2/25 Sermon - Embrace the Cross: His cross, our cross

Embrace the cross! His cross and my cross
Mark 8:31-38

“Get behind me, Satan!” Peter was a disciple, one of Jesus’ friends. How could Jesus say that? Imagine if I said that to one of you during Bible Class? Let’s rewind and look at what caused this interaction.

“The Son of Man must suffer and be killed,” Jesus said. There’s a lot to object to there. The Son of Man, God himself, must do something? If Jesus is really God, how can he be forced to do something? He must suffer and die? If Jesus is really God, suffering and dying seem like a poor way to prove it. … The cross of Jesus, when we first see it, insults our intelligence. It’s something we want to reject. (pause)

But if we really listen to what Jesus says, we see a different story, we hear a different theme: embrace the cross. Jesus tells us why.

“The Son of Man must suffer and die.” The Greek word for ‘must’ also means ‘it is necessary.’ For us, there are just a few things absolutely necessary: eating, drinking, sleeping, shelter of some kind. Nothing is necessary for God! He doesn’t need to do anything. In the cross of Jesus, we see grace. Jesus chose, willingly, to make the cross necessary. He chose, willing, to suffer and die. He chose, willingly, the cross. To save you. Embrace the cross.

“The Son of Man must suffer and die.” The cross was a tool for torture, pain, blood. Jesus, true God, the Son of Man, took our sin, suffered in our place, died our death. Yet the cross is the symbol for Christianity. What else? The cross means our sin is gone. Embrace the cross. 

“He said that after three days he would rise.” The cross meant suffering and death for Jesus, God’s Son. But that wasn’t the end of the cross. He would rise and give us the promise of the resurrection, the hope of eternal life. The cross means life for you and for me. Embrace the cross.

The beating heart is the center of our life. It’s the engine that runs us, so to speak. The beating heart of God is the cross of Jesus: He willingly made suffering and death a necessity, he took away our sin, he rose to give us life. What love! What grace! Embrace the cross, his cross!

What did Peter say in response to such a cross? “Peter took his aside and began to rebuke him,” just like a teacher scolds a little child. So, Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan. You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of man!”

We often have in mind the things of man, our own thoughts. 1) My opinions and preferences, ahead of God’s Word or other people. 2) We’re ashamed to live our faith, or even talk about our faith. 3) We want a life that’s easy, but that’s not what Jesus promises us.

Have in mind the things of God. Embrace his cross, the beating heart of God. It’s weakness, suffering, death. But the cross is forgiveness and life.

“Get behind me, Satan!” Even after such harsh words, what didn’t Jesus do? Leave. He didn’t leave Peter. He stayed with him. Because he loved him. But he told Peter to do something: “Follow me. Pick up your own cross. Embrace your cross. Deny yourself.”

What’s the cost? Everything has a cost, right? It doesn’t matter how ‘free’ something appears to us; everything has a cost. Good health has a cost: exercise and eating well. Parenting has a cost: raising children can be stressful. Even time! How do we talk about time? “I spent some time fixing the house or going for a walk.” We view time as currency.

- The cross of Jesus has a cost. It’s free for us! But Jesus paid the price! So our salvation is a gift, paid for by Jesus.  

- And there is a cost to being a disciple of Jesus, of following him: pick up your cross, Jesus says, deny yourselves. That’s our cross: self-denial.

Our crosses are different than Jesus’ cross. Our crosses don’t save us.

Also, our cross are not just any kind of suffering. People who aren’t Christian also suffer, lose their jobs, have anxiety.

Our crosses are self-denial. Here’s a picture. Our cross, self-denial, means that we look in a mirror, look at ourselves, and say, “no” to ourselves, and “yes” to God. This is something we do willingly, for our whole life. Denying ourselves. Saying yes to God. Often, this comes about being of suffering and problems in our life.

