Gospel for March 17, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 12:20-33
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a difficult passage, especially for Western Christians who love life and all it has to offer.

It begins with the overtures from Gentiles, specifically Greeks, who have obviously heard all the hullaballoo about this wonderworker from Nazareth, and are curious to see him.  Jesus has just entered into the city in the triumphal entry, accompanied by crowds shouting “Hosanna!” and waving palm branches.  No doubt the Greeks’ interest has been aroused.

We know from sources outside of scripture that the Greeks had a reputation as folks who were interested in learning about other cultures and world views — e.g., Herodotus.  Were these Greeks interested in Jesus from a purely academic point of view, or was their interest more spiritual?

The disciples seem a little flustered by their request.  John’s description almost makes them seem like teenagers getting on the phone to report the latest gossip! Philip tells Andrew, and then together they go to tell Jesus.  But this has been a pattern since the beginning, when Andrew went and told Simon Peter about Jesus (John 1:40-41); and Philip went and found Nathaniel (John 1:45). And then again when Andrew brings the boy to Jesus with five barley loaves and two fish, wherewith Jesus feeds the five thousand (John 6:8-9).

Jesus’ answer to them is interesting.

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

It is as though this news is a kind of cue to him that he is now to be crucified, and then raised to life.  It is as though the Gentile seekers are the prompt to him that indicates that his message is now about to “go viral,” so to speak, in the sense that the Gospel will be spread to the non-Jewish nations as well.

And now comes the “hard saying” of Jesus.  His metaphor of the grain of wheat that must die and be buried in the ground in order to produce more grain seems to make sense — so it is with his own death and resurrection. Fine so far.

But then Jesus shocks us:

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

This is paradoxical to us.  But it is not the first time we hear this teaching in the New Testament:

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

This appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).  Paul also says he is crucified with Christ and says I die daily.

I will address this more directly in the Apply section, but it is clear that without dying to self, true life is not possible.  This is grounded in the theology of the cross — without crucifixion, there can be no resurrection.

This seems the moment in the Gospel of John that Jesus has his “Gethsemane” long before the Upper Room and the actual departure to the Garden of Gethsemane:

Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time. Father, glorify your name!

Jesus confesses the same misgivings that are expressed in the other Gospels.

Only here, God the Father gives the Son clear affirmation, as his voice declares:

Then there came a voice out of the sky, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

This has echoes of the Transfiguration passage that appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus makes clear that this affirmation from the Father is not for his sake, but for the disciples’ sake.  Then he sums up what his saving work will accomplish — the judgment has come, with the direct result that the ruler of this world will be defeated — i.e., Satan, who has held this world in thrall since the fall.  And Jesus declares the method by which this will be accomplished — by his own cross:

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

This is a fitting close to this passage — it begins with the Greeks seeking Jesus; and ends with Jesus promising that his death will draw all peoples to him.  His ministry and message will be global!

APPLY:  

There are several levels at which we can apply this passage.

• The hunger for truth that motivates the Greeks to seek Jesus.
• The mission of evangelism, which is simply to bring people to Jesus.
• The focus on the cross.

So, why not focus on the most difficult aspect of this passage?

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

On the one hand, this is a statement of brutal fact — no matter how much we love our lives, we will all die.  We will lose it.  But Jesus obviously means more than this.

I fear that articulating this may be well beyond me, but let me try.  Life is good, and beautiful, and pleasurable.  How well we know this, especially those of us who are Christians in the West.  And it is life-affirming for us to give thanks for all the good gifts that God has given us.

However, even the best gifts in this world fade, decay, and wither away. If we focus on those gifts as the source of our joy and meaning, we may well lose sight of the Giver of those gifts.  And when the good things are gone, our joy will be gone as well.

So, when we love our lives as though only this life matters, we tend to forget that everything that we have and are will one day be lost. But if our focus is beyond these gifts, and we are prepared to let go of them, then they no longer control us.  Our focus becomes the life that exists beyond those things that are transient.  The permanent, real life of the eternal.

This is one of the reasons that we practice self-denial and fasting, by the way — so that we can remind ourselves not to be bound by our appetites.  It also helps for us to learn to give away those things that we may prize the most, so that we wean ourselves away from their control in our lives.

RESPOND: 

I took a confirmation class to a Roman Catholic church one time.  I thought it would be good for those Methodist kids to see that there were other Christians than themselves.  It was there that the priest, a very affable and fun guy, said a most interesting thing: “The reason I wear black all the time is because I’m supposed to be dead to the world.”

Wow.  I knew this priest as a joker, a guy who enjoyed other people, who had a good time.  And yet, he had learned to hold everything lightly, to be ready to let go at a moment’s notice.

It reminded me of something that I learned long ago — that I will one day lose everything I have, everything I own, every person that I love.  The only thing that will endure is my relationship with God, and whatever touches the real life of God.

Lord, I love my life — but I will lose it, and everything I associate with it.  I know that.  If I have to die in order to live, then it will only be by your grace.  Help me to let go of those things that hold on to me; help me to give up control of those things that tend to control me.  Amen.  

Gospel for February 25, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 8:31-38
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In this passage Jesus “takes the gloves off” and issues a clear call to discipleship.  Although in the previous chapters he has certainly stirred up controversy with the Pharisees by forgiving sin and healing on the Sabbath, much of his ministry has been a positive display of his power — healing, casting out demons, teaching the way of the kingdom of God, feeding the multitudes, even walking on water!

It might have been understandable if the disciples had concluded that they would all ride into Jerusalem on the shoulders of the crowds and Jesus would be crowned king.

Right before this passage in which Jesus addresses the reality of the cross he has asked the disciples the famous questions “Who do men say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s declaration that “You are the Christ” certainly seemed to fit all the data that he had observed.

But now Jesus will disclose the hard truth — that his role as Messiah is to be the Suffering Servant.  The only road to glory is through the cross.

His disclosure that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem is not welcome news.  Peter, the very one who “discovers” the Messianic nature of Jesus, is the one who rebukes him for saying such scandalous things.  And Jesus must sharply rebuke Peter for failing to see things from God’s perspective.  How that must have stung, to have been praised one moment for his insight, and compared to Satan in the next!

