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Mark 8:31-38
Tough to Follow?©
I’m going to
start with a story I’ve told you before. Some of you may have missed it; the
rest of you may want to hear it again. This is something that happened in the
Nineteenth Century; it began in Chicago.
Spafford was a
lawyer living in Chicago. Horatio and his wife, Anna, had four beautiful
daughters, 9, 7, 4, & 2.
Horatio
Spafford was a Christian man. He and his wife, Anna, were very much involved in
their church, and Spafford was close to a man named Dwight L. Moody, a famous
evangelist of that time. In fact Spafford was involved in helping Moody obtain
some property in the downtown area of Chicago for a Bible school that would
eventually grow into Moody Bible Institute, the place where hundreds of pastors
and missionaries are trained every year. (Our son, David, graduated from
there.)
In October 1871
a terrible fire broke out in Chicago that killed some 250 people, left 90,000
people homeless, and destroyed one third of the buildings in the city. The
place was a horror! The Spaffords were not hurt in the fire. Their home was
way north of the burned area. They became part of the rescue effort. They
opened their home to many people who needed a place to sleep, as they began
helping with the cleanup of the city. It was round the clock work cooking and
feeding and helping in countless ways all those folks who were burned out of
their homes. Finally after six months work, the Spaffords were by themselves
again. Their last guest had left their home. Horatio and Anna thought that
they could use a rest for themselves and their girls, so they planned a get away
to Europe. That would give them new scenery and a well-deserved rest from the
events that had taxed them so heavily.
Tickets were
bought, trunks were packed, passports obtained, the date was settled for their
departure. All was ready for the trip. They would leave in the morning. Then
came a knock on the door, and Horatio discovered that he was needed in an
important meeting at the town council, where he would be representing the Moody
people to identify exactly where the land was that had been purchased for the
school. With the fire and the ensuing clean up, people were now being asked to
identify their property. Horatio understood that he would have to change his
plans for the trip, but he thought, ‘Why should the entire family have to wait
for me, just because of my business?’ So it was decided that Anna and the girls
would leave the next morning, as per plan. They would be in the company of
several church friends who had made plans to travel with them. Horatio would
follow, meeting the family in Paris.
But one night
on the sea as Anna and the girls sailed along the Atlantic, the unthinkable
happened! The Ville du Havre, the luxury liner, they sailed on their way to
France, was struck by another ship and sank in just twelve minutes! Nine days
after the shipwreck Horatio received a cable from his wife with two words—‘Saved
Alone.’
Jesus knew he
was about to face suffering and death in Jerusalem, and he told his disciples.
Actually Jesus told his disciples on several occasions about his impending
death. In each case he also told them that he would rise from the dead after
three days. I’m sure he was trying to prepare them for what was about to
happen.
When Peter
heard Jesus talking about dying he reacted immediately, ‘No! May it never be!
God forbid it!’
Jesus turned to
Peter and said, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on
human things.’ Then Jesus added, ‘If any
want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross
and follow me.’
Do you remember my telling you the definition of
a gospel? One of my seminary professors used to say that a gospel is a ‘passion
narrative with an extended introduction’ –‘a passion narrative with an extended
introduction’.
I don’t in any
way want to disparage the importance of Jesus’ life and ministry. Not at all!
His life and ministry; his words; his healings’ his miracles; all of that are of
great importance to us to know the mind of Christ; to know his message; to begin
to follow him.
That being
said, the gospel’s most important section is the story of the passion of
Christ—the time of Jesus’ trial, his suffering and his death…and his
resurrection. If the passion never happened, Jesus’ life would not have made
the difference it does. We would not be here today. We would not have known
about Jesus of Nazareth. He would have done all the things he did-- healed and
preached and all, but if the passion had not occurred, no one would have
remembered the itinerant preacher from
Nazareth a generation after he
was gone.
The gospel
gives the setting; provides us the context of what was happening in that world;
and it helps us to understand how it was that Jesus ended up suffering and dying
on the hill outside the gates of Jerusalem—why it was that Jesus died in that
way.
Jesus said if
any wanted to follow him they must deny themselves, take up their crosses and
follow.
Deny self; take
up your cross; and follow Jesus.
We know those
words. Every time I hear those words there’s a little shiver that runs down my
back. Or that used to be the case. Those words are not easy to hear, and I
don’t suppose I’m alone in thinking that.
This is the
season of Lent, the time to remember Jesus’ self-denial as he spent those forty
days in the wilderness. We are encouraged to deny ourselves something during
this season, but Jesus simply said “deny yourself”; he didn’t say anything about
a short segment of time, like forty days.
Deny yourself.
There are several philosophies and/or religions that use self-denial as their
basic principle. (i.e.: the Aesetics, the Stoics, and the Buddhists.) They
figure that the pain in the world comes from the passions in life, so the big
idea is to totally abandon them. Deny all of life’s passions and life will be
simpler. All passions are wrong, and one should avoid them.
You’ll be glad
to know that is not the Christian perspective. When Jesus said that we are to
deny ourselves, total self-denial is not what he meant.
I think many
people think that Christians don’t have any fun. They think we are all about
living straight-laced lives, depriving ourselves of fun. We get pictures of
people like the famous American Gothic-the farmer and his wife as they stand
outside their home; pitchfork in hand—so severe! They are all business and no
fun!
Is that what
Jesus was talking about?
I don’t think
so. Jesus meant that we should deny ourselves the foolishness of ego-centered
living. Deny ourselves those things that feed only ourselves, our interests,
our stuff, and grow up! (Didn’t I mention that a couple of weeks ago?) The
opposite of an ego-centered person is one who is mature and self-differentiated.
God has given
us many, wonderful gifts. Those gifts were given to us to use carefully and in
the appropriate way. When we use our gifts well, we can enjoy life.
