Sunday: Lent 2 (B), 2003

Texts: Mark 8:31-38; Romans 5:1-5

The Cross in Discipleship (Mark 8:34)

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the Transfiguration of our Lord. After that Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was and we have Peter’s magnificent confession: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!"

Now, as Jesus begins his journey towards Jerusalem, towards the fulfilling of his mission, he has to explain to his disciples what must yet take place - that He must suffer much in the hands of their enemies and be killed and then rise to life. For this, Peter rebuked Jesus, saying: "This shall never happen to you!" (Matthew 16) Jesus then had to tell Peter, "Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

You see, Peter was able to confess Christ, but he was not quite ready to follow Him to the cross. Sure he would follow, but not before Satan tried to have his way with Peter. As Peter was tempted, so we are often tempted. As Lutheran Christians we may take pride in our church, for we can give a great confession of Christ and His saving work in our worship and theology, but are we willing to follow where He leads us? Are we willing to submit to His will or are we a stumbling block to God and His work in our lives? There is only one way to do the will of God. Jesus tells us:

Here we have one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith: The way to life is through dying. This, of course, makes no sense to our world, which is fixated on gain and self-preservation. But Jesus warns us that the world’s way of life only leads to emptiness and death. Not only death of the body, but also the soul.

If, however, we follow Jesus to the cross we have eternal life, not only for the soul, but also the body. Only Jesus can make such an offer, because He alone has conquered sin, death, and the one who has power over death. That is why following Jesus is the only thing that can give peace to our minds and joy to our hearts. In this world He is the only one who can see us through death to life.

How do we follow Jesus? How can we be sure that we have in mind the things of God and not the things of men? In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul tells us,

As we begin to follow Jesus, our way of thinking begins to change. We no longer conform ourselves to the old pattern of this world, but are transformed and renewed in our thinking. This does not happen all at once. It is a gradual process.

The ancient church visualised this process as moving up a ladder, of steps leading up to heaven, towards perfection. Unfortunately the Roman Church began to see this process as "works" which confer "merits" that earn God's grace (what an oxymoron!). But I believe this is not what the ancient church fathers had in mind when they spoke of that ladder which leads us toward holiness. For the Scriptures say that we are already made perfect in Christ. Rather, the quest for holiness is the desire to see the holiness we have received as a gift from God become visible and find expression in our lives.

It is as if God gave you a bank account with a million dollars in it when you became his child. Now, no one would ever know that you were a millionaire unless you began to draw on that account and started using the money. The same applies to your spiritual life. In your Baptism God gave you unlimited access to the Holy Spirit. Unless you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you toward holiness in your life, toward knowing and acting on the good and perfect will of God, that tremendous investment God made in you would end up wasted.

How do we tap into God's spiritual account so that we make progress in our discipleship? One mistake many Christians make is that they try to develop certain rules or techniques that are supposed to lead them to maturity. Unfortunately it is not that simple. Discipleship cannot be reduced to a set of rules and principles to be followed.

The problem with this approach is that the focus is on the how a mystery, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is accomplished in us. Jesus explains that:

Instead the focus should be on the what is a life of Grace. The former with its emphasis on rules and principles inevitably leads to problems with legalism so that a proper experience of God's grace is eventually lost.

So instead of setting you up for failure by trying to tell you how to achieve spiritual maturity, we need to walk together in the experience of God's grace at each step of our lives, one step at a time. But we do have a clear goal: Our goal is nothing more and nothing less than to mature in Christian love, the crown of virtues. I say "nothing more" because we naturally think there ought to be more; and I say "nothing less", because God's love is so great and wonderful that it is beyond anything we can ever adequately, much less completely, comprehend with our earth-bound human minds.

So, first we must have our minds stretched by God's word, to gain a proper perspective of what is reality. In our Epistle lesson, the Apostle Paul gives us this needed perspective: Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God. (Romans 5:1) Here he states as fact what we have: "Peace." Not that we should have peace, but that we, in fact have peace. That is true, even if we do not always feel that our hearts are at peace.

He goes on: And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (2). Can you imagine that one day we will share in the glory of God? That may be hard to believe, especially if there is not much in your present life to rejoice about. But to that Paul says:

Here we see how a proper perspective of reality -- that we have peace with God -- gives us reason to rejoice. Not only when we feel good, but at all times, even when we are suffering. We rejoice even then, because we know that suffering increases our perseverance, our character and our hope. Denying ourselves and taking up our cross to follow Jesus is indispensable for developing the spiritual life-skills we need to mature as Christians.

Martin Luther said three things are necessary for a Christian to mature: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio. In English, these are: Reading God's word, prayerful meditation and going through personal struggles. The Orthodox Christian church has a very similar rule: fasting, spiritual vigilance and prayer. Fasting helps prepare the body for spiritual struggle, spiritual vigilance maintains the awareness of reality as the word of God teaches it, and prayer aims to unite our will with the Divine will.

Christian discipleship is not just about what to do. It is about an awareness of what already is; of what has been received. Discipleship is then about letting what God has planted in us grow and produce fruit. Discipleship is about a "life hidden in God" (Colossians 3:3) and is accomplished in each believing and struggling Christian in "a sacred, hidden manner."

Through the life-giving and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, we are exalted and made radiant. And that is good news for us. For God through the Holy Spirit is the one working this within us. That is why we are eager to cooperate with him until every aspect of our lives be transformed into the glorious image of Christ crucified.

Next week we will look at some practical aspects of discipleship as we examine the role spiritual vigilance plays in our spiritual growth, particularly the role of God's word and our attitude towards it. The following week we will look at the role of fasting and bodily preparation. The third week it will be the role of prayer in our walk towards spiritual maturity. By then we will have arrived at Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, and it is my prayer that we may all be better prepared, as in the words of St. Paul: