Lent 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Lent 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: March 16,2003


TEXT: Mark 8:31-38 – Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

See also: Genesis 2:1-14 – Abraham and Issac Story of Sacrifice.

ISSUE: There is a great resistance to suffering in our culture. However, the Gospel calls the Christian Community to a unity with Jesus Christ and the cross. To take up the cross can mean being “branded” and marked as Christ’s own forever. For the first time, the Gospel refers to Jesus’ ministry as one of suffering as opposed to a triumphant militant leadership. God thinks very differently than the world thinks. The passage calls us to servanthood with Jesus Christ in total loyalty and “at-one-ment” with both Jesus Christ and our Christian fellowship. While the world often thinks war is an only solution to problems, God thinks differently, as we with Him enter a process of finding lasting peace.
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No doubt, one of the most troubling stories in the Hebrew Scriptures is the Story of Abraham’s Intended Sacrifice of His Son Isaac. It creates a lot of human anxiety. How can Abraham conceive of doing such a thing? Why would God demand such a thing, that a man should sacrifice his only son? To our way of thinking, the almost every aspect of the story is unthinkable, and disturbing. It is hardly a children’s Bible story, and not one you would want to read as a bedtime story. The story raises a lot of anxiety and concern over what is truly happening here that has value for the world today.
Still another biblical event that raises considerable anxiety is the section that we read from the Gospel of Mark. It also raises great anxiety for Peter. Just prior to this passage, Peter has made his great statement of faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. Peter’s understanding is that Jesus will become a triumphant leader of his people. He shall be in some way like King David, to bring liberation, establish a strong Kingdom of Israel and Judah, and bring economic success. Shortly after, Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus, Jesus begins to talk about his suffering, rejection by the leaders, his death, and resurrection. Peter rebukes Jesus, daring to confront the honor of his master. Peter does not want to hear about suffering, rejection, and death.
In our own world, we are not exactly unlike Peter. We don’t like to think of rejection, suffering, and death as life’s realities. We rejoice in our powerfulness, our affluence, and suffering and death are aspects of life we are inclined to reject. Smooth comfortable living is what we expect, demand, and enjoy, and expect. And if this way of life is not forthcoming, then, life is unacceptable.
In the Abraham and Isaac Story, it is helpful to understand that in ancient Canaanite culture and even in some ancient Hebrew cultures, it was expected that people would, in fact offer their first born sons to the gods, as a sacrifice in order to appease the anger of the gods, and to seek their blessings. Today, of course, we find this appalling, but various ancient cultures have participated in human sacrifice. Some biblical scholars believe that the Story of Abraham’s intended sacrifice of Isaac was a story that in fact brought an end to human sacrifice in the Hebrew and Canaanite cultures. At the last moment God stops Abraham from committing the slaughter, and assures Abraham that God will provide himself with the sacrifice. A ram trapped in the thicket with its horns, becomes the substitute sacrifice. But the real punch of the story, as it came down through the ages has been Abraham’s unquestioning faith and confidence in God. In spite of what must have been terrible anxiety for Abraham, he does follow where he believes God is leading. Abraham’s faithfulness and loyalty to God is truly his signature and claim to fame through the ages. He had previously at the call of God, left his home with family and possessions to leave his own land to find a new place at the call of God. He was a man of great faithfulness, in spite of what must have been great anxiety.
Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, is also an act and commitment of great faith and trust in Jesus Christ. However, for the first time, Mark’s Gospel account has Jesus speaking of his rejection and death. This idea is unacceptable to Peter. But the time has come. God will provide the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He will offer his own son. He will become the one whom God “didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.” (Prayer Book, Rite I, p.334) That phrase covers all the bases. God has another idea very different from Peter’s and the worlds. Triumphant leaders, powers of the world and worldly glory come and they go. Nations rise and fall. But the sacrificial love of God in the offering of His Son Jesus Christ. The ultimate sacrifice has been made, and through Jesus Christ’s offering, it is finally made very clear that we all are loved, forgiven before we even ask, by the God who sacrifices his only son on our behalf. And St. Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Still, a scary part remains: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus calls his followers to take up their cross as well. Let’s be sure we don’t sentimentalize that call to ease our consciences. You may hear some people complain that they have to take care of their dear old mother, and that that is the cross they have to bear. It may be an inconvenience to our lives, but it is not a cross to bear. Its one of those things you do in life because we are human beings. Taking up the cross, according to Reginald Fuller and other biblical scholars meant to be branded. You’ve seen how cattle and some other animals are identified by branding, so that however they get mixed up in the pastures, when round up time comes, you know whose cattle are whose. The message here is to get yourself branded stamped with the cross of Jesus Christ and follow him in the way that says the sins of the world are taken away, proclaiming that message, and entering into a life of servanthood is what is important to our way of life and belief. At our baptism we are branded with the sign of the cross of Christ, and marked, sealed, branded, as Christ’s own forever. We are above all things members of his family of servanthood for the world. You can have all the power of the world, all the security you need, but if you do not have Jesus Christ as Lord and master of the family, and do not follow in his way than you life and mine do not amount to very much at all. Therefore, whether we life or die; whatever happens we are the Lord’s.
Yes, living branded with the cross, and being a follower of Jesus Christ can be anxiety producing. That is a part of the deal. Jesus’ prayer to take the cup of suffering away from him in the garden of Gethsemane was certainly a cry of his own anxiety. But he did follow the Father’s plan. But what Peter misses, and what most of us miss is the fact that once rejected, crucified, dead and buried. There is a resurrection to a new life. Jesus will undergo great suffering, rejection by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and after a time (three days) rise again. Therein we see the real power and glory of his life, as a faithful servant of the Lord God. The way men think is turned around. The life of Christ himself is a great reversal from the way the world thinks.
This time is one of great anxiety for all of us. We are facing a war with Iraq. It is tempting and appealing to use bombs and weapons to oust Saddam Hussein and to bring peace to the world. But that is the same old thing. It has never brought peace before. We have seen over and over again how force and power establishes cycles of revenge and continuing violence. We see a scenario where the greatest biggest, most wealthy and affluent, most militarily powerful, having the most weapons of mass destruction, stands over Iraq, a country the size of California. Our solution to disarming Iraq, and Saddam Hussein is to use our weapons of mass destruction to destroy his along with the possibility of killing thousands of innocent men women and children. It seems to be the easier more comfortable route.
We, however, many of us are branded with the cross of Christ. We are not branded with the glory of Rome that vanished a long time ago. We have something new to offer the world, patient suffering, and negotiation, diplomacy that is based in and on love, forgiveness and peace. We are called upon to break the cycle of revenge, violence, manipulation, bullying and force. Remember what John the Baptist said to the soldiers who came to him to be baptized: “Stop your bullying and force.” Enter upon, look forward to the new Kingdom of God.
In just a few weeks we may all be sitting down to watch a war on CNN, as if it were some kind of an international football game. We’ll know full well that we will win, and it will just be a matter of time until we get it over with. Hopefully, Hussein will be gone. Oil prices will drop, and the Stock Market will rise again. That will be a nice resurrection! Or will it? What we may more likely see is the resurrection of the Martrydom of Hussein, the possibility of increased terrorism at home and abroad, our reputation of being the world’s bully, and more hated than we already are, with little or no concern for the thoughts, opinions, concerns of the rest of the world. The situation may produce more anxiety than we know now, and have ever known. In the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ we saw the separation of God taken away. We saw the way of love, patience, peace, that humbled the world and that brought millions of people to their knees in adoration in the suffering servant upon the cross. We must decide what kind of resurrection do we want: The resurrection of continuing hell on earth, or the renew and hope of love, peace, justice, negotiation, diplomacy, forgiveness, love and patience? Pray for peace, indeed. Work for peace, be true and faithful to your branding!