“Gaining and Losing” Colchester Federated Church, February 25, 2024, Second Sunday in Lent (Mark 8:31-38)

Remember how last Sunday we talked about being in the holy season of Lent and that Lent is not exactly a happy season of the church year?  We can keep in mind that the Gospel texts we’ll be exploring together tend to be more serious.  So here we are on the Second Sunday in Lent thinking about taking up our crosses and following Jesus.  We hear Jesus say, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s [God’s] glory with the holy angels.”[1]  Just like the temptation story of Jesus in the wilderness that kicked off Lent, this is another Gospel text that makes us pause because it’s simply not easy to hear let alone understand.

 Jesus calls the crowd together with his disciples and lays out the situation in all honesty.  Mark relates that Jesus tells his followers, “‘The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.’  He said this plainly.”[2]  Jesus is announcing that this is what is to come, identifying himself as the Human One (other translations use the term “Son of Man”).  The title is ambiguous though it appears frequently in the Gospel according to Mark.  The CEB Study Bible outlines that it’s probably best to think of the Human One symbolically, as “an ideal human being who embodies the new humanity that reflects God’s kingdom.”[3]  We can understand that Jesus is the Human One because Jesus is the Christ. (Spoiler alert: Christ is not Jesus’ last name)!  Jesus as the Christ is charged with showing the world what God’s power and compassion look like in our daily lives.  In this passage, Jesus is talking about the Human One suffering, being rejected, being killed, and ultimately rising from death itself.  Jesus is saying that if anyone wants to come after him, we must say no to ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him.

Sometimes this passage has been used to justify all sorts of awful situations in the personal lives of Christians.  In the case of abuse, there are some who will say, “That’s just your cross to bear.”  Nope.  Honestly, that’s a terrible way to view what Jesus is saying here (and we will get into that).  In the meantime, we must keep in mind that Jesus also said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly..”[4]  Jesus commanded, “Therefore, you should treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you; this is the Law and the Prophets.”[5]  Finally, the most important teaching of all was when Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”[6]  Love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self are of the utmost importance if we are to follow in the Way of Jesus the Christ.  Some folks even refer to the love commandment as the Jesus Creed because it so captures the essence of what Jesus taught and how he lived.

What this passage about gaining and losing, about suffering and rejection and dying may have to say to you and me revolves around power and love.  Did we notice Peter’s reaction to Jesus saying what will soon happen to him?  Peter quite literally takes hold of Jesus and scolds him, beginning to correct Jesus.  It is in this tense moment that Jesus turns and looks at his disciples, sternly correcting Peter with those harsh and haunting words, “Get behind me, Satan.  You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”[7] 

This whole scene is uncomfortable.  Tensions are high.  Tempers are flaring.  Poor Peter!  I admittedly have a soft spot for Peter.  He most likely has this reaction from a place of loving protection.  Peter does not want to admit to himself that Jesus’ mission as the Christ, as the Human One, as the person who is embodying the new humanity and showing us what God’s Kingdom is like is also going to suffer.  Jesus will be rejected.  Jesus will be killed by those in power.  Yes, Jesus will also rise from the dead after three days (but it’s hard to believe in something you have yet to see).  It makes sense that Peter has a strong reaction because Jesus is defining discipleship and following in his footsteps in a challenging way.  Jesus is saying these hard truths plainly.  You know how there are jokes about doctors who don’t have a good bedside manner?  That’s one way to think about what’s happening here.  Jesus does not sugarcoat this, there is no softening of this news.  Peter understandably reacts.

Now the Apostle Paul will later write to the Corinthians that he heard Jesus say to him in a vision, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.”[8]  Yes, power is made perfect in weakness.  This is what Jesus seems to be saying to Peter and to the disciples and to the crowd when he speaks about the necessity of taking up our own crosses and following him.  Saving our lives is actually about losing them.  Some might say that our egos or our false selves must die in order to embody the new life that Christ freely offers.  Power isn’t made perfect in strength, but in weakness.  Good Lord did Peter not want to hear that.  But do we? 

What does this all mean?  Maybe this text can make us think about the complexities of love—love of one’s children, love of one’s spouse or partner, love of family members, love of our pets, or love of friends who are like family.  Love inevitably makes us vulnerable.  To love someone means that we will be disappointed and hurt by them at times.  People are not perfect.  People have the capacity to lift one another up and tear one another down.  Harsh words from our beloved can send us reeling.  Why?  Because we care what they think and what they say.  We care about what they think and say about us.  Sometimes, if we are honest, we are the ones who hurt and disappoint those we love.  Sometimes someone we love with our whole hearts goes home to God before us.  Grief is an especially painful part of love. 

Now a solution to the vulnerability “problem” of love could be complete and total social isolation.  Not loving at all because it can end too painfully.  Love can just hurt too much.  It’s true.  Just listen to some sad country songs about your truck breaking down and your dog running off and your lover leaving you at the altar.  Though doesn’t love make life worth living?  Love is what brings color and clarity.  Love is what helps us overcome adversity and persevere in the face of overwhelming odds.  Some would say that love makes us weak because love makes us vulnerable.  Personally, I am with The Beatles on this one, “All you need is love.  Love is all you need.”  Don’t we know within our hearts that love can also make us strong even in the midst of the vulnerability of love? 

What if we saw this interaction between Peter and Jesus on this Second Sunday in Lent through the lens of love?  Peter and Jesus were friends.  Peter’s friend Jesus, this person he gave up everything for (including leaving behind his family to follow), begins speaking about suffering and rejection and being killed.  Peter takes hold of Jesus.  Out of anger or out of grief?  Out of hopelessness?  Maybe out of fear?  Peter takes hold of Jesus and chastises him, even correcting Jesus about what he is sharing.  Peter loved his friend Jesus.  Perhaps in this moment, he could not bear to hear all that was to come.  How could these awful things happen to a person who was the embodiment of God’s abundant love?

Love makes us strong and love makes us weak.  Both things can be true.  Jesus’ life and death show that power is made perfect in weakness.  And it takes a strong person to walk the vulnerable path of love, even today.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Mark 8:38, CEB.
[2] Mark 8:31-32, CEB.
[3] The Human One in Mark Sidebar in The CEB Study Bible, pg. 97 NT.
[4] John 10:10, NRSVUE.
[5] Matthew 7:12, CEB.
[6] Luke 10:27, NRSVUE.
[7] Mark 8:33, CEB.
[8] 2 Corinthians 12:9, CEB.

Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash