In Isaiah 55 the Lord declares, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…. (Isaiah 55:8)
Often we recognize the truth that “the ways of God are different from the way of the world” when there are situations that are beyond our understanding – those things that happen that we ascribe to mystery. [i] But it also true about the ways we live in the world and how we make meaning of our experiences.
When Jesus called the disciples to leave their nets and follow him (Mark 1), they responded to his authority and power, but they still didn’t really know who Jesus was.
Throughout the first half of Mark’s gospel they are learning along the way as they witness Jesus healing, performing miracles and teaching in parables.
In the verses just before today’s gospel, they have gone into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. The region was named for the Roman emperor Caesar and for Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great, and ruler of the northeastern quarter of Judea. The geography matters because it locates Jesus and the disciples in what today is the Golan Heights, “a few kilometers from the Lebanese border [where] the view to the south stretches across Galilee toward Jerusalem.”[ii]
As Mark begins this central section of his gospel, Jesus and the disciples literally, and figuratively, look back across the territory they have covered in the Galilean ministry and look ahead to the road to Jerusalem.
And it’s at this point in Mark’s gospel, that the text says, “Jesus began to teach them” about the suffering, rejection and death that awaited him. (v. 31)
Up until this point, the disciples’ understanding of Jesus as the Messiah was still oriented around things that were familiar to them. Messiah was a political term that referred to the anointed one, a title given to King David and later to Cyrus the Persian, who liberated Israel from Babylon. “Messiah” was a sign of kingship and royal triumph. [iii] “The great hope of the Israelite people [in the first century] was freedom from the Roman overlords.”[iv] That freedom was to be brought by the Messiah.
When Peter rebukes Jesus, he is clinging to his understanding of what it means that Jesus is the Messiah and what it means to follow him and be a disciple. He doesn’t want to let go of his understanding of who the Messiah is. He doesn’t want to hear what Jesus is saying. But, as Jesus says, his mind is set not on divine things but on human things. (v. 34)
Remember the Lord’s words in Isaiah? “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…. (Isaiah 55:8)
And Jesus presses on. Dismissing Peter, he calls the crowds to him and speaks to them and all of the disciples, inviting each one to take up their cross and follow him.
Importantly, “denying ourselves” and “taking up our cross” does not mean demeaning ourselves or suffering abuse from other people. Each of us is created in the imago dei - the image of God - and inherently have dignity and gifts that God has given us, and God desires us to fully live into who God has created us to be.[v]
So, what does it mean to deny ourselves and take up our cross?
At the conclusion of today’s gospel, Jesus defines what we now call the theology of the cross. He says:
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed.... (Mark 8:35-38 ESV)
A theology of the cross says that following Jesus is not about what I want or desire. It is always about keeping our priorities aligned with God’s commandments to love God and love our neighbor.[vi](Mark 12)
A theology of the cross says that following Jesus is not about power, prestige or position; instead it is a call to service, suffering and sacrifice.[vii]
A theology of the cross says that it is in following Jesus that we find our life, our soul or self. As Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)
And lastly, a theology of the cross says that we must not be ashamed of following Jesus or of our obedience to God. Faith is not meant to be hidden away, even or perhaps especially, when it means saying things that are not popular.
We must not be afraid of death, because the promise in Jesus’ words here is that although Jesus will be killed, he will also rise again. (v. 31)
We love and serve a God of resurrection, a life-giving and redeeming God, whose thoughts are not our thoughts, and whose ways are not our ways. The God we meet in the person of Jesus leads us and stays with us even in the shadow of the cross and when we are clinging to what we want.
Thanks be to God.
[i] Michael Rogness. Commentary on Mark 8:31-38, Workingpreacher.org, Luther Seminary.
[ii] Lamar Williamson. Mark. 151.
[iii] Pulpit Fiction (podcast).
[iv] Rogness.
[v] ibid.
[vi] Rogness.
[vii] Johannes Nissen. New Testament and Mission. 44.
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