B, Lent 2 - Mark 8:31-38 "The Contrary Christ Cycle"
The cycle of life in which we exist requires death to
occur. From the moment we are born,
cells in our bodies are dying and new ones are being created. The cycle of life before the fall, was not
one of dying while living, life then death.
Rather, it was life and renewal of life, around the tree of life. After the fall we lost access to the tree of
life and death became the norm.
Although we now exist in a realm of death, through Jesus’
death and resurrection, we now have access to the tree of life, and live in the
hope of our resurrection. Yet in the
meantime, we exist with the reality of death.
We call this existence, life, but it is really one of dying.
Most think this life is as good as it gets! Putting aside suffering, most chase mirages
of pleasure while waiting for the inevitable evil of dying.
Jesus’ life on earth, was an existence of death before
life. In fact, he is the only human born
into the necessity of dying. All other
life on this earth was not created to die.
It was created to live and continue living in the renewal of the tree of
life.
Any person with a knowledge of biological science knows
life is meant to continue in renewal.
Scientists know this, and many have spent their lifetime searching for
the secret of life, but to no avail.
All have gone the way of death searching for this mysterious elixir for
the renewal of ongoing life.
Scientists, knowing life should keep continuing, have no
answers to why it would ever stop. They
can only examine the existence of what we know.
That is an existence after the fall into sin. And from this standpoint, philosophers and
other great thinkers join them to determine what is good and evil in this
existence.
Life then death, pain and a bit of pleasure, then a deadly
oblivion or extinction. It’s not much of
an existence to look forward to! It’s an
existence that says, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die”.
Jesus came teaching the contrary. He came teaching death leads to life. That our existence now, is death, and the one
to come, is life!
Instead of making the most of life before death, he was bringing
life to our existence of death, he was making the most of his death for true
life to occur.
Jesus is the tree of life, giving life on the tree of death,
the cross. Jesus taught that he, the
Christ, the Son of Man, was going to serve humanity by being rejected by those
who were God’s representatives and be killed by them, yet after three days rise
again to life.
Peter, having confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ,
was intent on a life of glory now, rather than a life lived under the
cross. He seeks to rebuke Jesus, but
Jesus rebukes Satan within Peter, saying “Get
behind me, Satan! For you are not
setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark
8:33 ESV)
Within Peter, Satan had blinded him to an understanding and
knowledge of humanity, rather than a knowledge of God. This is the default knowledge in which all of
humanity exists, after the fall, having turned its back on God.
After Jesus harshly rebukes Peter, he again teaches Peter
and the other disciples. But now he also
teaches them with the crowd that had gathered!
Jesus teaches a paradox, contrary to humanity’s expectation of life then
death.
He says, “If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. For whoever would save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the
whole world and forfeit his soul? For
what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:34–37 ESV)
Do you come after Jesus? If I am to come after Jesus, let me deny
myself, take up my cross and follow him!
But how do I do this?
How do I deny myself and carry my cross?
This is not a human work!
If we could deny ourselves and take up our cross, God would never have
had to send the Holy Spirit. Indeed, he
would not have needed to send his Son Jesus Christ, if just one person could
have been faithful to God, as was Jesus Christ, incarnate in flesh, to die for
the life of the world.
Today we celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving. We thank God for what we have. For the most part we continue the Pharisaic
practice of giving thanks for our food when we sit down for a meal. In our practice we invite Jesus to be our
guest.
We say, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let this food to
us be blessed.” And to this we say, “Amen.”
But the prayer can continue, “Blessed be God who is our bread, may the
world be clothed and fed. Amen.”
Some might believe our prayer is a kind of gate, that on concluding
the prayer we open the gate and start eating.
But the Holy Spirit gathers us in prayer in Jesus Christ to be our guest.
And as the addition to the payer says,
it is God who truly is our bread that blesses, us, all we produce, all we have,
all we eat, and all we share.
Unfortunately, as with Peter and all of us, what spoils our trust in
this, “are the things of man”, encouraged by the father of death, the devil
himself!
But the Holy Spirit, fights the deathly human spirit within
each of us! He plants Christ in us, so
we take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow him. With Christ planted within, we no longer live
to die, denying others in favour of ourselves.
But rather, we die to live, denying ourselves so the Holy Spirit might
use us to serve, as Jesus served!
In the same way you can plant a seed in the ground, and it
sprouts and grows, Jesus is the seed planted in you! His
“death and life” cycle is planted in you, conquering the former “life and
death” cycle. This new Christ cycle is
the death and resurrection cycle of God’s Holy Seed, promised to Adam and Eve
just after the fall in the garden of Eden.
The promise still exists! The Spirit
wills you to be grafted into the cross!
Just as a watered seed has all the life it needs within to
germinate, faith germinates in us, with water and the Word of God. The
Holy Spirit enlightens us with God’s Word, sinking the roots of faith even deeper
into the eternal powers of God’s Word.
This increases the death to life cycle of the cross even more!
Jesus says, Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever
hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24–25 ESV)
Jesus is the Seed of Life, planted in you. All life comes from God, a wonderful thing
for us dying to live, with all that God provides for us on the way to eternal
life. Even greater is our Lord Jesus
Christ who lived to die, dying to
produce the fruit of eternal life within you.
But there is still another twist! Now that Jesus has reversed the life then
death cycle to a death then life cycle, he gives us true life here on earth
now, even as we wait for death then eternal life to be unfolded before our
eyes.
He says, “Truly, I
say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they
see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1 ESV)
Some saw a brief glimpse of the kingdom of God in the
Transfiguration. Judas and perhaps some
in the crowd did taste death before Jesus’ resurrection.
But, with the eyes of faith, see and know that the kingdom of God has come with power. This cycle has begun in your baptism. Baptised into death at the cross, dying to live in eternal life! In the midst of death, we are in life, life eternal, right now, because we follow our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.
