Sunday: Lent 2 (B), March 12, 2006

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

Losing Yourself for Jesus (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.

Just as Peter was tempted, we are also tempted. As Lutheran Christians we may take pride in the great confession we can give 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 says:
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35)

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 just the things of men? In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul tells us,
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–His good, pleasing and perfect will. (12:2)

As we 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. Earning grace—what an oxymoron! 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 daily lives.

Imagine that God has given 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 spending 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 unused and 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 becomes how a mystery, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is accomplished in us. Jesus explains that, “The wind blows wherever it pleases…You cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). It is impossible to deduce a system of principles to describe how we can use or take advantage of the Holy Spirit. Rather, our focus should be on 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.

Let me give you an example about stewardship in the church, which is one area Jesus calls us to follow Him: Next Sunday we are having Pledge Sunday when we have the opportunity to pledge our time, talents and treasures for God’s use in the church. Now, do you think it matters how we do stewardship? I have heard of a church which publishes the names of people with the amounts they contributed behind them. How would you like that? Wouldn’t that be a powerful motivator? Perhaps, but it will surely backfire spiritually because people may be pressured into giving, or may be tempted to give for the wrong reason.

On the other hand, we find an excellent example of godly stewardship in our Old Testament reading. There Jacob, after experiencing the wonderful vision of God’s promise to protect him and provide for him, he makes a pledge to return a tenth of everything he receives from the Lord (Gen. 28:18-22). Jacob’s motivation is God’s grace. He does not make his pledge out of obligation or not even to earn God’s favour, but freely out of pure thankfulness and gratitude. That is what we also want to emphasize in our stewardship initiative: God’s blessings and promises. God promises us much more than we can ever give to Him. That is why serving the Lord and giving to Him is not only challenging but also fun—as long as we have the proper perspective of God’s grace.

In order for us to excel in following Jesus we must first have our minds stretched by God’s word. We must first gain a proper perspective of God’s grace. 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:
We also rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (5:3-5)

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 God is able to use our suffering to achieve a good outcome—to develop our perseverance, our character and our hope.

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. That is good news for us because God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the One working this within us. And as His dear children we are eager to cooperate with Him until every aspect of our lives is transformed into the glorious image of Christ crucified.

As we continue the journey with our Lord to Calvary during this season of Lent, let us think on the words of the Apostle Paul, who expressed his own desire, saying:
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and to participate in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, and so, eventually, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10, 11)

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep your hearts and minds in His peace. Amen.