Jesus tells us to deny
ourselves. I would like to suggest that he means we need to deny the wrongful
use of our passions. For instance, the gift of love between a husband and a
wife is one of the greatest gifts that God thought up. But if it is misused it
becomes wicked and evil and sinful and misery-causing. Deny yourself. Passions
that are wrongly used need to be denied.
This same idea
can be applied to many gifts. We all get hungry. God put our hunger within us,
and we need to be nourished with good food. The problem comes from gluttony,
which we all, at some time, probably have indulged in. That is wrong use of
need to eat, and it causes much trouble down the road in the way of ill health
and disease.
Last week we
were talking about the time of Noah, when God looked on the earth at his
creation and was sorry for having created humans.
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind
was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their
hearts was only evil continually.’
(Gen. 6:5)
The people back
then had no law, and they were acting like animals. Self-denial is also about
learning to curb our animal nature.
TAKE UP YOUR
CROSS: Each of us has a cross to bear, but what does that mean? I think I’ve
heard some pretty wrong ways of calling something a ‘cross to bear’. (Maybe I
just didn’t’ like the way the person was complaining about it.)
When a person
carries a cross they are on their way to their execution. Jesus carried his
cross out of the city and up the hill outside the gates of Jerusalem. His
destination was death on the cross. Jesus led the way to the cross on the
hill.
Many years ago
the Catholic Church land an ad on television that was a great picture of someone
carrying a cross. The scene was of a young woman, dressed in a habit,
changing the bandages on a leprous man. Then you heard a man’s voice, like an
unseen interviewer, speaking to the nun. He said, ‘I wouldn’t do that [washing
and dressing that man’s wounds] for a million dollars.’ The nun answered, ‘I
wouldn’t either.’ The woman was bearing her cross. She wasn’t advertising her
job to the world. She was quietly doing what she knew she was called to do.
She was ministering to the man in need in the name of Jesus.
Any job we have
can be a cross we carry when we use the job to be the vehicle we use as we
travel the road that follows Jesus. Every job we ever have can be the wrong
path to take is we are not being Christian.
Right now I
think I am working on that for myself. Preaching has been my ‘cross to bear’, so
to speak, for the past nine years. When you become a preacher there are certain
things that you have to do, which you wouldn’t do before—a certain amount of
study and time every week is required when preaching. That won’t be a
requirement for me in June, and I want to be very open to the leading of the
Holy Spirit: Where and how can I continue this journey with Him? What is my
next cross?
Last week my
Lenten Bible study was reading about this passage in Mark, and the author
pointed to Albert Schweitzer. Most of us remember him when we were younger. He
was a medical missionary in some far off part of Africa. He had begun life in
the Alsace/Lorraine area of France/Germany, and had grown up in the home of his
Lutheran pastor father. Young Albert studied organ under great names in Europe and distinguished himself as a virtuoso organist before he was twenty.
He even built organs. He also wrote a biography of J.S. Bach in both French and
German. He went to theology school and wrote famous books on theology. He had
earned his PhD in theology at 24. He pastored churches and then went to medical
school to become a doctor. He moved to
Lambaréné,
Africa, built a hospital, and served as a
doctor to natives there.
Schweitzer won
the Nobel Peace prize in 1952. I remember that he won some other fancy award
some time later, and he had to fly to America to receive the prize. He didn’t
want to come. I remember the news commentator talking about what a selfless man
he was to skip all the notoriety he would have received the prize and stay in
Africa instead. Schweitzer was busy carrying his cross and he didn’t want to
have to leave his work to accept some award. He denied himself to serve his
Lord.
I suppose St.
Paul is probably the most remembered person for cross-carrying. He mentioned
his many experiences in one of his letters to the Corinthians. They included:
imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. 24Five times I
have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was
beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for
a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26on frequent journeys, in danger from
rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles,
danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false
brothers and sisters; 7in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night,
hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. (2 Cor. 11:24-26)
Surely Paul was
following Christ. During those difficult times that Paul was subjected to those
painful things he continued to praise and thank God for God’s goodness. He
continued to share Christ with whomever he met. He didn’t let those painful
experiences shake him from his purpose.
Do you see how
the three are entwined: deny self; carrying our cross; and following Jesus?
They are really about the same thing. Self-denial helps us to ready ourselves
for the process of cross-carrying, and following Jesus is our purpose as we
carry the cross.
I don’t see the
self-denial or the cross carrying as painful or even undesirable anymore. I see
them as actively following Jesus.
I started this
sermon with Horatio Spafford and the terrible loss of his children.
What can we do
when stuff goes terribly wrong in life? How can we continue on following Jesus
when we’re hurt to the core, as he had been?
After Spafford
read the cable from Anna he went to the office and booked passage on the next
ship out of New York, so he could join his wife and bring her home. When he got
on the ship Spafford told the ship captain about his terrible loss, and he asked
the captain if he would notify him when the ship passed over the area where the
Ville du Havre had gone down.
Spafford was
inspired to write these words as the ship passed over that part of the sea. His
words tell us that he was still following Jesus:
When peace, like a river,
attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea
billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast
taught me to say
It is well with my soul; it
is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with
my soul.
Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance
control,
That Christ has regarded y
helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood
for my soul.
It is well with my soul; it
is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with
my soul.
My sin, of the bliss of
this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but
the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and
I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the
Lord, O my soul.
It is well with my soul; it
is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with
my soul.
And, Lord, hast the day
when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back
as a scroll;
The trump shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my
soul.
It is well with my soul; it
is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with
my soul.
Page 377
Copyright © 2009 Marjorie Palmer. All Rights Reserved. No portion of
this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written
permission of the author.
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