And Jesus isn’t finished.  If there is a cross for him, there is also a cross for his followers.  Note that this message of the cross isn’t merely for the “inner circle” of the twelve — Jesus calls the crowd to him as well, and shares with them:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

This is a difficult paradox, that in order to find life there must be death, and only those who lose their life will gain it. Yes, Jesus will come in glory with the holy angels, but only after following the way of the cross.

Becoming a disciple requires self-denial, taking up the cross and following Jesus — not only in the feasts and the glory, but to the death.

APPLY:  

What does self-denial, the cross, and following Jesus look like in the life of the Christian?  Before Martin Luther’s breakthrough with the doctrine of justification by faith, he thought it meant severe asceticism, hair shirts and self-flagellation with whips.  His discovery of God’s grace set him free from such works of the flesh.

Still, there is a demand that comes with the Gospel. Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared in his book The Cost of Discipleship:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

The death required is a death to sin and self-preoccupation.  Self-denial doesn’t mean merely giving up some luxury (like chocolate) during Lent, but saying no to self-centeredness so that we may say yes to Christ.

Taking up the cross doesn’t mean putting up with some physical affliction, or some difficult situation that is a part of one’s normal life — like diabetes or a cranky family member that one has to tolerate.  Taking up one’s cross is a decision to do the hard thing that may be required in order to obey Christ.  It is a choice.

Following Jesus means not only focusing on the good stuff — the healings and the glory — but obeying even when it costs us something.

As Bonhoeffer said:

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

RESPOND: 

I confess I prefer self-indulgence to self-denial, comfort to the cross, and the Risen Christ to the Suffering Servant.

Oh, the meditation on the cross of Christ brings tears of grief and gratitude to my eyes, when I think of what my salvation cost Jesus.  But I would be dishonest if I didn’t admit that the thought of witnessing to a member of ISIS terrifies me; and reading about the hardships of a John Wesley or a Francis Asbury in spreading the Gospel in the face of stiff persecution or adversity make me realize how soft I really am!

Yes, I can fast on Wednesday and Friday; and visit the sick; and even occasionally go the extra mile for the transient or the homeless person who crosses my path. But if not for the sheer grace of Jesus Christ, I would be lost and pathetic.

I am now, and suspect will continue to be, a work in progress.  As my father used to say, “Please be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”

Lord, I hear your clear call to self-denial, the cross, and what it means to follow you, and I confess that I am intimidated.  Dying to self doesn’t come easy.  I guess I will just have to admit that the only way that will happen is if you do it for me and in me.  And that is also a ministry of your grace.  Amen. 

 

PHOTOS:

“Take Up Your Cross” by Godly Sheep is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for September 3, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 16:21-28
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The account in our Gospel lectionary passage for this week is really the second half of a larger narrative.  In Matthew 16:16-20, while traveling with his disciples near the Gentile city of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus has asked the question:

who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter’s answer becomes a defining moment in understanding just who Jesus truly is.  Simon Peter says:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus strongly commends Peter, and declares that Peter didn’t figure this out on his own — it was revealed to him by God.  But we note that last week’s Gospel lectionary reading ends with the Messianic Secret:

he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 16:20).

In our current passage, we begin to see just why Jesus has commanded the disciples not to reveal his identity.  His understanding of his role and mission as the Messiah is not necessarily the same understanding that the priests, scribes, Pharisees may have.  And, for that matter, even the disciples don’t fully understand what it truly means that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus begins to explain to his disciples what is about to happen in his life:

that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

We note that this is the first time in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus has clearly foreshadowed his own crucifixion.  He has called upon his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 10:38), and he alludes to the sign of Jonah when he describes his own eventual burial for three days:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).

But he has not clearly revealed that he would be crucified — until now.

This revelation boggles the mind of Peter, the very man who has just declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Peter discreetly takes Jesus aside to rebuke him for saying such a seemingly outrageous thing.  Peter’s view of the coming of the Messiah likely envisioned a triumphant entry into Jerusalem and ascension to the throne.

Jesus turns on Peter and responds sharply:

Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.

What a difficult moment for Simon — who just moments before had been praised for his breakthrough epiphany about Jesus, and who was nicknamed Peter, or Rocky for his insight.  Now, Jesus is denouncing him as Satan.  What Jesus seems to mean is that Peter’s words are a temptation from the devil to choose an easier path that is not God’s plan for salvation.  We remember Isaiah’s classic words:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Jesus turns this moment of Peter’s deep misunderstanding into a teachable moment for all of his disciples:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

That is to say, not only is Jesus choosing sacrifice for the sake of his followers; his followers must choose self-denial and sacrifice in order to follow him!  In other words, Jesus’ followers are called to be like their Master.  Paul will reiterate this as he describes his own discipleship:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

The teaching of Jesus about discipleship is paradoxical and counter-intuitive:

 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

The only way to find fulfillment is in losing oneself in God’s purposes.  The rewards of this world are transient, and they end in death.  But the reward of losing oneself for Christ’s sake is glorious:

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds. Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.

Again, there is a paradox in this statement.  On the one hand, Jesus provides an eschatological vision of the end of the age, when the Son of Man comes to judge all people.  Obviously, in this apocalyptical description Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man.  On the other hand, what is puzzling is his statement that some who are with him that day won’t die until they see him coming in his Kingdom. 

The Kingdom has not yet come.  His disciples are long dead.  What did he mean? Was he wrong?  Or was he suggesting that his resurrection (which nearly all of the disciples present with him near Caesarea Philippi would see) was the first glimpse of the Kingdom?

I believe this latter interpretation makes the most sense. His disciples (with the exception of Judas) did see the risen Jesus after his crucifixion and burial. The resurrection of Jesus is the first sign of the Kingdom that is to come — even if that Kingdom has not yet been fully consummated.  Paul uses an agricultural metaphor to explain the graduated revelation of the Kingdom:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.  For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.  Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy that will be abolished is death (1 Corinthians 15:20-26).

APPLY:  

Jesus makes us face some hard truths. His purpose in coming to earth was to die, in order that he might be raised to life again.  We cannot avoid that reality.  Death is the prelude to life.  In John’s Gospel, Jesus says it this way:

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.  He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life (John 12:23-25).

Anyone who has ever endeavored to accomplish anything has become aware that there is always a cost.  The athlete must push herself physically, and risk pain and injury in order to compete on a championship level.  The scholar must surrender hours of time in order to grasp his subject matter, which means giving up leisure time. The musician must practice sometimes for hours in order to perform at concert level, which involves sacrifice. A mother must suffer birth pangs in order to bring forth life.

In spiritual terms, life comes when we die to ourselves.  We become most ourselves when we are living for something bigger than we are — and that certainly describes the Kingdom of God!

RESPOND: 

There’s an old traditional spiritual that reminds me of the connection between the cross and the Kingdom of God:

If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
Way beyond the blue.

How we follow Jesus and take up our cross may take many different forms, depending on our cultural context, our age, or our lifestyle.  But in each case, we are called upon to say no to ourselves so that we can say yes to Christ.

The famous prayer attributed to St. Francis captures these principles well, especially the last three phrases.

Let this be our prayer for today’s Bible study:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Matthew 16-26" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for September 12, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 8:27-38
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The reading under consideration is pivotal to understanding who Jesus is, what he intends to do, and what it means to be his follower.

Jesus returns to non-Jewish territory near Caesara Philippi, which is a Roman colony in modern day Syria east of Mt. Hermon.  We remember that he had ventured north into Gentile territory earlier when he led his disciples north near Tyre and Sidon (in modern day Lebanon), and then returned south to the Decapolis (the ten Greek cities east of Galilee), before returning to the region of Galilee.

Here, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his critical question of the disciples:

“Who do people say that I am?”

He is asking about the gossip and the rumors that the disciples have heard.  Predictably, the answers are diverse:

“John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

These are honorable answers — each would have been respectable. John the Baptist, of course had already been beheaded by Herod (Mark 6:14-29), but even Herod superstitiously believed that Jesus must be his nemesis come back to life!

The rumor that he might be Elijah might be taken more seriously.  The belief was current that Elijah would come as a forerunner of the Messiah near the end of the age:

before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. (Malachi 4:4-5)

This, by the way, ties in with the belief that John the Baptist had come in the spirit of Elijah.

The third rumor, that Jesus was one of the prophets, may simply be that he had come like the Hebrew prophets of old to proclaim the Word of the Lord for their time.

And then Jesus pivots his attention to the disciples and makes it personal:

“But who do you say that I am?”

In other words, those at a distance might not have enough information to discern his true identity.  But the disciples had seen him up close as he preached the Good News, healed, exorcised demons, fed the five thousand, and even walked on water.  What conclusion had they drawn?

It is Peter who becomes the spokesman for all of the disciples:

“You are the Messiah.”

The Messiah, i.e.,  the Anointed One, was the long anticipated Son of David who would usher in the Golden Age of the Lord, and restore Israel — at least in conventional understanding.

But Jesus does here in Mark’s Gospel what he does with the demons who identify him as the Messiah:

he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

This is not to suggest that Peter was wrong.  On the contrary, he was exactly right!  Jesus is the Messiah!  But a) this was premature and b) Jesus seems to want to control the narrative about what it means for him to be Messiah.

This is why he explains very clearly for the first time what is about to happen, and what it means to follow him:

Then he 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.

This was the essential kerygma or proclamation that would be given about his ministry in the early church.

But at this point, this explanation shocks and dismays his followers:

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Jesus had made his statement quite openly, for all to hear; Peter was trying to be “discreet” as he “corrected” his leader.

And Jesus doubles down on his announcement.  He sees the disciples watching nearby, and he publicly rebukes Peter:

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Peter has shifted from the one who recognizes the Messianic nature of Jesus to one representing Satan!  Quite a fall!

This is not at all the scenario that the disciples had been taught to expect about the Messiah. They were taught that the Messiah would come on a white horse, leading a mighty army, conquering the Romans and establishing a shining kingdom on earth.

But now Jesus makes clear that not only is he to suffer and die, but only those who were willing to suffer and die with him and for him could qualify as his disciples!  

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 

The follower of Jesus is called to the way of self-denial and the cross.

And in one of the great paradoxes of the Gospel, Jesus says the way to gain one’s life is to lose it:

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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

And if those statements aren’t strong enough, Jesus makes clear that if anyone chooses to follow him, they must honor this teaching of sacrifice and the cross:  

Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

APPLY:  

This would have to be one of the least favorite teachings of Jesus in today’s self-indulgent, self-centered culture, even among Christians.  We want to focus on the blessings and rewards of the Gospel.  And yet this teaching of self-denial, dying to self, and losing oneself is at the core of his message.

Sometimes we Christians have tried to “water down” Jesus’ teaching of self-denial and taking up our cross.  We rationalize that Jesus was speaking only to the elite — the disciples, the martyrs, and the monastics. But Jesus doesn’t leave that option open to us:  

He called the crowd with his disciples.

In other words, he gave the disciples and the crowd all the same message!

If this makes us uncomfortable, it should.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred for his opposition to the Nazi dogma of Hitler, wrote in The Cost of Discipleship:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

We prefer to stick with the first two sections of this passage.  Like Peter, we want to proclaim our Orthodox, Biblical faith — that Jesus is the Messiah.  That is certainly doctrinally true. So far so good.

And we want to claim Jesus’ saving death and resurrection for our sake, which is the core of the Christian message.

But self-denial and dying to self means we must reorient our focus.  The orbit of our lives must no longer be around self, but around Christ.  His goals must become our goals.

The truth is, we do see this every day, if we’re paying attention.  A mother who sacrifices rest and leisure for her kids.  A dad who gives up the promotion that feeds his ego because it will require more time away from the family.  The firefighter who risks his life for others.

Jesus is telling us that real fulfillment in life is found not in grasping, keeping, clinging — but in letting go.  There is freedom there, and there is love there, and there is Christ-likeness there.

