The Last Word| Mark 8:31-38
Mark 8:31-38
The Last Word
Historian David Brinkley (not to be confused with the journalist of the same name) has said: “usually there will be a day, one day in a century that stands out above all others and marks a turning point in history.”
Now, Dr. Brinkley has a PhD in history and is a brilliant author and professor, and so it is quite possible I don’t completely understand what he means when he says there is usually one day in a hundred that really changes things in history, but it just seems to me like maybe there is more than one day in one hundred that does that.
I can think of a couple just in the past few decades. Like 9/11, I’ll never forget where I was when I heard about those planes and those towers. It seems to me that event certainly changed our world in fundamental and significant ways.
Then there was the pandemic and I’m sure we could list other things.
Whether it’s one day in a century or one day in a decade, I do think there are those days that really change history and the course of human development or experience.
You can certainly find those kind of life changing events in the Bible. The Old Testament reading assigned for today is from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 17:1-7. It is a pretty well-known passage.
Let’s go ahead and put verses 1 - 6 on the screen if we can.
Read Genesis 17:1-6
God and Abraham are meeting for an important conversation. The text doesn’t tell us where they are, but it does tell us Abraham was already an old man, and you would think closer in age to the Nursing home than the maternity ward. He is 99 years old, but God says, “You and Sarah are going to have a baby. You are going to become the father of many.”
Abraham did become the Father of many in a way that shaped the course of the world forever. I would say the day described in Genesis 17 was a pretty important day.
I would say that the day described in our text today is an equally important day. As we saw a couple of weeks back as Jesus and the disciples were on their way to Caesarea Philippi, he asked them “Who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter, of course it was Simon Peter, stepped up and boldly declared: ”You are the Christ.”
That was a pretty huge day. Even atheists will acknowledge that Jesus being regarded as the Christ by his followers has shaped our world and the course of history in profound and significant ways.
One of the reasons Jesus’ being so widely held to be the Christ has so shaped the world as it has is because the nature of his rule as Christ isn’t anything like anyone would have ever expected.
As I mentioned back on Transfiguration Sunday, Jesus being the Christ didn’t mean he would live in a palace. It didn’t mean he would reign as a political ruler or ride a white horse and lead an army. It meant he would suffer. It meant he would give his life for others.
Jesus chose to suffer and die in order to heal and save others (and in the Greek language, heal and save is the same word).
Simon Peter was not ready to hear that, and as we read through the rest of the Gospel of Mark and the other Gospels none of the other disciples were either.
The real question, as we focus on the significance of this passage is…..are we?
Are we ready to hear that Jesus being the Christ means that God’s purposes are accomplished through suffering?
Are we ready to hear that if we are going to follow him, we can expect to experience some degree of suffering and trouble?
There are some Christians and even some churches that downplay or even deny that following Jesus might not be all a bed of roses.
I know some Christians who refused to include the words “for better or for worse” in their wedding ceremony because of their very strong belief that if you are following Jesus things just get better and better and sweeter and sweeter in every way….
So for them to include the phrase “for better or for worse” in their wedding would be to misrepresent their understanding of what following Jesus does for us. Jesus only wants us to be happy in every way so you don’t put “for better or for worse” in your wedding ceremony.
These same Christians will tell you…if you have a little sniffle, and you can’t “pray it away,” and you actually catch a cold, you are not much of a Christian.
Think of some of the mission statements of some churches.
Here are some I’ve actually seen:
Follow Jesus: The benefits are out of this world.
Jesus: Making You All that You Can Be
Jesus: More than you could ask or imagine
I wouldn’t disagree with any of those. I think all of those things are true. But it is important not to forget the words of Jesus who said, “no servant is greater than the master.” If Jesus suffered, we as his followers cannot expect to never suffer.
At our Wesleyan covenant service back a month ago at the beginning of the year we read the words of John Wesley who has said:
Christ has many services to be done. Some are easy, others are difficult. Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both. Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.
In other words, we can expect some of the things we are called to do as the followers of Jesus to sometimes run contrary to what we might feel like doing at any given time.
I pray the same prayer almost every morning from Psalm 143 as part of my daily devotions.
Lord, teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your good Spirit lead me on a level path.
I pray that God will teach me to do God’s will because I don’t always know God’s will and even when I do know it, I’m not always predisposed to do it.
But I pray that prayer because I believe God knows what path I should follow a lot better than I do. I pray it because I believe that Jesus as the Christ knows how to bring about the kingdom of God a lot better than I do or even Simon Peter did.
I have a good friend who was serving as a pastor over in London England while he was working on his PhD. He is a former Nazarene, like me. One of our former professors, Dr. Paul Bassett, from the Nazarene seminary in Kansas City was there in London and met up with my friend. Dr. Basset asked him how things were going in his church. He said, “well there are several issues I need to address and I’m just trying to decide which one is worth being crucified over.”
Dr. Basset said, “that is not the right question, Barry. The right question is, which issue is worth being resurrected over.”
Jesus suffered, but he didn’t suffer just to suffer. He did not suffer for something unimportant. He suffered to save us and to heal us and to renew all creation. And while there are things we are called to do, as Mr. Wesley said, that are contrary to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, the benefits of doing them are out of this world…And better than anything we could ever ask or imagine….