Text: Mark 8:31-38
OPEN:
I have tremendous respect for and embrace the official UMC mission statement: "Make disciples of Jesus Christ the transformation of the world."
Sounds great, but what exactly does Jesus have in mind when he calls us to be his disciples? If this is our mandate (and it is--check out the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, "Go into all the world and make disciples"), what does it look like?
The clearest statement in all the Bible is the one made here by Jesus and recorded in St. Mark's gospel: "If any want to become my followers (disciples), let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."
After Jesus had announced the cross to his disciples, had been rebuked by Peter, and had rebuked him in turn, Mark tells us our Lord's outline of the process of discipleship. Here, in his own words, we look at what it means to be a disciple.
"If any want to become..."
Here is a mandate that is at the selfsame time a voluntary action.
"Christ does it pull his sheep by a rope; in his army are none but volunteers." __ E. Frommel
Jesus knows of no irresistible grace but only of grace that draws the will and wins it for himself. And this grace excludes no one.
Let us focus our attention now on these simple but very crucial words of Jesus, whereby he gives us the process of discipleship. There are three steps:
- Denial
- Humiliation
- Obedience
Following Jesus means coming to the end of myself and adopting a radically new way of thinking and living.
I. Following Jesus Requires that I Come to the End of Myself.
1. Denial
"let them deny themselves..."
aparneomai = to turn someone away, refuse association and companionship with him (Lenski).
1) Notice that he does not say, "Let him hate himself."
He is not asking us to deny our basic humanity, our personhood. If you take it that way, you have missed the point.
The word "deny" means to "disavow any connection with something, to state that you are not connected in any way with whatever is in view."
Interestingly enough, it is the very word used to refer to Peter's denial of Jesus a little later on. As he was standing in the courtyard of the high priest, warming himself at a fire, a little maiden asked him, "Do you know this man?" (Mark 14:66-72). Peter denied that he had any connection with Jesus, said he did not know him, and affirmed his disavowal with oaths and curses. Thus he denied his Lord. This is exactly the word Jesus chooses when he tells us that, if we are going to come after him, we must first deny ourselves.
2) It is important also to understand that he does not mean what we usually mean by "self-denial."
By this we usually mean that we are giving up something.
Jesus is not talking about giving up luxuries, or even necessities, but about denying self, which is entirely different.
3) Denying self means that we repudiate our natural feelings about ourselves, i.e., our right to ourselves, our right to run our own lives.
We are to deny that we own ourselves. We do not have the final right to decide what we are going to do, or where we are going to go.
2. Humiliation.
The second step immediately follows: "Let them deny themselves, and take up their cross..."
Jesus undoubtedly chose this figure so speech because he himself was to be crucified. Although it was a gruesome Roman mode of execution it was known universally.
What does "take up their cross" mean?
1) It is a mistake to call all of our suffering our "cross."
"Many people think that a cross is any kind of trial or hardship you are going through, or any kind of handicap you must endure -- like a mother-in-law, or a ding-a-ling neighbor or a physical handicap. 'That's my cross,' we say. But that is not what Jesus means. He himself had many handicaps, many difficulties and trials he endured before he came to his cross. So it is not merely handicap or difficulty or trial. The cross was something different." __ Ray Stedman
2) The cross stood for something in the life of Jesus connected with shame and humiliation.
It was a criminal's cross on which he was hung. It was a place of degradation, where he was demeaned and debased.
And so the cross stands forever as a symbol of those circumstances and events in our experience which humble us, expose us, offend our pride, shame us, and reveal our basic evil.
Any circumstance, any incident which does this to us, Jesus says, if we are a disciple, we are to welcome.
3) This does not mean only the big things in our life; it is the little things as well.
Every inconvenience, each frustration, all of life's disappointments are minor forms of the cross at work in our lives, if we have a disciple's perspective.
II. Following Jesus Requires a Radically New Way of Thinking and Living.
1. Obedience.
The third step is, "Follow me." This may be accurately translated, "Obey me."
1) Obedience is both a thought process and a pattern of choosing.
If disobedience is the name of the game before we are Christians, then certainly obedience is the name of the game after we become Christians.
CLOSE:
In the original Greek, these steps are stated in the present, continuous tense. That means, "Keep on denying yourself, keep on taking up your cross, keep on following me." This is not the decision of a moment, but a program for a lifetime, to be repeated again and again, whenever we fall into circumstances which make these choices necessary. This is what it means to be a disciple. Discipleship is denying your right to yourself, and taking up the cross, accepting these incidents and circumstances which expose our pride and conceit, welcoming them, and then following him, doing what he says to do, looking to him for the power.
This is not always a very appealing course, is it? I am sure that it must have struck these disciples and the multitude with very solemn and serious impact. In fact, John tells us that at this point many turned and went back, and followed him no more, because these words seemed to them harsh and demanding. This thing of choosing to be disciples is going to shatter us, change us, make us into a different kind of people.
(Dr. Dane Fowlkes)
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