Ultimately, we keep nothing in this life.  Everything we have will be lost anyway — except the investment of ourselves in the Kingdom of God; and the only relationship that ultimately remains at the end is our relationship with God.

RESPOND: 

I am deeply challenged by this passage.  I am doctrinally orthodox.  I acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Divine Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Incarnate God-Man.

I have proclaimed my faith in him, and stake my hope for salvation in his life, death and resurrection.  That is at the core of the Christian Gospel as I understand it.

But do I live as one who practices self-denial, taking up my cross, losing myself for Christ’s sake?  I don’t understand this to mean practicing asceticism for the sake of “earning” God’s favor.  When I fast, for example, I do so for the sake of identifying with Christ and reminding myself of my dependence on him — not as a means of gaining his favor.  I understand that he already loves me and accepts me.

But there is something deeper.  It is this. I must realize that I am not at the center of the universe. I must learn to live for others, not for myself.

Do I do this?  Not consistently.  But I take seriously Paul’s declaration about following Christ:

I die every day! (1 Corinthians 15:31)

This is a daily decision.

I think we have to understand what Paul says there in context with Galatians 2:19-20:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And even Saint Paul recognizes that this is a process:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;  but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

Our Lord, I acknowledge that you are the Messiah, and you are my Messiah; that you died for my sins, and were raised to give me new life. But following you, denying myself, dying to self?  That requires that I ask you to live in me and make this possible.  I can’t do it by myself.  I believe.  Help my unbelief.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Take Up Your Cross” by Godly Sheep is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for March 21, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 12:20-33
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a difficult passage, especially for Western Christians who love life and all it has to offer.

It begins with the overtures from Gentiles, specifically Greeks, who have obviously heard all the hullaballoo about this wonderworker from Nazareth, and are curious to see him.  Jesus has just entered into the city in the triumphal entry, accompanied by crowds shouting “Hosanna!” and waving palm branches.  No doubt the Greeks’ interest has been aroused.

We know from sources outside of scripture that the Greeks had a reputation as folks who were interested in learning about other cultures and world views — e.g., Herodotus.  Were these Greeks interested in Jesus from a purely academic point of view, or was their interest more spiritual?

The disciples seem a little flustered by their request.  John’s description almost makes them seem like teenagers getting on the phone to report the latest gossip! Philip tells Andrew, and then together they go to tell Jesus.  But this has been a pattern since the beginning, when Andrew went and told Simon Peter about Jesus (John 1:40-41); and Philip went and found Nathaniel (John 1:45). And then again when Andrew brings the boy to Jesus with five barley loaves and two fish, wherewith Jesus feeds the five thousand (John 6:8-9).

Jesus’ answer to them is interesting.

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

It is as though this news is a kind of cue to him that he is now to be crucified, and then raised to life.  It is as though the Gentile seekers are the prompt to him that indicates that his message is now about to “go viral,” so to speak, in the sense that the Gospel will be spread to the non-Jewish nations as well.

And now comes the “hard saying” of Jesus.  His metaphor of the grain of wheat that must die and be buried in the ground in order to produce more grain seems to make sense — so it is with his own death and resurrection. Fine so far.

But then Jesus shocks us:

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

This is paradoxical to us.  But it is not the first time we hear this teaching in the New Testament:

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

This appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).  Paul also says he is crucified with Christ and says I die daily.

I will address this more directly in the Apply section, but it is clear that without dying to self, true life is not possible.  This is grounded in the theology of the cross — without crucifixion, there can be no resurrection.

This seems the moment in the Gospel of John that Jesus has his “Gethsemane” long before the Upper Room and the actual departure to the Garden of Gethsemane:

Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time. Father, glorify your name!

Jesus confesses the same misgivings that are expressed in the other Gospels.

Only here, God the Father gives the Son clear affirmation, as his voice declares:

Then there came a voice out of the sky, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

This has echoes of the Transfiguration passage that appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus makes clear that this affirmation from the Father is not for his sake, but for the disciples’ sake.  Then he sums up what his saving work will accomplish — the judgment has come, with the direct result that the ruler of this world will be defeated — i.e., Satan, who has held this world in thrall since the fall.  And Jesus declares the method by which this will be accomplished — by his own cross:

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

This is a fitting close to this passage — it begins with the Greeks seeking Jesus; and ends with Jesus promising that his death will draw all peoples  to him.  His ministry and message will be global!

APPLY:  

There are several levels at which we can apply this passage.

• The hunger for truth that motivates the Greeks to seek Jesus.
• The mission of evangelism, which is simply to bring people to Jesus.
• The focus on the cross.

So, why not focus on the most difficult aspect of this passage?

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

On the one hand, this is a statement of brutal fact — no matter how much we love our lives, we will all die.  We will lose it.  But Jesus obviously means more than this.

I fear that articulating this may be well beyond me, but let me try.  Life is good, and beautiful, and pleasurable.  How well we know this, especially those of us who are Christians in the West.  And it is life-affirming for us to give thanks for all the good gifts that God has given us.

However, even the best gifts in this world fade, decay, and wither away. If we focus on those gifts as the source of our joy and meaning, we may well lose sight of the Giver of those gifts.  And when the good things are gone, our joy will be gone as well.

So, when we love our lives as though only this life matters, we tend to forget that everything that we have and are will one day be lost. But if our focus is beyond these gifts, and we are prepared to let go of them, then they no longer control us.  Our focus becomes the life that exists beyond those things that are transient.  The permanent, real life of the eternal.

This is one of the reasons that we practice self-denial and fasting, by the way — so that we can remind ourselves not to be bound by our appetites.  It also helps for us to learn to give away those things that we may prize the most, so that we wean ourselves away from their control in our lives.

RESPOND: 

I took a confirmation class to a Roman Catholic church one time.  I thought it would be good for those Methodist kids to see that there were other Christians than themselves.  It was there that the priest, a very affable and fun guy, said a most interesting thing: “The reason I wear black all the time is because I’m supposed to be dead to the world.”

Wow.  I knew this priest as a joker, a guy who enjoyed other people, who had a good time.  And yet, he had learned to hold everything lightly, to be ready to let go at a moment’s notice.

