The Cost of Discipleship

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Psalm 22:23-31, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38

Second Sunday in Lent, March 12, 2006

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

I can understand how Peter feels. He has just begun to know who Jesus is. In the passage immediately prior to this one, Peter has made his confession that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus asked the disciples who they say He is. They reply that some say He is Elijah, others John the Baptist. Jesus presses them and wants to know who they say that He is. Peter replies that Jesus is the Messiah. He has finally done it. He has articulated who Jesus is, admitted to himself that Jesus is the Messiah. Then, immediately (everything in Mark is immediately), Jesus says that He will die. How would we react?

The disciples are just beginning to understand, to get it. They have not even been with Jesus for three years yet, such a short time for such a big learning curve. There is so much more to share, so much more to comprehend, so much more to feel, so much more relationship to develop. They are right at that place where they have enough knowledge, enough comprehension, to know how much more they need to know.

What Peter hears is like a knife in his gut, shattering all he has experienced and all he is looking forward to, all he knows so far about Jesus, the Messiah. Isn’t the Messiah supposed to rule? Isn’t that what God’s people have been awaiting? How can He rule if He is mocked in public, if He is dead on a cross? How can more come to know Him and follow Him?

As today’s drama said, Peter was following not because of the miracles, or because of the healings. He was following because of Jesus. It was Him, that was what drew Peter to Jesus’ side. How can he continue to follow if Jesus is not there? We can understand how Peter feels. We can relate to the intensity of his reaction.

But Jesus does not stop there. He makes it even harder on Peter, and pushes him to know the rest of the story. Peter has spoken harshly to Jesus, and Jesus speaks harshly back to Peter. Jesus shows no compassion, no understanding of what Peter is going through, but pushes Peter to go deeper, further.

Get behind me, Jesus says. This literally means come behind me, Satan. Isn’t it interesting that in last week’s lesson it was Satan who was tempting Jesus to follow him, and this week we have the opposite—Jesus rebuking Peter to get behind, to follow Him!

Jesus calls the crowd to continue the conversation, to teach even more. This is important, Jesus is saying. He does not want to waste any more time arguing with Peter. He wants all to know what is expected of Him and what is expected of them as well. If you want to follow me you must also take up your cross, be willing to lose your life, if you want to be my disciple.

What is the cross really about? What does it mean to take up our cross? To be Jesus’ disciple? I remember last year’s TV movie entitled Spartacus in which the Roman Empire kept people under control by threat of crucifixion. There was one scene I will never forget. Along both sides of a long dirt road for mile after mile there were hundreds of crosses erected, all with bodies on them in various stages of decay. All those people tortured, dying slowly and publicly--it made quite an impression on me, and helped me to understand Jesus’ position on the cross more deeply.

Taking up our cross, following Jesus, means to let go of ourselves and conform to Jesus, to deny our own desires and work and to do the work of Jesus, to do what Jesus desires. And it means the willingness to lose our lives if necessary—to suffer and hang on whatever cross might come our way because of our faith.

In our society we call some of the burdens we bear our “crosses”. We say, “That is my cross to bear.” And we speak of a painful and long illness, a bad relationship or a terrible disappointment. And maybe theses things are our crosses, for they help us somehow to cling more closely to our God. But what if our lives are good and abundant? What if we have no complaints, if life is as good as it gets? What tough choices do we make for our faith in today’s world?

In our readings today from Genesis, the Psalms and Romans we learn about God’s grace, and that from grace grows discipleship. To Abraham is given the promise of a future life with God through his ancestors, a royal dynasty, through land and through covenant. A new name is given to reflect his new identity. He is no longer Abram, but Abraham. He is now named as God’s own. Sarah’s new name means princess, indicating that she will be the mother of royalty. Her name is affirmation of the promise God has made. Sarah and Abraham are new people, transformed by God’s initiative.

In the Psalm we learn of the whole world, Abraham’s descendants included, turning to the Lord. All nations remember and worship the Lord. This is the Lord’s choice, that all have come to the Lord. They have been changed, transformed. The Lord has done it.

Romans tells that from the time of Abraham we have been justified by faith. This gift has been passed down from Abraham through the promised generations and now is ours. This is God’s choice, Paul says, to save us, to transform us, to act in such a way as to grant us grace.

From the example of Abraham, of the psalmist and of Paul, we learn how to accept the path God has placed before us, how to live in God’s grace the life of discipleship. All of them let God and are changed. They did not resist and were not swayed, but walked the path God had given to them.

What was given to Abraham has been passed on to us, through Christ, through His life, His teaching, His healing, His suffering, death and resurrection. We, too, are given grace from God, the grace to be transformed. God has done it, it is God’s choice

Discipleship costs, according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who did take up his cross during WWII. He left the comfort of academic life in the US to return to his native Germany and work underground to continue religious education under Hitler’s oppression. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and killed for his persistence in faith, for fulfilling his calling from God. In his most widely-read book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer speaks of how we each take up our cross. The idea that grace is free occupies much of the book. It is free, Bonhoeffer says, in the sense that God gives it to us freely. But it is not cheap—the cost was great. The cost was that of Jesus’ life. My favorite quote from the book is this: It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.

Peter didn’t know that from death would come life. As once commentator wrote, Peter didn’t know the upside of death--that from death life is born. I’d like everyone here to look at the cross that hangs as the focal point of our sanctuary. It is not a cross of death. It is empty. It is a cross of life. That is what Peter didn’t know. He didn’t know that Jesus was willing to sacrifice self for the good of all, that He denied self for the good of the whole human race. Jesus did Himself what He asks us to do, He conformed to what God would have Him do. He understood what Peter did not, that there needed to be death that we may have life. This is what God had done.

And wonderfully, Jesus teaching continues in the pages past today’s passage. There are two more passion predictions. Today’s is in chapter eight, and both chapters nine and ten contain them as well. And both times, Jesus responds with teaching about true discipleship, just as He has in chapter eight. Jesus continues to teach us now through these passages. And each year as we walk with Jesus on this journey to the cross we are confronted with what Jesus does and what He asks us to do. Through this time in the church year, Jesus reaches out to us and teaches us about discipleship. From His example we learn anew how to follow the Divine, how to put away self and put on God, how to accept whatever God may place in our paths.

The cost for us is the same as it was for Jesus. We must give our whole selves over to God, deny God nothing. That may be a bigger cross to bear than anything life can throw at us, bigger than any earthly suffering, bigger than any disappointments or disillusionment. If we want to be Jesus’ disciples, we must follow behind Him. We must take the path God would have us take. We must accept what Jesus asks us to do.

In a world with so many choices, so many lures, so much competition for our time, talent and treasure, competition for our minds and hearts and very souls, competition for our worship, this is the cost of discipleship for us. In our culture there is so much pressure to do what is best for ourselves and not for the good of all. But Jesus asks us to do what is best for all, just as He did. This is the tough choice we make for our faith in today’s world, to be God’s and God’s alone, to not be swayed and to not resist, but to move forward in God’s grace, wherever God may lead.

Amen.