Sermon Index
February 28, 2021, The Second Sunday in Lent
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Gospel Lesson : Mark 8:27–38 27And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 31And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 34And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” |
Today I want to think about the word “follow” which occurs many times in the Bible, as well as in today’s Gospel reading.
Mark 8:34-35. ‘34And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”’
Mark 1:16-18. ‘16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.’
Mark 11:9-10. ‘9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest!” ’
First. The word “follow” simply means to walk behind something. You can follow a person, a plow, road signs, a fad, or in a parade. But to follow means that you are moving. For us Christians it means that our life as a Christian is not stationary sitting in our pew. We are active, we are following Christ as the Holy Spirit leads us. So, being a Christian means that we do not simply “sit in church,” we are active in our life of love and service.
Second. The word “follow” means to obey. We follow orders, we follow commands, we follow the law, we follow the teachings of Jesus. And so as disciples of Christ we love our neighbor as our selves and also love the enemy. And we do not follow anti-Christian ideas and their way of life.
Third. The word “follow” means to understand. We follow somene’s logic, follow the professor’s lecture, follow the directions when we are lost or do not know how to do something. We understand the teaching of Jesus. We intellectually follow what it means when he says to turn the other cheek. Whether we physically follow that command which we understand and actually follow through and obey it or not, that is the constant temptation and testing that we Christians have.
As Christians, we follow Christ in all of these ways. We understand his teaching, we obey it, and we are actively moving though life following where Jesus leads. We are happy followers of Christ.
And then we come to today’s Gospel reading. Mark 8:34-38. ‘34And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”’
If we follow Christ it will lead us to place where Jesus died on the cross. Jesus carried his cross on the road to that place. If we “take up our cross and follow him,” that means that we will die like he did. That is a problem because we want to live and be happy. We want the joy of being a Christian. We want health, not suffering. We want to save our life, not lose it. And so these words of Jesus are hard to follow—hard to understand and follow the logic and hard to obey and follow literally.
In conversation we sometimes use the expression, “a hard cross to bear,” meaning a hardship or disability or shame that cannot be gotten rid of. We see such people as they struggle though life. We pray for them. They may be strengthened and given courage by their faith in Jesus Christ. But hardship is not the cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus means that we suffer because we are his disciples and live following his teaching. In the extreme it means martyrdom – dying because we are a Christian. It can mean persecution and bullying or living in secrete to avoid it. Or it may mean going to church on Sunday morning rather than going to work or school or play.
And we have to ask whether it is worth it or not. Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” It is hard to follow that logic. Do we die in order to live? Do we lose our life in order to save it?
Remember what Jesus said to the disciples about himself. “ 31And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32And he said this plainly.” For Jesus, his death on the cross led to his resurrection. The cross that we bear is the cross of Jesus and it leads to our resurrection. He helps us carry it, or he carries it for us, or he carries us in his everlasting arms. In this way we follow Jesus to eternal life.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church