It reminded me of something that I learned long ago — that I will one day lose everything I have, everything I own, every person that I love.  The only thing that will endure is my relationship with God, and whatever touches the real life of God.

Lord, I love my life — but I will lose it, and everything I associate with it.  I know that.  If I have to die in order to live, then it will only be by your grace.  Help me to let go of those things that hold on to me; help me to give up control of those things that tend to control me.  Amen.  

PHOTOS:
"Look for yourself, Look for God" uses this photo:
“8/52 Don't wait for me. [E-X-P-L-O-R-E-D]” by Kevin Lallier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for February 28, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 8:31-38
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In this passage Jesus “takes the gloves off” and issues a clear call to discipleship.  Although in the previous chapters he has certainly stirred up controversy with the Pharisees by forgiving sin and healing on the Sabbath, much of his ministry has been a positive display of his power — healing, casting out demons, teaching the way of the kingdom of God, feeding the multitudes, even walking on water!

It might have been understandable if the disciples had concluded that they would all ride into Jerusalem on the shoulders of the crowds and Jesus would be crowned king.

Right before this passage in which Jesus addresses the reality of the cross he has asked the disciples the famous questions “Who do men say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s declaration that “You are the Christ” certainly seemed to fit all the data that he had observed.

But now Jesus will disclose the hard truth — that his role as Messiah is to be the Suffering Servant.  The only road to glory is through the cross.

His disclosure that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem is not welcome news.  Peter, the very one who “discovers” the Messianic nature of Jesus, is the one who rebukes him for saying such scandalous things.  And Jesus must sharply rebuke Peter for failing to see things from God’s perspective.  How that must have stung, to have been praised one moment for his insight, and compared to Satan in the next!

And Jesus isn’t finished.  If there is a cross for him, there is also a cross for his followers.  Note that this message of the cross isn’t merely for the “inner circle” of the twelve — Jesus calls the crowd to him as well, and shares with them:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

This is a difficult paradox, that in order to find life there must be death, and only those who lose their life will gain it. Yes, Jesus will come in glory with the holy angels, but only after following the way of the cross.

Becoming a disciple requires self-denial, taking up the cross and following Jesus — not only in the feasts and the glory, but to the death.

APPLY:  

What does self-denial, the cross, and following Jesus look like in the life of the Christian?  Before Martin Luther’s breakthrough with the doctrine of justification by faith, he thought it meant severe asceticism, hair shirts and self-flagellation with whips.  His discovery of God’s grace set him free from such works of the flesh.

Still, there is a demand that comes with the Gospel. Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared in his book The Cost of Discipleship:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

The death required is a death to sin and self-preoccupation.  Self-denial doesn’t mean merely giving up some luxury (like chocolate) during Lent, but saying no to self-centeredness so that we may say yes to Christ.

Taking up the cross doesn’t mean putting up with some physical affliction, or some difficult situation that is a part of one’s normal life — like diabetes or a cranky family member that one has to tolerate.  Taking up one’s cross is a decision to do the hard thing that may be required in order to obey Christ.  It is a choice.

Following Jesus means not only focusing on the good stuff — the healings and the glory — but obeying even when it costs us something.

As Bonhoeffer said:

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

RESPOND: 

I confess I prefer self-indulgence to self-denial, comfort to the cross, and the Risen Christ to the Suffering Servant.

Oh, the meditation on the cross of Christ brings tears of grief and gratitude to my eyes, when I think of what my salvation cost Jesus.  But I would be dishonest if I didn’t admit that the thought of witnessing to a member of ISIS terrifies me; and reading about the hardships of a John Wesley or a Francis Asbury in spreading the Gospel in the face of stiff persecution or adversity make me realize how soft I really am!

Yes, I can fast on Wednesday and Friday; and visit the sick; and even occasionally go the extra mile for the transient or the homeless person who crosses my path. But if not for the sheer grace of Jesus Christ, I would be lost and pathetic.

I am now, and suspect will continue to be, a work in progress.  As my father used to say, “Please be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”

Lord, I hear your clear call to self-denial, the cross, and what it means to follow you, and I confess that I am intimidated.  Dying to self doesn’t come easy.  I guess I will just have to admit that the only way that will happen is if you do it for me and in me.  And that is also a ministry of your grace.  Amen. 

 

PHOTOS:

“Take Up Your Cross” by Godly Sheep is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for August 30, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 16:21-28
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The account in our Gospel lectionary passage for this week is really the second half of a larger narrative.  In Matthew 16:16-20, while traveling with his disciples near the Gentile city of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus has asked the question:

who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter’s answer becomes a defining moment in understanding  just who Jesus truly is.  Simon Peter says:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus strongly commends Peter, and declares that Peter didn’t figure this out on his own — it was revealed to him by God.  But we note that last week’s Gospel lectionary reading ends with the Messianic Secret:

he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 16:20).

In our current passage, we begin to see just why Jesus has commanded the disciples not to reveal his identity.  His understanding of his role and mission as the Messiah is not necessarily the same understanding that the priests, scribes, Pharisees may have.  And, for that matter, even the disciples don’t fully understand what it truly means that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus begins to explain to his disciples what is about to happen in his life:

that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

We note that this is the first time in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus has clearly foreshadowed his own crucifixion.  He has called upon his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 10:38),  and he alludes to the sign of Jonah when he describes his own eventual burial for three days:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).

But he has not clearly revealed that he would be crucified — until now.

This revelation boggles the mind of Peter, the very man who has just declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Peter discreetly takes Jesus aside to rebuke him for saying such a seemingly outrageous thing.  Peter’s view of the coming of the Messiah likely envisioned a triumphant entry into Jerusalem and ascension to the throne.

Jesus turns on Peter and responds sharply:

Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.

