Theology is necessary in order to make preaching as hard for the preacher as it has to be." Whenever preaching gets too easy, an over simplification of the gospel into rules for better living, proverbial wisdom with a dash of pop psychology, theology comes along and pushes preaching to be more faithful.
Theologians have wrestled with these words for centuries. What does it mean to "take up your cross"? So many people will say "I have my cross to bear" referring to stoically bearing some calamity or misfortune that befalls them as their cross. Others would say that "no" crosses must be willingly chosen and intentional, as Jesus willingly chose to bear the cross. We could go back and forth in that discussion.
Personally I think the lock to this passage is the question "Why", why does Jesus take up the cross? Why does Jesus go down to Jerusalem at all? Why does Jesus allow himself to be arrested? Why does Jesus offer no defense?" And the key that opens the lock "Why" is love. Jesus took the road to Jerusalem not to be famous or honored, venerated, acknowledged, approved of, appreciated, liked, ...but because he loved us and this is where that love led.
Jesus wanted the disciples to know that the path of love would not be easy. Jesus might just as well have told the disciples "I'm headed to Jerusalem because I love you and Peter takes him aside and rebukes him and Jesus turns on him and rebukes him. That's a harsh word--Rebuke. Clearly there's a bit of passion in this discussion. Jesus is being remarkably honest here. By saying "take up their cross" Jesus dismisses any suggestion that life can exist without crosses, without undue anguish and unjust suffering. The way of love will not be easy; it will not come without hard choices and without hurt.
Somehow that message is as offensive to us as it is to Peter. We expect that if we do something loving and good that we will be rewarded. I know I've tried to market service activities that way. You'll get more that you give. "You'll come away with such a good feeling." That may be true but it might be equally true that you will be ignored or snubbed or hurt.
One of our members goes to the PADS site. What a good thing to do. They wear a nice new leather jacket they got for Christmas and lo and behold when they are ready to go home the jacket is not there.
Paige Werner offers to take the Angle Tree gifts down to Winthrop Day Care Center in Lakeview. That's really a loving, nice thing to do. The universe should smile on her. Instead pulling out of the very very narrow drive she sideswipes the car for some significant damage.
A member volunteers as a big brother to a kid who has had some trouble. Half the time they make plans and the kid doesn't show up the other half the time he's surly and unpleasant.
Our human system of thinking says good should be repaid for good. Jesus rebukes Peter because he's thinking like a human rather than like God. God knows we humans can be disappointing but when we are God doesn't withdraw or pull back or stop loving.
It's all about love. Love that is not easy, soft, gentle, perfect or effortless. Love will have its consequences.
Now that may not sound like gospel, good news to us. It may seem that
Jesus' words are one more somber demand when our lives are weighted with more demands than we can ever meet now. But What if those words are just the opposite? What if Jesus' words are not another demand but rather an invitation? What if their intent is not to increase our burden, but to lighten it? What if "Follow me" has less the sound of a drill sergeant and more the sound of a scout who leads a thirsty crowd to a stream of fresh water?
A life with love can be a hard life, a demanding life, a challenging life but at least it is life. A life without love is no life at all.
Somebody (Linda Johnson) this week shared with me Bono's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. They were really good and I would commend them to you. I'm sure they can be tapped on the internet. But in these remarks he talks about his personal history and his development of a healthy disdain for religion. That disdain was challenged by the Jubilee campaign. And then he says
"But then my cynicism got another helping hand.
It was what Colin Powell, a five star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all; a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community in large part missed it
The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behavior. Even on children...even though the fastest growing group of HIV infections were married faithful women. Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgementalism is back!
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age. Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move...
Later in his comments Bono says " A number of years ago , I met a wise man who changed mylife. In countless ways, large and small. I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was ssaying, you know, I have a new song, look after it? I have a family, please look after them? I have this crazy idea... and this wise man said: stop. He said stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing--because it's already blessed."
Jesus is way out ahead of us--he's on the way to Jerusalem and he's asking us to follow.
It's a a fork in the road, one way is love with all the hurt and risk and heart ache that it entails and the other way is not love. When you come to the fork in the road--take it.
Amen