Here are some examples: Martyrs, those who die for their faith. It could be a teenager who follows God with his heart and life and is ridiculed for it. Parents who raise their children to love Jesus, and not in the way of this world. Giving money to church and not having that for ourselves. It could be that we do lose our jobs or suffer some sadness, and that causes us to doubt God. Then suffering is a cross.

Bearing our cross, self-denial, saying “no” to ourselves and “yes” to God, is really a thing of our heart, a struggle of our heart. It’s a struggle against two temptations that attack us our whole life: Self-righteousness and despair.

We fight self-righteousness. The sin of self-righteousness is so dangerous because we don’t know it’s there. It’s hard to say “no” something we can’t see, to deny something we won’t admit. Am I self-righteous? Are you? Yes! Here are some good ‘checks’ for us to consider.

> Impatience is a sign of self-righteousness. We expect others to be on our page, think our thoughts, be at our speed, be at our own standards. That’s not considerate. Impatience is self-righteousness.

> Comparing ourselves is self-righteous. ‘Wow, look at how bad his life is. She hasn’t made good decisions. I’m much better than they are.” We compare and look down our noses at others. Self-righteous.

> Lying about our own sin is self-righteous. We think, “I have some sin, sure. Everyone does.” But God really encourages us to think, “Who is the worst sinner in my life? I am.” But we wouldn’t always confess that.

> Then suffering comes into our life. Problems. Worries. Things we can’t solve. When we are confronted with our own helplessness and weakness, with problems we can’t solve, we break. Hopelessness and pessimism is really a sign of self-righteousness: “I can’t do this, so God can’t either.”

> Brothers and sisters, embrace your cross. Follow Jesus. Let’s say “no” to ourselves, our self-righteousness, our opinions, our glory, our strength. Say “yes” to God. Trust in his power, his strength, his salvation.

This self-denial, this saying “no” to ourselves, doesn’t just happen with self-righteousness. It happens with despair too, giving up hope, feeling alone, unworthy, unloved, lower than dirt. Here are some ways despair attacks us:

> Our memories. We keep replaying past sins again and again in our minds. The words we said, the pain we inflicted, our selfishness. Those memories haunt us.

> We put our sin on a balance with God’s grace, and we think it outweighs God’s grace. How could God ever love me? Forgive me? 

> Maybe there is this constant chatter box in our head, this nagging voice: “God doesn’t love me. No one really does. How could anyone love me? Am I enough?”

> And there is habitual sins. Sins we know are problems, sins we’re ashamed of, but sins we fall into time and again. So we despair.

> Brothers and sisters, embrace your cross. Follow Jesus. Say “no” to yourself, to our despair. None of that is true. We don’t earn our salvation. We don’t make ourselves worthy before God. Even the cross that we bear is given to us by Jesus. Our identity before God comes from the cross of Jesus; his blood, death, and resurrection make us worthy and loved. Embrace your cross, say “no” to the despair in your heart, and look at his cross for salvation and hope. 

Embrace your cross. That means, day after day, denying ourselves, saying “no” to ourselves, then following and saying “yes” to God. Here is a quote I heard from someone to summarize this: “Faith in Jesus means that we will what God wills, that we do what God does.” Let’s embrace our cross, deny ourselves, follow God.

Jesus’ cross seems so irrational. How could suffering and pain and death save me? Our crosses seems hard. Why say no to myself, follow God, and forsake this world? Why embrace either one?

“I cut the coal.” This was encouragement to coal miner’s in Britain during WWII. A group sits around a table. Someone asks the question, “What did you do to win the war?” One says, I flew airplanes. Another, I fought on the frontlines. Another, I piloted ships. A fourth says, I cut the coal. It doesn’t seem impressive, right? Being in the ground, shoveling and mining coal. But that coal fueled everything in the war.

- Jesus’ cross doesn’t seem impressive. Ours looks hard. What does Jesus say?  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Embrace the cross. Jesus’ cross and our cross. You will have eternal life.