What a difficult moment for Simon — who just moments before had been praised for his breakthrough epiphany about Jesus, and who was nicknamed Peter, or Rocky for his insight.  Now, Jesus is denouncing him as Satan.  What Jesus seems to mean is that Peter’s words are a temptation from the devil to choose an easier path that is not God’s plan for salvation.  We remember Isaiah’s classic words:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts”  (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Jesus turns this moment of Peter’s deep misunderstanding into a teachable moment for all of his disciples:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

That is to say, not only is Jesus choosing sacrifice for the sake of his followers; his followers must choose self-denial and sacrifice in order to follow him!  In other words, Jesus’ followers are called to be like their Master.  Paul will reiterate this as he describes his own discipleship:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

The teaching of Jesus about discipleship is paradoxical and counter-intuitive:

 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

The only way to find fulfillment is in losing oneself in God’s purposes.  The rewards of this world are transient, and they end in death.  But the reward of losing oneself for Christ’s sake is glorious:

For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds. Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.

Again, there is a paradox in this statement.  On the one hand, Jesus provides an eschatological vision of the end of the age, when the Son of Man comes to judge all people.  Obviously, in this apocalyptical description Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man.  On the other hand, what is puzzling is his statement that some who are with him that day won’t die until they see him coming in his Kingdom. 

The Kingdom has not yet come.  His disciples are long dead.  What did he mean? Was he wrong?  Or was he suggesting that his resurrection (which nearly all of the disciples present with him near Caesarea Philippi would see) was the first glimpse of the Kingdom?

I believe this latter interpretation makes the most sense. His disciples (with the exception of Judas) did see the risen Jesus after his crucifixion and burial. The resurrection of Jesus is the first sign of the Kingdom that is to come — even if that Kingdom has not yet been fully consummated.  Paul uses an agricultural metaphor to explain the graduated revelation of the Kingdom:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.  For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.  Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy that will be abolished is death (1 Corinthians 15:20-26).

APPLY:  

Jesus makes us face some hard truths. His purpose in coming to earth was to die, in order that he might be raised to life again.  We cannot avoid that reality.  Death is the prelude to life.  In John’s Gospel, Jesus says it this way:

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.  He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life (John 12:23-25).

Anyone who has ever endeavored to accomplish anything has become aware that there is always a cost.  The athlete must push herself physically, and risk pain and injury in order to compete on a championship level.  The scholar must surrender hours of time in order to grasp his subject matter, which means giving up leisure time. The musician must practice sometimes for hours in order to perform at concert level, which involves sacrifice. A mother must suffer birth pangs in order to bring forth life.

In spiritual terms, life comes when we die to ourselves.  We become most ourselves when we are living for something bigger than we are — and that certainly describes the Kingdom of God!

RESPOND: 

There’s an old traditional spiritual that reminds me of the connection between the cross and the Kingdom of God:

If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
If you don’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown
Way beyond the blue.

How we follow Jesus and take up our cross may take many different forms, depending on our cultural context, our age, or our lifestyle.  But in each case, we are called upon to say no to ourselves so that we can say yes to Christ.

The famous prayer attributed to St. Francis captures these principles well, especially the last three phrases.

Let this be our prayer for today’s Bible study:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Matthew 16-26" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for September 16, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 8:27-38
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The reading under consideration is pivotal to understanding who Jesus is, what he intends to do, and what it means to be his follower.

Jesus returns to non-Jewish territory near Caesara Philippi, which is a Roman colony in modern day Syria east of Mt. Hermon.  We remember that he had ventured north into Gentile territory earlier when he led his disciples north near Tyre and Sidon (in modern day Lebanon), and then returned south to the Decapolis (the ten Greek cities east of Galilee), before returning to the region of Galilee.

Here, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his critical question of the disciples:

“Who do people say that I am?”

He is asking about the  gossip and the rumors that the disciples have heard.  Predictably, the answers are diverse:

“John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

These are honorable answers — each would have been respectable. John the Baptist, of course had already been beheaded by Herod (Mark 6:14-29), but even Herod superstitiously believed that Jesus must be his nemesis come back to life!

The rumor that he might be Elijah might be taken more seriously.  The belief was current that Elijah would come as a forerunner of the Messiah near the end of the age (Malachi 4:4-5):

before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

This, by the way, ties in with the belief that John the Baptist had come in the spirit of Elijah.

The third rumor, that Jesus was one of the prophets, may simply be that he had come like the Hebrew prophets of old to proclaim the Word of the Lord for their time.

And then Jesus pivots his attention  to the disciples and makes it personal:

“But who do you say that I am?”

In other words, those at a distance might not have enough information to discern his true identity.  But the disciples had seen him up close as he preached the Good News, healed, exorcised demons, fed the five thousand, and even walked on water.  What conclusion had they drawn?

It is Peter who becomes the spokesmen for all of the disciples:

“You are the Messiah.”

The Messiah, i.e.,  the Anointed One, was the long anticipated Son of David who would usher in the Golden Age of the Lord, and restore Israel — at least in conventional understanding.

But Jesus does here in Mark’s Gospel what he does with the demons who identify him as the Messiah:

he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

This is not to suggest that Peter was wrong.  On the contrary, he was exactly right!  Jesus is the Messiah!  But a) this was premature and b) Jesus seems to want to control the narrative about what it means for him to be Messiah.

This is why he explains very clearly for the first time what is about to happen, and what it means to follow him:

Then he 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.

This was the essential kerygma or proclamation that would be given about his ministry in the early church.

But at this point, this explanation shocks and dismays his followers:

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Jesus had made his statement quite openly, for all to hear; Peter was trying to be “discreet” as he “corrected” his leader.

And Jesus doubles down on his announcement.  He sees the disciples watching nearby, and he publicly rebukes Peter:

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Peter has shifted from the one who recognizes the Messianic nature of Jesus to one representing Satan!  Quite a fall!

This is not at all the scenario that the disciples had been taught to expect about the Messiah.  They were taught that the Messiah would come on a white horse, leading a mighty army, conquering the Romans and establishing a shining kingdom on earth.

But now Jesus makes clear that not only is he to suffer and die, but only those who were willing to suffer and die with him and for him could qualify as his disciples!  

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 

The follower of Jesus is called to the way of self-denial and the cross.

