B, Lent 2 - Mark 8:31-38 "The Contrary Christ Cycle"

Mark 8:31–38 (ESV) And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “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?  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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. 

C, Lent 1 - Luke 9:28–43 & 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 "Wealth in the Wilderness"

Romans 10:11–13 (ESV)  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

When Jesus was confronted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus knew of a greater reality than Satan.  We might think, “Yes, he knew because he was the Son of God!”  But if it was because he had higher power as the Son of God, he could not be the Saviour of you and me, or any other person.  There would be an unbridgeable gap, between the greatness of the Son of God, and the weakness of humanity.

However, the greater reality to which Jesus was akin, was not his relationship to God as the powerful Son.  But rather, his human weakness and perfect trust, allowing him to put aside his divinity, and wander in the wilderness, knowing his Father in heaven would hear him in his human weakness.

Jesus was no less hungry than any person would be, having been wandering in the wilderness for forty days.  His desire for food would have made his stomach wrench in pain. 

As he wandered alone without kingdom or someone to talk to, the human desire for partnership and property, a place to call home, would have been made all the more painful by the searing heat of the sand and loneliness. 

And when Satan took him to God’s temple in Jerusalem, and challenged him with the Word of God, the temptation to justify the evil inclinations of Satan and listen to him rather than trusting God would have been just as enticing to Jesus as they would be for you and me. 

In all three temptations, Satan temps Jesus with the question, “If you are the Son of God?”  He tempts Jesus to reveal his power as Son of God, so Satan could use it against Jesus, and those Jesus calls through the Gospel.  Satan wants to demonstrate a divide between the divinity of God and the weakness of humanity.

But Jesus repels Satan, and because he does, we can too!  Like Jesus we need not tap into the wealth of our works, the abundance of our intellect, or the power of a higher lived life.

No!  Instead, we are called to “not” let shame, desire, or a need to prove ourselves worthy, lead us into temptation.  Rather, we are called to trust God with the wealth of weakness, just as Jesus bore his weakness as wealth in the wilderness.

After all, just like Jesus, you and I are travelling with the riches of God through this life.  Just like Jesus you carry his wealth of weakness in the wilderness.  How can this be?

When Jesus enters the wilderness, we hear he didn’t go by his own effort, but was led there by the Holy Spirit.  Mark’s Gospel says it even stronger, saying, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”   (Mark 1:12 ESV) Literally, the Spirit threw him out into the wilderness.

Jesus works with a greater reality, and we are called to do the same, even unto death.  He knows the suffering that this will bring to us. 

He says, “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.  Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”  (Revelation 2:9–11 ESV)

Just as Jesus entered the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit, you have been given the Holy Spirit and he will lead you in your weakness.  This is the richness of God’s wealth working for you, despite your human spirit desiring and scrambling to save face from the shame of being seen weak in the world.

Saint Paul tells the persecuted church in Rome, “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

So, what are the riches of God?  And how do we get them?

Firstly, Jesus himself, the perfect human man, submissive in weakness to our heavenly Father, is the greatest gift to all of us.  He is our wealth in the wilderness of our lives.  His love for the Father, trusting solely in him, and not in himself being the Son of God, is his gift to us.  However, because he is the Son of God who humbly submits in weakness and trust, makes this gift forever more profound and great!  

Similarly, as Jesus trusted in the Father, we are called to daily trust Jesus for giving us the gift of faith, and for the perfecting of faith within us, even as we have been made holy Sons of God in baptism.  We literally trust Jesus by calling on his name, and in calling on him we are saved.

Calling on Jesus’ name allows us to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)

Secondly, the great wealth or richness we have is the Holy Spirit.  When we call on Jesus’ name the Holy Spirit is given.  The Holy Spirit and Jesus are inseparable and when we call on Jesus, we get the Holy Spirit as well.

Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit after receiving the Spirit in baptism, we too have received the Holy Spirit in baptism.  In fact, we not only receive the Holy Spirit, but also God the Father and Jesus Christ, God the Son, in all his risen power and glory.  Therefore, just as Jesus is the founder and perfecter of faith, the Holy Spirit is the worker of faith within us.

When the Holy Spirit works faith within us, he is working holiness in us.  If we were to work faith, we would work faith in ourselves and work our way out of the weakness Jesus worked beating all the deeds of the devil and his evil entourage.  In fact, we would work Jesus and the Holy Spirit out of ourselves.  Ultimately, we would do what the devil sought to do to Jesus when he sought to tempt him in the first place.

Thirdly, the great wealth we have is the richness of the written Word of God.  Paul tells us in Romans chapter two verse four, the riches of God are kindness and forbearance and patience, and are meant to lead to repentance. (Romans 2:4 ESV)

This gift is not to lead us to shame and hiding but repentance through confession.  Shame is replaced by belief and trust in Jesus.  We too, endure in weakness, with the wealth of the cross, and despise its shame, looking with trusting joy to the Lord our God. 

The gift of the written Word keeps us from becoming delirious in the wilderness.  The richness of the Word stops us from becoming transfixed on any mirages of fleeting earthly wealth.  All this kind of wealth will vanish the moment we leave this worldly wilderness and stand before the Father, on the day of judgement.

Hear how Jesus both disciplines and loves us in his Word, so we can be saved.  He says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:17–19 ESV)

What is this gold, refined by fire, which we are to purchase?  It's the wealth of his weakness where he trusted his Father, all the way to death on the cross, descent into hell, and resurrection from the dead to the right hand of the Father.  This gold of God is the forgiveness of all our sins.

How much does this gold cost?  It costs you nothing!  This gold makes us rich in the righteousness of Jesus, and it opens our eyes in this wilderness to the wealth of love God has for us.

Therefore, be zealous for the weakness of Jesus!  Covet his weakness and call on his name!  It will not lead to shame!  Instead, you will be saved by his wealth in the wilderness. Amen.