YOU ARE THE CHRIST”: THE BEGINNING OF TAKING UP THE CROSS
Sermon Text, St. Mark 8:27-38. Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, “Who do men say that I am?” So they answered, “John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.” Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever 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, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord God, heavenly Father, because the adversary is a roaring lion seeking to devour us, we beseech You for the sake of Jesus’ suffering and death to help us by Your grace, that Your Passion’s mighty power would work in us so that we would crucify our sinful flesh, dying to sin and living to You. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ, who was tempted in all points as we are – including the temptation to lay down the cross – yet was without sin:
We’re in the very heart of the Gospel story. It’s the turning point in Mark, the first time Jesus says He’s going to suffer and die. There’s a lot here in this reading. Usually it’s broken up into little pieces for us, kind of, one thing at a time. But here in Mark 8 we have all of it together, a complete picture. It keeps giving us the message, that’s not all there is.
Peter speaks for all the disciples, gives a great confession of faith and answers Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” with: “You are the Christ.” Everything seems so easy, like he’s reached the mountaintop. But we find out: that’s not all there is – see, he rebukes Jesus right after that.
Also Jesus says He’ll “suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes – and be killed.” As awful as it sounds to Peter’s ears, that’s not all there is – Jesus says, “after three days, the Son of Man must rise again” – but it’s like Peter doesn’t even hear.
Then Peter rebukes Jesus and Jesus responds, “Get behind Me, Satan,” making it sound like Peter’s fallen off the cliff and maybe isn’t even a Christian at all! But again: that’s not all there is – Jesus keeps teaching him.
Finally, Jesus speaks of a person “taking up his cross,” needing to “lose his life,” and be willing to lose all earthly attachments “for My sake,” so it sounds like all there will be for us in life is hardship and loss. Once again, and for our comfort: that’s not all there is. The cross leads to a crown.
Saying “You are the Christ” is not an end, you haven’t arrived, it’s the beginning. We see right here in Mark 8 what it’s the beginning of: taking up the cross. That’s what this reading is really about.
Right after Peter speaks those great words about Christ, we hear Jesus say that He is taking up His cross. He is quite specific about it. He names “the elders and chief priests and scribes.” He says that He will “be killed.” We’ll be hearing on Wednesday evenings how precisely Jesus’ words here came true. So even if they haven’t put the cross on His back yet, He’s already carrying it. Mark makes a special point to say that Jesus “began to say” this and that He was saying this “openly.” So it isn’t as if the disciples didn’t hear. They got it, and Peter’s response shows this.
But something else is going on. Jesus is already requiring His disciples to take up the cross. Peter fails this test. He tries to turn Jesus away from His suffering. Not only does Peter give in to temptation but he’s also tempting Jesus to lay down His cross – the first of many such temptations for Jesus. There’ll be many more temptations for Peter to lay down his cross too.
Jesus goes on to talk about this: what it means for a Christian to “take up his cross” if he wants to “follow Me.” In the same breath Jesus says a person must “deny himself.” This doesn’t always mean being materialistic or greedy. It can be a “spiritual” downfall. Soon we’ll hear again how Peter boasted to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow You!” – declaring that if the other 11 denied Jesus, he never would. Then his fears did lead him to deny Jesus.
But the point is, “You are the Christ” doesn’t mean Peter’s “arrived,” it means “taking up the cross” is just beginning. His great confession of faith “isn’t all there is.” A great struggle is in store. This happens to all of us.
We can think we’ve “arrived” because we go to church or we know the truths of Scripture. We can be Pharisees, thinking we’re better than people who believe evolution or support abortion. But faith isn’t that you know Bible facts or you check off that you believe these things are true.
There’s something in us that wants faith to be easy like that. We don’t want to have to struggle with sin. We don’t want to need a stronger faith. We want to think we’ve arrived in our faith, move on to other things, and not need to work at our faith or what choices we make or how we live.
We find out the hard way, the easy confession of faith “isn’t all there is.” This is when “taking up the cross” is just beginning for you. A struggle is in store. Jesus’ words about this are hard, when He warns: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” What people or things, what fears or desires, could come between you and Jesus?
To tell you the truth, I don’t know what to say. It’s different for everyone. It’ll be different for you at different times in your life. But I do know we are not to think that if you just do this perfectly, if you make better choices than others or than you used to, then you’ll make it. There will be times for each Christian when you refuse to follow Him, you go the world’s way, when you let fear control you, or cry out that God’s asking too much of you and giving you more than you can bear. Jesus is preparing you for that.
What is it you need? To know there is One who carried the cross to the end. You’ll make it because of Him. We just heard that with the absolution Wednesday night: the Holy Spirit “who has begun the good work in you will perform and complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). That verse begins: “We are confident of this very thing!” Here’s another one: “He who called you is faithful. He will also do it” (1Th 5:24).
The point of this story isn’t that Jesus sees Peter – or you – lay the cross down, then stands in front of you saying, “Pick it up!” No, He plants His cross in front of you and says: “Look at Me. I am picking it up for you. Grab hold of Me.” This is what following Him, bearing the cross after Him, is.
We learn this in that hymn we sang. There’s all this talk about what we must do: “To shun and flee/ What harms your soul’s salvation … Deny your-selves, the world forsake …” This sounds like a burden. It’s hard. But then we hear Jesus, we actually sing words that He would say to you: that
“When you find most hot the fray,
I at your side stand ready;
The fight is Mine; I lead the way,
At all times firm and steady.”
He did it for you. Jesus is drawing you to His cross, showing you: in your failure to take up the cross, that isn’t all there is. Jesus is there with you. The one who already did it for you. Who picks you up in your failures by His word of forgiveness. Who picks you up in the Sacrament, where He strengthens you to believe firmly and to be more fervent in love, loving God in your neighbor. That is, to give love when it isn’t easy, obey where it’s hard, and deny self. He strengthens you, by the Sacrament, to do this.
Likewise, no matter what the hardships may be for you, that isn’t all there is. Just like Peter couldn’t see beyond Jesus’ death. But what was beyond Jesus’ death? “After three days He will rise again.” The brightness of Jesus’ glorious resurrection was waiting after the darkness of His death.
That’s how it is for us too. Jesus’ resurrection shows that your crosses anything but dark. “That whate’er betides me,/ My Savior is at hand/ Thro’ stormy seas to guide me/ And bring me safe to land,” to a life where there will never be any losses, hurts, sin, temptations, there’s no devil there, no hate or bickering, no sickness or death, only reunion, glory, peace, rest and love.
This is what gives us strength to go on. It gives us the strength to forsake sin, strength to die to sin and live to God, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ until we see Him face to face in life eternal. Amen!