2 Lent B Sermon

Peter didn't want to hear the truth. He didn't want to hear about death. Like us he didn't want to hear that the way of Christ involves taking up the cross.

2 Lent B

Transcribed from a sermon

Given on March 4, 2013

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Mark 8:31-38

I’ve been reading the biography of Steve Jobs, which is kind of long and very interesting. One of the things that has stuck with me is that when Steve Jobs was first diagnosed with cancer he didn’t believe it. He didn’t let it in. He was used to being in control. The book describes him as a very controlling, sometimes obnoxious, person, but also very effective genius. It reports that he had a reality distortion field around him. That you would come to him absolutely certain that you weren’t able to engineer what he wanted to have engineered and by the time you walked out the door you were convinced you could do it. He had this way of just changing reality to fit what he felt needed to happen. So when he was diagnosed with cancer that reality distortion field came into effect for himself as well as the people around him. But of course it didn’t change the cancer.

Sometimes it is really difficult to accept what we hear. People who work in hospice and with the dying often describe situations where a person is dying and their family comes up and says, “Don’t tell them they are dying. They don’t know.” Now usually the person who is dying knows full well that they are dying and would love to be able to talk to their family about it. But the family is not able to deal with it so instead they say, “It’s going to be fine. This next treatment is going to take care of it. Don’t worry. Why are you talking about death? You are going to be around a long time.”

We’ve all had times when we have found it hard to accept something that we have heard. Maybe it is when our daughter tells us that she is going to get married and she is much to young to get married. You know, twenty three, twenty six, still too young to get married.

Or when our son tells us that he has decided to join the Marines. And that was not what we had planned for our son. Or when a job we have had for many years in a company that we have trusted starts laying people off. It is hard to accept some things. Especially those things that change our sense of who we are, change our sense of the world around us and remind us that we are not in charge.

That takes us to our Gospel reading and Peter’s response to Jesus. First a little bit of context. In the verse before this one, before the first one we read today, Jesus has asked the disciples who they say he is. Peter has said for the first time, “You are the Christ.” So Peter has just pronounced that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah, and the next thing Jesus says is, “I’m going to be arrested, and persecuted, and suffer and die on the cross.” That would be like finding a candidate for president, a person who wasn’t very likely, and you get excited about it and you leave your home and you travel for a year and a half all over the country helping this candidate. Finally the polls are turning around and it looks like your candidate is going to be president. Everyone is excited about the possibility and then finally, as you are sitting around with the top people on the campaign, everybody says, “You will be the next president of the United States. You are going to change history.” Then the candidate looks at you and says, “No, I’m going to be assassinated next week.” What would you say? “Nooooo. You are not going to be assassinated! Don’t worry about it.”

So Peter’s response is perfectly understandable. He didn’t know what we know. He didn’t know about the cross. He didn’t know about the resurrection. And the predictions about the Messiah that the people believed then were that the Messiah was going to come and free them from Rome. He was going to be a military leader. He was going to change the culture, and was going to give them back their own community, their own state. They hadn’t focused on Isaiah’s prediction of a suffering servant. They focused on the New Jerusalem. So you can understand Peter. And Peter, much like we might do, was quietly took Jesus aside and said, “Um, excuse me, I’m your right hand man. I just told you that you are the Messiah. This thing about death doesn’t play well. It’s bad PR and it scares me terribly so please stop talking about that.” He obviously said it in a more severe way because the Greek word that is used and translated as rebuke is the same Greek word that is used when demons were cast out. When they rebuked the demons. So it must have been a pretty powerful thing that Peter said to Jesus.

Now Jesus doesn’t stay quietly talking to Peter, he turns and looks at the disciples, which means he brings all of the disciples into this conversation, and rebukes Peter and calls him Satan. That’s pretty intense. Satan the one who is going against God’s will. And then to make things even more difficult for Peter in trying to present Jesus, goes and tells the disciples, all these people that are gathered around, “If you want to follow me, take up you cross. If you want to follow me, plan on a horrible death. If you want to follow me, plan on suffering and loss.” Pretty powerful. It certainly wouldn’t sell real well today. Didn’t sell real well back then.

We are forced to admit that we have been told that we have to be willing to die if we are going to be Christ’s disciples. Of course we now know that eleven of the twelve died horrific, violent deaths. And since Jesus hundreds of thousands of Christians have died for their faith. Even today in parts of the world people die because they are Christian. Jesus was being pretty literal when he said that.

But what does that mean for us who are in the United States and very unlikely to die because of our beliefs? What does it mean for us to take up our cross? Well it means that we have to be willing to die to who we think we are. We have to be willing to ask for forgiveness when we’ve made a mistake. We have to be willing to have our egos decimated. We have to be willing to acknowledge that we are not in charge. We have to be willing, if we come to a place where there is a choice between our comfort and doing what we feel God is calling us to do, to chose that which God is calling us to do.

That’s what it means to take up our cross. People wear crosses today. Some people wear crosses or keep one in their pocket. And it is worn for many different reasons. Some people wear a cross because it is a fashion statement. At least a few years ago it was a big fashion statement to wear a cross or a cross in you ear with no belief in Jesus. Some people wear the cross to affirm that they are Christians. Some people wear the cross with a sense that somehow it will protect them. Some people wear a cross to remind them that Christ loves us so much that he died for us. But also, the cross needs to be a reminder that we are called to love Christ so much that we are willing to die for him.