Mark 8:31-38
8:31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
Why does Jesus need to suffer many terrible things? Why does he, as the “Son of Man”, need to be killed? Why does Jesus’ death need to be so brutal, full of torture and blood and beating and crucifixion?
Isn’t this just, as many people have said, an example of an old barbaric ritualistic tribal religion. Why believe this today? We’ve evolved beyond this.
Or have we?
The news tells us otherwise. Ours is a planet full of war and murder and bloodshed and torture and unspeakable evil. This week the evil of the world came home hard to us as Frode Sanni was brutally murdered by one of the employees at Maxbo. A calm, nice, decent, hard-working young Norwegian. Not on drugs. Not boozed up. Not even with a motive or a grudge. One minute he was a decent well-liked work colleague. The next he was a psychopathic lunatic running around covered in blood shouting that he’d just killed someone. I find this most disturbing – and I grew up in Israel in the 80s listening to jet planes flying overhead to bomb Lebanon, and in South Africa in the 80s and 90s in the death struggles of Apartheid. And this murder in peaceful Notodden I find the most disturbing. Because there is no reason for it. This is the best place in the world to live. This is a peaceful place. The murderer was raised in a good home. He had a job. He was not poor. He was not filled with any weird ideology. He simply “followed his heart” and what his heart said was murder.
It is disturbing because it rips away at this veneer of civility, this thin layer of goodness that we cover ourselves with.
This is what we are capable of. This is what we are all capable of.
Romans 3:10 says this of us, of humanity: 10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” 13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies.” “Snake venom drips from their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “They rush to commit murder. 16 Destruction and misery always follow them. 17 They don’t know where to find peace.” 18 “They have no fear of God at all.” 19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
1. Jesus came to die in our place to save us
2. Following Jesus means he lives and you die.
1. Jesus came to die in our place to save us.
Jesus has been knocking heads with the Pharisees, the religious law-keepers. Man, these guys made a career out of being religiously good. The kept the law so well. And made sure that everybody knew it. And everybody was impressed with them. Everybody, except God. You see, he is not fooled by the veneer of goodness we have. He sees right through, through to our hearts, to the real us, to the mass of anger and hatred and lying and jealousy and rage that lies just below the surface. And how quickly that comes out when we are pushed or provoked! Rom3:20 No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
And remember back to chapter 7 when the Pharisees came and said “Hey Jesus, why aren’t you telling your disciples to wash properly like the rest of us” – why aren’t you being religious like us. They thought cleanliness was godliness. Clean on the outside, clean on the inside. Jesus calls them out on their foolishness. Turn back to chapter 7.
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” … 20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
Our problem is us. We have a well of poison within us that is killing us. This poison of sin is what is destroying us. And this is why Jesus came. And this is why Jesus could not come just as an inspiring example - because an inspiring example is not what we need. We can’t get ourselves right because the poison of sin within us keeps breaking us down. He could not come as a great leader, or a mighty king, because we would end up fighting him. He could not come as wise philosopher because sin within us poisons wisdom. How often do we know what we should do… but then we do the opposite? Sin!
No, Jesus had to come as healer, as the doctor for our souls, and ultimately, as the sacrifice, the substitute to die in our place so that he could give us life.
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Peter has just had his eyes opened to who Jesus is. He finally gets it... “You are the Messiah” he says. The Christ. (Those words mean the same thing by the way. He isn’t Mr Christ. Christ means Messiah means God’s Promised Rescuer). You’re the one going to rescue us.
After eight chapters of amazing miracles, Peter sees Jesus! And we’ve travelled with the disciples as they have seen Jesus raise the dead, feed thousands from nothing, walk on water, defeat evil spirits, and heal countless sicknesses. They’ve listened to his words, words of life. They’ve heard him say he’s come for sinners like us, and heard him say “your sins are forgiven”. And they’ve seen him accepting all kinds of people, including sinners.
Wow! You are the Messiah.
Peter finally sees! Like the blind man Peter can see! But only partially. He sees the truth like the blind man sees people like trees. And Peter needs his eyes opened fully.
Because he’s still thinking like, well, like us. From a human point of view. So he tells Jesus off. No Jesus you’re wrong, you didn’t come to suffer.
Peter’s thinking Jesus has come to set up an earthly kingdom and save the world through education programs, or healthy eating initiatives, or moral pledges, or just being a great guy that everyone can look up to.
Peter has forgotten Jesus’ words in Mark 7. The problem is sin. And Jesus has come to solve that problem. And no amount of external stimulus is going to help that. No amount of washing, or positive thinking, or education, or drilling in morals, or even religion – positive as those things may be, they do not deal with the heart of the problem: the problem of the heart. Sin is brutal and bloody and filthy and disgusting – and God is getting his hands dirty. He is going to suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead
You know, I can’t watch the Passion of the Christ. I find it too brutal, too harsh, too vile. Because it is real. This is what Jesus went through for me and for you. Because this is who we are, the human race. Brutal and bloody, torturing for enjoyment, rationalising our cruelty. So Jesus did not just become one of us, he became one of the lowest of us, he faced the worst of us: torture, rejection, betrayal, beatings, mocking, crucifixion – nails driven into his hands and feet and hung there to wait until his body gave out and he choked to death. That came from the mind of men. Our minds. And Jesus faced that.
