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The Cross of Christ (Mark
8:27-9:1)
(A sermon preached September 17, 2006 at University UMC by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)
The September 18 issue of Time Magazine features an
article on a movement called the “Health and Wealth Gospel.” This movement is
also referred to as “Name It and Claim It” or as “Prosperity Theology.” The
Time Magazine article is entitled, “Does God
Want You to Be Rich?”
This movement, notes Time, has been around for decades. It hit upon hard
times with the scandals associated with some of the TV evangelists of the 1980s.
However, it is now experiencing a resurgence.
The movement is based upon the premise that faithfulness to God promises
material wealth, health and abundant blessing. The article in Time Magazine
focuses on one of the newer faces of the movement--a televangelist named Joel
Osteen, author of a popular book and pastor of a church where up to 25,000
people are in worship on Sundays—people who are sure that faithfulness to God
will produce material blessing and financial security—people who are sure that
Christianity, practiced rightly, promises money, health and good living.
Yet, here we have texts like this one in Mark that we have read this morning.
This text in Mark suggests that Christian faith and indeed Christian
discipleship has more to do with a cross than with material riches. For here we
have Jesus on his way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. But these little
villages were just a stop on a more important journey. For, Jesus was ultimately
on his way to Jerusalem. He was on his way to giving his life in obedience to
God and in love for humankind. Jesus was on his way to the cross.
And as Jesus goes about this journey to the cross, he asks his disciples a
question. “Who do people say that I am?” (Mk 8: 27). Now, thus far, no one had
understood who Jesus was. Some thought him a prophet. Some thought him John the
Baptist. Some thought him Elijah, the one who would precede the coming Messiah.
People commonly misunderstood his identity, and Jesus wanted to find out if his
disciples misunderstood as well. So he follows this first question with a second
and more central question. “Who do you say that I am?” asks Jesus. “Who do you,
my followers—my disciples, say that I am?”
And Peter answers rightly, “You are the Messiah. You are the one who has come
for the salvation of the world.”
Now one of the things you must understand about the Gospel of Mark is that this
Gospel features identity as a central theme. Mark is an author of identity.
Indeed, one of Mark’s most central concerns is the identity of Jesus.
Yet, the Gospel of Mark, unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, does not
include a genealogy—that list of names that lays out the lineage of Jesus, (cf.
Luke 3, Mat. 1). For indeed, Jesus is not who he is because of his lineage. He
is not who he is because he is descendant from Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or from
King David. Jesus is who he is in Mark’s account because of what Jesus
does—because of his mission. For Mark, Jesus’ identity is based upon his
mission. Jesus is the Messiah because his is the mission and ministry of the
Messiah.
And so Peter affirms Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, and
Jesus begins to lay out what it means to be the Messiah. He ties his identity as
Messiah to his mission, and his mission involves his journey to the cross. Jesus
begins to teach his disciples that the Messiah—the Son of Man—the Christ-- must
undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the
scribes--and then be killed--and after three days rise again, (Mk 8: 31). This
is the first passion prediction in the Book of Mark, and it is placed here, in
the context of Jesus’ identity, to send a very specific message. Jesus’ identity
as Messiah cannot be understood apart from his mission—a mission that involves
suffering and a cross.
Now it appears from the text that Peter, the model disciple, who answers Jesus
rightly, truly understands Jesus’ identity, for Peter calls him the Messiah. Yet
did Peter really get it right?
For when Jesus ties his identity as Messiah to a mission that involves
suffering, Peter rebukes him. “Yes teacher, you are the Messiah,” Peter says,
“But not a Messiah who is doomed to suffering and death. Yes, Jesus, you came to
save. But the salvation you offer cannot come through a cross.”
It is evident from Peter’s response, from his rebuke of Jesus, that he does not
understand the true nature of Messiahship. He and the other disciples likely
believed that as Messiah, Jesus would come as conqueror and liberator to free
them from the oppression of Rome. The Messiah of these disciples was to be their
knight in shining armor. In their minds, perhaps, the Messiah was to bring them
health, wealth, influence, and better living.
Now were Peter and those early disciples really so different from the people of
today who believe that Christian faith is about their own material and physical
well-being? Indeed, we must admit that many of the followers of the so-called
health and wealth movement are struggling themselves—people who just want a
little bit of financial and material security. Many who follow this theology are
those who have been beaten down by life and just want a little relief.
