Death that Leads to Life
painting by JA Miller, photo original
He (Jesus) then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. – Mark 8:31 (emphasis mine)
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” – Jesus, Mark 8:34-35, NIV (emphasis mine)
“Rob the word “must” of its meaning, and you empty the gospel and the cross of its glory. God’s ways are often hard but clear.” -Daniel Akin
“Now we see why it was so essential that Peter should grasp the conditions of Messiahship for Jesus: otherwise, Peter could not gasp the conditions of discipleship for Himself.” -R. Alan Cole
“When disciples play God rather than follow Jesus, they inevitably become satanic.” – James R. Edwards
“When believers confess who Jesus is, they also inevitably confess what they must become…The statement, “’You are the Christ’” (v. 29) imposes a claim on the one who says it. The Son of Man calls those who would know him to follow him.” – James R. Edwards
Define the Messiah, define the disciple.
In a week where so much was going on in the geopolitical landscape that involved death, it was powerfully moving to put ashes on foreheads of the church family members, whom I love and pastor, and say, “From dust you came and to dust you will return.” I have on my mantle in my office a giant splinter of wood from the tree that fell on one of the church buildings last year. I kept it, because it has a cool two-tone look (see picture above). The lighter wood is from the part of the tree that was still alive when it snapped off in the wind. The darker wood was already dead when the treetop crashed to earth (and some of it through a roof on its way down). Life right up against death. Death right up against life. To me, that is the picture I have in pondering Mark 8:31-9:1. There is a kind of life that leads to death and there is a kind of death that leads to life in these words. Jesus is clear. There are imperatives of Him as Messiah (must suffer, must be rejected, must die) and there are imperatives of those who would follow such a Messiah (must deny self, must take up our cross, must follow Jesus). I think in my own life I often try to redefine Jesus, so that the imperatives for me might not be so deadly, costly, and painful. I don’t wish to die. I don’t wish to suffer. I don’t wish to pay the high price of discipleship. But, if I am going to follow the ‘real’ Jesus, I am left with no other choice. Making matters yet more difficult, our culture and even the church often offer us false definitions of Jesus. Jesus as (right winger, left winger, social justice warrior, capitalist, socialist)… Really, well anything but Jesus as… Jesus. The problem with each of these definitions and what often makes them so hard to understand as false is that they have some truth in them. Just as Peter’s definition of Messiah (see Dan. 7:13-14, Psalm 2) wasn’t completely false. Peter’s definition was simply incomplete. Often, so are the definitions that we give Jesus. Because, let’s face it, there are aspects of Jesus that we like and find comforting and some aspects we find not so likeable and all too uncomfortable. Jesus will not have it. He refuses to let us define Him anymore than He would let Peter, or anyone else for that matter. And that is good news! Because we don’t need a Jesus we are comfortable with or who fits our current cultural definition of good. We need a Jesus who can bring us from death to life. We need a Jesus who can rescue us from sin, self, and Satan. We need a Jesus who will bow His knee to none but His Father (see Matthew 4:8-10, Mark 14:35). We need the Kingdom of God not our own fiefdom. We need the kind of death that brings life, not the kind of life that brings death. We need a cross and a Savior willing to die there. The imperatives of Jesus’ mission will not fit into our sham definitions of Messiah and this is good for us. Because our false Messiahs are made in our image and likeness and prove to be foolish idols rather than God Incarnate. As we journey through Lent, there is a powerful opportunity before us. It is the opportunity to allow more of Jesus’ life to show up in us. But, it comes at a high cost- death. Bonhoeffer was right, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die…” Might it be that by God’s grace, we find this to be true of us each day: death to self, life in Christ. (Romans 6:1-14) “Messiah, define us as we follow You. Amen.”