And forgave.
Peter, you are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.
God sees us as we are. Blood and guts and sin and filth – and loves us. LOVES US! Loves us enough to come, to be born into filth and poverty. To be born of blood and flesh. To be born as one of us. And to suffer. To suffer like we do. But to suffer well. To suffer without lashing out, without sin, without hate. To suffer in love and to die in love. We see Jesus and we see what we should be, and what we are not. We see how far we have fallen!
Jesus dies in love. Love is why He must die. That is why he came. He dies in order to be raised to life again, so that he can give new life to all those who follow him.
Jesus must die, must be sacrificed in blood and filth, because that is who we are. That is what is in here. In each of us.
And without God’s mercy, that is where we will all end up. In blood and filth, given over to every sinful impulse of our hearts, with nothing to hold us back. That is hell – where everybody can follow their heart, and do exactly what they want to do.
Now we hear that, and that sounds not like hell, but heaven. Where everyone is free to do what they want. Heaven is where everyone does what they ought (should). Hell is where everyone does what they want.
Let me illustrate by talking about communism.
Communism is a beautiful ideal. I love Communism. It’s a system based on sharing, where everyone is equal, where people work out of the goodness of their heart for the benefit of their fellow man, rather than for selfish motives. It’s a system based on the goodness of man.
And that is why it failed. Communism fails to take sin into account. It’s all the brotherhood of man and Kumbaya, until the leaders in power steal everything and crush everybody with their jackboots and everyone lives in fear.
Capitalism is a horrible system. Because capitalism assumes that people are selfish and greedy. And that’s why it works.
Our economic system tells us that we only trust people to be selfish. And our political system, democracy, tells us that we don’t trust people with power – because they’ll abuse it.
Still think that if we let everyone “follow their heart” we’d have a paradise? And if you do, what do you do with the paedophiles? And the thieves? And the murderers? Oh, they are not allowed to follow their heart. Why not? Because they must do what they ought to do, not what they want to do. Hmm.
The fall of Communism and the success of capitalism confirms what the Bible says about people: we are utterly selfish, devoted only to our own well-being. We need a saviour. We need someone to change our selfish hearts into selfless hearts. We need a rescuer: a Messiah, a Christ.
Jesus must suffer and die in our place so that he can save us.
But if you want to be saved, you’d better be ready to suffer and die too. Because the only way to follow Jesus, is to follow Jesus. And his path goes to the cross, before it goes to glory.
2. Following Jesus means he lives and you die.
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
Jesus uses shocking language here. We’re kind of used to it, so we miss the impact this would have had. Crucifixion was the worst punishment the Romans could dish out. It was reserved for enemies of the Roman state and for the worst criminals. No Roman citizen could be crucified, it was that bad. Follow him on that path? The path of rejection, humiliation, even death?
Well, if you want to be a follower of Jesus, that is what you must do.
Because we cannot live for God when our hearts still live for ourselves. The well of poison must be cut out. The heart of cruelty and blood and filth must be stopped. That beating heart of sin, sin, sin, sin, must die. I stop living for me, for my pleasures. I start living for God, for his pleasures. I stop doing what I want and start doing what I ought. I die to self, and live for Christ.
This means choosing to follow Jesus, wherever that path may lead. For some of disciples it led literally to crucifixion. They were called upon to die for Jesus, to be crucified for him. But that’s not just what it means – it doesn’t mean we all have to get on a physical cross. No. look at verse 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
We are called to “lose” our life – not for nothing, but for Jesus’ sake. In other words, live our life as if it belongs to Jesus, and not to us. To make friends for Jesus. To work for Jesus. To serve our families for Jesus. To use our money for Jesus.
“Taking up your cross” means 10,000 little sacrifices, a lifetime of often unnoticed loving acts, which together become huge – for Jesus. It’s not just big acts – it’s all the little moments which mark you out as a follower of Jesus. Not grand gestures, but a way of living, every moment as a son or daughter of God. Every moment choosing to die to self, and live for Christ. Every moment, choosing true freedom – doing what we ought, what we were made for by God - instead of doing what we want. And you know what, by God’s grace, we find that he is changing us inside, bit by bit, our heart being renewed bit by bit so that what we want to do and what we ought to do are coming closer and closer together, as we become more like Jesus.
Die to yourself and live. Or live for yourself and die.
This young guy lived for himself, and it ruined his life, cut short Forde Sanni’s life, and shattered the lives of many around them. Don’t be fooled by Satan’s point of view. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for [Jesus’] sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
Let your life reflect your devotion to Jesus. If you have been rescued by him, let your joy shine through. Christians should be talking about Jesus, excited about Jesus, waiting for Jesus’ return, praying to Jesus, preaching about Jesus, teaching about Jesus, telling their children about Jesus, giving their money for Jesus, giving their time for Jesus, making friends for Jesus, choosing where they will live and work for Jesus. Our lives should be one big advert proclaiming JESUS! I am saved by his grace. Put your puny ambitions to death, your foolish plans for your life to death, and follow Jesus on the road to humiliation, to death, and to eternal GLORY, eternal life.
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