Indeed, the man that Time Magazine interviewed for its article was an
Ohio factory worker who got laid off of from his job because of the same dynamic
that has caused such manufacturing job loss in our state. This man moved his
family to Texas to be near that televangelist and to be inspired by the message
that he too could achieve life more abundantly.
This man is perhaps no different than Peter and the early disciples. And they
were perhaps no different than this man from Ohio and from the many people today
who just want a little relief. Peter and the disciples and those who heard
Jesus’ early preaching wanted a little relief from the oppression of Rome. They
wanted a Messiah who would be king, who would put them back up on top of the
world instead of under the boot of a conqueror.
Yet here was Jesus talking about death on a cross. Here was their Messiah
teaching them about suffering instead of helping them dream of the spoils of
victory.
Here was Jesus telling them what they did not want to hear.
Yet it was crucial that they hear it. It was crucial that the disciples
understand this, for Jesus’ identity was tied to their identity. For a disciple
you see is one who models his or her life after the life of another. A disciple
is one who follows another. The disciples had to understand what it meant to be
Messiah if they were to understand what it meant to follow that Messiah.
And so Jesus teaches them that just as the Messiah cannot be the Messiah without
suffering, so the disciples of that Messiah cannot be true disciples without
suffering. “If any want to become my followers, my disciples,” Jesus says, “Let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me,” (Mk 8: 34).
This teaching about taking up the cross of Christ’s suffering is not just a
message for the early disciples. It is a message for us today. For, this
teaching is at the core of the meaning of Christian discipleship—it is at the
core of who we are as disciples.
Now I want to say strongly, that yes discipleship involves suffering and self
sacrifice, but not just any kind of suffering and sacrifice. Being a Christian
disciple does not involve suffering that destroys the human spirit. For
instance, Christian discipleship does not involve or justify the suffering
involved in abusive relationships. It does not involve or justify the suffering
inherent in debilitating and unending poverty. Christian discipleship does not
involve or justify the suffering involved in horrible and senseless acts of
violence--like the act of violence this nation experienced on September 11 five
years ago. This text on discipleship is not talking about that kind of
senseless, non-redemptive suffering.
No this text in Mark is talking about a type of suffering and self-sacrifice
that helps to ease the suffering of the world. This is a redemptive type of
sacrifice and suffering. But it is also a type of sacrifice and suffering that
involves the giving up of privilege for the cause of social justice.
One of the primary problems with the health and wealth gospel—despite its
adherence to a culture of materialism—one of its primary problems is also its
individualism. It is a gospel primarily about health and wealth for me and mine.
It is about me and my family and my people. It is ultimately about self and not
about the other. And in this sense it seems hardly biblical. For if you look at
the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry and life, you find very little concern
for his own personal enrichment. You find instead a Christ who lifted up the
needs of the poor, who ministered to the dispossessed, the pushed aside, and the
marginalized. You find a Christ who was wholly other-centered—a Christ who calls
us to be other-centered and to so bear the cross of the self denial involved in
being his disciples.
Such cross-bearing discipleship is at the core of our call to work for social
justice, for to work for justice as Christ’s disciples, we must sacrifice by
letting go of some of our own privilege and concern for self. To work for
justice as Christ’s disciples, we must sometimes suffer the ridicule and
disfavor that comes with dissent. To work for justice as Christ’s disciples, we
must sometimes deny ourselves popularity and privilege and comfort and take up
the cross of Christ. And we too will be rejected as Christ was rejected. We too
will suffer as Christ suffered.
One of the issues that the health and wealth gospel does not address is the huge
economic disparity that exists in our country and around the world. This issue
was laid bare for us here in this country by the tragedy of hurricane Katrina.
Katrina laid wide open for this nation the intense economic disparity evident in
the city of New Orleans and in other cities in our great nation. Katrina put
U.S. poverty on national television during prime time. The tragedy of Katrina
also laid bare the intersection of poverty and race in New Orleans and around
our country.