And in one of the great paradoxes of the Gospel, Jesus says the way to gain one’s life is to lose it:

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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

And if those statements aren’t strong enough, Jesus makes clear that if anyone chooses to follow him, they must honor this teaching of sacrifice and the cross:  

Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

APPLY:  

This would have to be one of the least favorite teachings of Jesus in today’s self-indulgent, self-centered culture, even among Christians.  We want to focus on the blessings and rewards of the Gospel.  And yet this teaching of self-denial, dying to self, and losing oneself is at the core of his message.

Sometimes we Christians have tried to “water down” Jesus’ teaching of self-denial and taking up our cross.  We rationalize that Jesus was speaking only to the elite — the disciples, the martyrs, and the monastics.    But Jesus doesn’t leave that option  open to us:  

He called the crowd with his disciples.

In other words, he gave the disciples and the crowd all the same message!

If this makes us uncomfortable, it should.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred for his opposition to the Nazi dogma of Hitler, wrote in The Cost of Discipleship:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

We prefer to stick with the first two sections of this passage.  Like Peter, we want to proclaim our Orthodox, Biblical faith — that Jesus is the Messiah.  That is certainly doctrinally true. So far so good.

And we want to claim Jesus’ saving death and resurrection for our sake, which is the core of the Christian message.

But self-denial and dying to self means we must reorient our focus.  The orbit of our lives must no longer be around self, but around Christ.  His goals must become our goals.

The truth is, we do see this every day, if we’re paying attention.  A mother who sacrifices rest and leisure for her kids.  A dad who gives up the promotion that feeds his ego because it will require more time away from the family.  The firefighter who risks his life for others.

Jesus is telling us that real fulfillment in life is found not in grasping, keeping, clinging — but in letting go.  There is freedom there, and there is love there, and there is Christ-likeness there.

Ultimately, we keep nothing in this life.  Everything we have will be lost anyway — except the investment of ourselves in the Kingdom of God; and the only relationship that ultimately remains at the end is our relationship with God.

RESPOND: 

I am deeply challenged by this passage.  I am doctrinally orthodox.  I acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Divine Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Incarnate God-Man.

I have proclaimed my faith in him, and stake my hope for salvation in his life, death and resurrection.  That is at the core of the Christian Gospel as I understand it.

But do I live as one who practices self-denial, taking up my cross, losing myself for Christ’s sake?  I don’t understand this to mean practicing asceticism for the sake of “earning” God’s favor.  When I fast, for example, I do so for the sake of identifying with Christ and reminding myself of my dependence on him — not as a means of gaining his favor.  I understand that he already loves me and accepts me.

But there is something deeper.  It is this: I must realize that I am not at the center of the universe; I must learn to live for others, not for myself.

Do I do this?  Not consistently.  But I take seriously Paul’s declaration about following Christ:

I die every day (1 Corinthians 15:31)!

This is a daily decision.

I think we have to understand what Paul says there in context with Galatians 2:19-20:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And even Saint Paul recognizes that this is a process:

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;  but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

Our Lord, I acknowledge that you are the Messiah, and you are my Messiah; that you died for my sins, and were raised to give me new life. But following you, denying myself, dying to self?  That requires that I ask you to live in me and make this possible.  I can’t do it by myself.  I believe.  Help my unbelief.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Take Up Your Cross” by Godly Sheep is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for March 18, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 12:20-33
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a difficult passage, especially for Western Christians who love life and all it has to offer.

It begins with the overtures from Gentiles, specifically Greeks, who have obviously heard all the hullaballoo about this wonderworker from Nazareth, and are curious to see him.  Jesus has just entered into the city in the triumphal entry, accompanied by crowds shouting “Hosanna!” and waving palm branches.  No doubt the Greeks’ interest has been aroused.

We know from sources outside of scripture that the Greeks had a reputation as folks who were interested in learning about other cultures and world views – e.g., Herodotus.  Were these Greeks interested in Jesus from a purely academic point of view, or was their interest more spiritual?

The disciples seem a little flustered by their request.  John’s description almost makes them seem like teenagers getting on the phone to report the latest gossip! Philip tells Andrew, and then together they go to tell Jesus.  But this has been a pattern since the beginning, when Andrew went and told Simon Peter about Jesus (John 1:40-41); and Philip went and found Nathaniel (John 1:45). And then again when Andrew brings the boy to Jesus with five barley loaves and two fish, wherewith Jesus feeds the five thousand (John 6:8-9).

Jesus’ answer to them is interesting.

The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

It is as though this news is a kind of cue to him that he is now to be crucified, and then raised to life.  It is as though the Gentile seekers are the prompt to him that indicates that his message is now about to “go viral,” so to speak, in the sense that the Gospel will be spread to the non-Jewish nations as well.

And now comes the “hard saying” of Jesus.  His metaphor of the grain of wheat that must die and be buried in the ground in order to produce more grain seems to make sense – so it is with his own death and resurrection. Fine so far.

But then Jesus shocks us:

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

This is paradoxical to us.  But it is not the first time we hear this teaching in the New Testament:

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

This appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).  Paul also says he is crucified with Christ and says I die daily.

I will address this more directly in the Apply section, but it is clear that without dying to self, true life is not possible.  This is grounded in the theology of the cross – without crucifixion, there can be no resurrection.

This seems the moment in the Gospel of John that Jesus has his “Gethsemane” long before the Upper Room and the actual departure to the Garden of Gethsemane:

Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time. Father, glorify your name!

Jesus confesses the same misgivings that are expressed in the other Gospels.

Only here, God the Father gives the Son clear affirmation, as his voice declares:

Then there came a voice out of the sky, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

This has echoes of the Transfiguration passage that appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels.

Jesus makes clear that this affirmation from the Father is not for his sake, but for the disciples’ sake.  Then he sums up what his saving work will accomplish — the judgment has come, with the direct result that the ruler of this world will be defeated – i.e., Satan, who has held this world in thrall since the fall.  And Jesus declares the method by which this will be accomplished – by his own cross:

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

This is a fitting close to this passage – it begins with the Greeks seeking Jesus; and ends with Jesus promising that his death will draw all peoples  to him.  His ministry and message will be global!

APPLY:  

There are several levels at which we can apply this passage: the hunger for truth that motivates the Greeks to seek Jesus; the mission of evangelism, which is simply to bring people to Jesus; the focus on the cross.

So, why not focus on the most difficult aspect of this passage?

He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

On the one hand, this is a statement of brutal fact — no matter how much we love our lives, we will all die.  We will lose it.  But Jesus obviously means more than this.

I fear that articulating this may be well beyond me, but let me try.  Life is good, and beautiful, and pleasurable.  How well we know this, especially those of us who are Christians in the West.  And it is life-affirming for us to give thanks for all the good gifts that God has given us.

However, even the best gifts in this world fade, decay, and wither away. If we focus on those gifts as the source of our joy and meaning, we may well lose sight of the Giver of those gifts.  And when the good things are gone, our joy will be gone as well.

So, when we love our lives as though only this life matters, we tend to forget that everything that we have and are will one day be lost. But if our focus is beyond these gifts, and we are prepared to let go of them, then they no longer control us.  Our focus becomes the life that exists beyond those things that are transient.  The permanent, real life of the eternal.

This is one of the reasons that we practice self-denial and fasting, by the way – so that we can remind ourselves not to be bound by our appetites.  It also helps for us to learn to give away those things that we may prize the most, so that we wean ourselves away from their control in our lives.

RESPOND: 

I took a confirmation class to a Roman Catholic church one time.  I thought it would be good for those Methodist kids to see that there were other Christians than themselves.  It was there that the priest, a very affable and fun guy, said a most interesting thing: “The reason I wear black all the time is because I’m supposed to be dead to the world.”

Wow.  I knew this priest as a joker, a guy who enjoyed other people, who had a good time.  And yet, he had learned to hold everything lightly, to be ready to let go at a moment’s notice.

It reminded me of something that I learned long ago – that I will one day lose everything I have, everything I own, every person that I love.  The only thing that will endure is my relationship with God, and whatever touches the real life of God.

Lord, I love my life – but I will lose it, and everything I associate with it.  I know that.  If I have to die in order to live, then it will only be by your grace.  Help me to let go of those things that hold on to me; help me to give up control of those things that tend to control me.  Amen.  

PHOTOS:
"Look for yourself, Look for God" uses this photo:
“8/52 Don't wait for me. [E-X-P-L-O-R-E-D]” by Kevin Lallier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for February 25, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark  8:31-38
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In this passage Jesus “takes the gloves off” and issues a clear call to discipleship.  Although in the previous chapters he has certainly stirred up controversy with the Pharisees by forgiving sin and healing on the Sabbath, much of his ministry has been a positive display of his power — healing, casting out demons, teaching the way of the kingdom of God, feeding the multitudes, even walking on water!

It might have been understandable if the disciples had concluded that they would all ride into Jerusalem on the shoulders of the crowds and Jesus would be crowned king.

Right before this passage in which Jesus addresses the reality of the cross he has asked the disciples the famous questions “Who do men say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s declaration that “You are the Christ” certainly seemed to fit all the data that he had observed.

But now Jesus will disclose the hard truth — that his role as Messiah is to be the Suffering Servant.  The only road to glory is through the cross.

His disclosure that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem is not welcome news.  Peter, the very one who “discovers” the Messianic nature of Jesus, is the one who rebukes him for saying such scandalous things.  And Jesus must sharply rebuke Peter for failing to see things from God’s perspective.  How that must have stung, to have been praised one moment for his insight, and compared to Satan in the next!

And Jesus isn’t finished.  If there is a cross for him, there is also a cross for his followers.  Note that this message of the cross isn’t merely for the “inner circle” of the twelve — Jesus calls the crowd to him as well, and shares with them:

Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

This is a difficult paradox, that in order to find life there must be death, and only those who lose their life will gain it. Yes, Jesus will come in glory with the holy angels, but only after following the way of the cross.

Becoming a disciple requires self-denial, taking up the cross and following Jesus – not only in the feasts and the glory, but to the death.

APPLY:  

What does self-denial, the cross, and following Jesus look like in the life of the Christian?  Before Martin Luther’s breakthrough with the doctrine of justification by faith, he thought it meant severe asceticism, hair shirts and self-flagellation with whips.  His discovery of God’s grace set him free from such works of the flesh.

Still, there is a demand that comes with the Gospel. Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared in his book The Cost of Discipleship:

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

The death required is a death to sin and self-preoccupation.  Self-denial doesn’t mean merely giving up some luxury — like chocolate — during Lent, but saying no to self-centeredness so that we may say yes to Christ.

Taking up the cross doesn’t mean putting up with some physical affliction, or some difficult situation that is a part of one’s normal life – like diabetes or a cranky family member that one has to tolerate.  Taking up one’s cross is a decision to do the hard thing that may be required in order to obey Christ.  It is a choice.

Following Jesus means not only focusing on the good stuff – the healings and the glory – but obeying even when it costs us something.

As Bonhoeffer said:

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

RESPOND: 

I confess I prefer self-indulgence to self-denial, comfort to the cross, and the Risen Christ to the Suffering Servant.

Oh, the meditation on the cross of Christ brings tears of grief and gratitude to my eyes, when I think of what my salvation cost Jesus.  But I would be dishonest if I didn’t admit that the thought of witnessing to a member of ISIS terrifies me; and reading about the hardships of a John Wesley or a Francis Asbury in spreading the Gospel in the face of stiff persecution or adversity make me realize how soft I really am!

Yes, I can fast on Wednesday and Friday; and visit the sick; and even occasionally go the extra mile for the transient or the homeless person who crosses my path. But if not for the sheer grace of Jesus Christ, I would be lost and pathetic.

I am now, and suspect will continue to be, a work in progress.  As my father used to say, “Please be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”

Lord, I hear your clear call to self-denial, the cross, and what it means to follow you, and I confess that I am intimidated.  Dying to self doesn’t come easy.  I guess I will just have to admit that the only way that will happen is if you do it for me and in me.  And that is also a ministry of your grace.  Amen. 

 

PHOTOS:

“Take Up Your Cross” by Godly Sheep is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.