Second Sunday in Lent

Second Sunday in Lent (B)

February 25, 2024

Text: Mark 8:27-38

            The way of Jesus is the way of the cross.  There is no getting around it.  No matter how we may wish.  It is a divine necessity.  Ordained by God from eternity.  “[T]he 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” (Mark 8:31; ESV; emphasis added).

            Why must He?  Why has God thus determined?  Is the Father some kind of sadist?  An abusive Dad?  No, no, of course not.  We’ve heard it any number of times in the Epiphany Season, and over the last few weeks: Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son, with whom He is well-pleased.  Why then?  Because if God is to be both just, and the Justifier (Rom. 3:26) of sinners, He must deal with our sins.  Sin must be punished.  The debt must be paid.  There must be atonement.  There must be satisfaction.  And so the Father sends His Son.  The Only-Begotten.  The Beloved.  The Sinless-One who takes our sins into Himself, into His body.  Who is made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).  To be punished in our place.  To pay our debt.  To be the Sacrifice of Atonement.  To make the full satisfaction.  He does it on the cross.  In the very rejection of the elders and chief priests and scribes.  In His suffering.  In His death.  And now, by faith in Him, we are justified, we become His righteousness, and so have peace with God, as St. Paul says in our Epistle (Rom. 5:1).  It is a marvelous truth.  A wondrous mystery.  God so loves us.  Loves us in this way.  While we were still sinners, He gives His Son.  It is the only way.  That is why He must. 

            But, practically speaking, there is another reason.  Though, not wholly other, but we might say, a variation on the theme.  He must suffer because He does not live up to the world’s expectations.  He is not who men think He is.  He is not who men think He should be.  The Jews want a military and political ruler to deliver them from Roman tyranny.  The Romans want no kind of Messiah from the Jews.  And, of course, speculation is wild about just who this Man is who has come from Nazareth, working miracles, and speaking in the Name of God.  John the Baptist, risen from the dead?  Elijah returned?  Or another of the prophets, perhaps even the Prophet Moses promised, who is like unto him (Deut. 18)? 

            Whoever He is, though, the Jews want Him dead, because He is a threat to the delicate balance of power, and their own influence over the people.  And He has the audacity to call them, pious Jews, to repentance.  And the people have the audacity to listen to Him.  The Romans will kill Him simply because He claims to be a King, and Caesar will suffer no kingly competition, real or imagined.  Not even if the Kingdom is not of this world. 

            So, Jesus is rejected.  It is a foregone conclusion.  He must carry His own cross to the top of the hill.  He “suffered for us under Pontius Pilate.  He was crucified and was buried” (Nicene Creed).  The way of Jesus is the way of the cross.  And so it must be.

            And so it must be for us, if we are to follow Him.  “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34; emphasis added).

            Wait a minute!  Why must we suffer?  Is there some insufficiency in Jesus’ suffering for us?  Is there yet some debt to be paid?  Some satisfaction to be made?  No.  No, of course not.  Jesus is the once-for-all, and all-sufficient Sacrifice for sin.  We must never detract from His honor and glory by taking any part of our sin back onto ourselves.  We must never look to our own sufferings, sacrifices, or good works to atone, or make satisfaction, for our sins, or to merit salvation or eternal life.  Faith in ourselves leads only to death (remember that next time you see an inspirational poster or t-shirt that says “Believe in yourself”).

            Why then?  Why must the cross mark our life?  If Jesus suffered all our punishment (and He did), and we are wholly forgiven and righteous before God on His account (and we are), why can’t life just be pleasant, easy, a walk in the park?  Why can’t everything be victory, and success, and glorious happiness?  Why the rejection on the part of the world?  Why disappointments?  Why sorrows?  Why seizures and hospitalizations, cancer and car accidents?  Why is my body breaking down?  Why must I still struggle with my sins?  And why does the Law still kill and condemn me?  Why must we suffer?

            Because Jesus is not who we think He is… who we think He should be.  Peter speaks for all of us, not just in his confession that Jesus it the Christ, but in his misunderstanding of what that means.  It means, and necessarily so, that Jesus must suffer and be rejected and be killed.  And on the Third Day rise again.  There is no other way for God to be both just and Justifier.  But Peter doesn’t like that talk, and neither do we.  “Lord, don’t say such things!  May it never be!  We’ll never let such a thing happen to You!” 

            “Get behind me, Satan!” (v. 33).  The old man in us who rejects the cross must be crucified and killed.  We need Jesus’ rebuke.  Insofar as we want to skirt Good Friday and skip straight to Easter, we must die.  Because we’re denying God’s plan.  We’re rejecting God’s will.  We do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of man.  As it turns out, we don’t really want Jesus to be our King.  We want to be king over Jesus.  We want Him to do our salvation the way we want it done, or He isn’t doing it right.  Repent. 

            God’s way is a better way than our way, though it necessarily entails the cross.  Because it leads through the cross, to life and resurrection.  Going our own way, we may live relatively well by worldly standards.  You and I both know many who do.  But what good is it all in the end, after the few years of this earthly life are over?  “[W]hat does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life” (v. 36)… his soul?  It’s not worth it!  The truth is, whoever would save his life will lose it.  That is, whoever makes prosperity in this world his ultimate good, his ultimate goal, however you measure that… health, wealth, power, prestige, popularity, a luxurious retirement, a life of ease… will die in the end, because he didn’t hold Christ as his ultimate good.  But whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s will save it.  That is, whoever loses his life in Christ and the Gospel, whoever makes Christ his ultimate good… faith!... even if it costs him everything in this life, including life itself… he will be saved.  Whoever is ashamed of Jesus and His Word in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes again in glory with the holy angels.  But to all who are not ashamed of Him, but believe in Him, and confess Him, and suffer all for Him, even death… to them He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).

            To be baptized into Christ, to be one with Him, and to follow Him… this necessarily means to deny yourself, take up your own cross, suffer, and die with Him.  But His suffering sanctifies your suffering, so that it becomes, as Paul says, a suffering that produces endurance, and an endurance that produces character, and a character that produces hope that does not disappoint us (Rom. 5:3-5).  That is, our suffering shapes us into the cruciform image of Jesus, even as it drives us to Jesus Christ alone for help and salvation. 

            But also, we know that the cross is not the end of the story.  The Creed doesn’t end with “crucified, died and was buried” (Apostles’ Creed), and neither does our Lord’s Passion prediction.  The Son of Man must suffer many things and be killed, and on the Third Day rise again (Mark 8:31).  To deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Jesus, means not only to go the way of Golgotha and the tomb, but to arrive with Him at His destination.  And what is that?  The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  There is no getting around the cross.  But through the cross, we have life forevermore, with Christ, our risen Lord.  His way is the way to the eternal Easter Day.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.