These issues of poverty and economic justice and racial justice are issues the
church must address. And there are others. There are issues of environmental
justice and stewardship that we must address. There are issues around how we
will deal with immigration and with the needs of those who come here as
immigrants. There are issues around how we will interact with people of other
faiths as our country becomes, not just more racially and culturally diverse,
but more religiously diverse.
There are also issues around how we will respond to violence around the world
and at home, and how we will bring about peace. And right now there is a debate
going on over how we will treat our enemies—or those accused of being our
enemies. Will we honor the Geneva conventions or will we use judicial processes
and methods of interrogation that raise moral and ethical questions?
These are conversations that the church must engage, and they are conversations
that involve issues of social justice. They are conversations that will involve
bearing the cross of Christian discipleship around issues of social justice, for
they are conversations just like the ones Jesus had to deal with on his way to
the cross. For these were the kinds of issues and conversations he engaged when
he asked the Pharisees why they tithed the mint and the cumin and made great
religious displays yet neglected the widow and the orphan. These are the kinds
of conversations and issues the Jesus engaged when he violated Sabbath law and
tradition to challenge the hardness of heart that would leave a man lame because
of a rule. These are the kinds of conversations and issues that Jesus engaged
when he allowed an unclean woman to touch him and be healed and then affirmed
her bodacity by saying that her faith had healed her.
These are issues Jesus engaged on his journey to the cross. For his call, his
ministry and his mission, was not about personal enrichment, privilege or
comfort. Indeed his ministry and mission had more to do with sacrifice of
personal privilege and comfort. It had to do with suffering and rejection. And
he called his disciples to do the same. For as he said, “Whoever wants 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,” (Mk 8:35).
Yet we are tempted, like Peter was, to set our minds on our human fears and
concerns rather than upon the things of God. And so we are tempted to deny the
cross of the work for justice to which we are called. We are tempted friends,
but we must not give in to this temptation. For if we do--if we deny the cross
we’ve been called to bear--then we also deny ourselves the power that comes with
leading Christ-like, cross-bearing lives.
For indeed, Jesus went to the cross as he predicted in this passage in Mark. He
underwent great suffering as he predicted. He was rejected by the elders, the
chief priests, the scribes and even the disciples as he predicted. And he was
killed in a horrible and merciless way as he predicted. Yet in three days, he
rose with power—with the power to save, and to heal and to mend broken hearts
and broken lives. He rose with an eternal power that impacts our lives today,
because each of us has been forever changed because of the power and grace that
have come through Christ. For, there is something to the cross of Christ beyond
suffering. In the cross of Christ there is also power.
This simple fact is what the Apostle Paul expressed in the passage we read
earlier in Philippians 3. “I want to know Christ in the power of his
resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering,” (Philippians 3:10).
Paul knew what we must understand today--that when we join Christ in the
fellowship of his suffering—when we bear the cross of Christian discipleship by
standing for justice—then we join Christ in his power. For with such
cross-bearing comes the power to break down the walls of poverty, and of
violence, and of racism and exclusion. With such cross-bearing comes the power
to bring about justice for all people and for the earth.
Friends, on issues of justice in our world today, the Church has a voice—this
church has a voice for which people are hungering. On issues of justice in our
world today the Church—this church has a witness—for which people are thirsting.
On issues of justice in our world today the Church—this church has the power to
effect meaningful change—change for which people are hungering and thirsting.
We have this power friends, but only when we are willing to take on the cross of
discipleship and walk in the footsteps of Christ. We do this when we stand
against injustice and stand for justice. And though this involves risk, why not?
For what will it profit us to gain the whole world and forfeit our lives and
very souls? What will it profit us to be ashamed of a Gospel that says that it
is not about my health and my wealth—but about the cross of Christ—about his
kingdom come with power—about the power to bring about justice, and peace, and
inclusion, and reconciliation and love--about the power of the church to bring
to fruition our prayer, “…let thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven.”
Who do people say that I am? I am the Christ—the Messiah, Jesus said. And who
do people say that we are? We are his disciples.
And, if we are, then let us deny ourselves and take up the cross of Christ and
follow him. Let us lose our lives for the sake of Christ and for his Gospel. And
let us be the witnesses of his kingdom come with power. Amen.
Does God Want You to Be Rich? By David Van Biema and Jeff Chu,
Time Magazine, September 18, 2006.
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