The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
Mark 8:27-38
An Ugly Cross
Second Sunday in Lent, 04 March, 2012
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, WY
In the Name of Jesus Amen.
Does anyone love an ugly cross? I never see too many truly
ugly ones. Sure, there may be a lonely wooden cross atop a hill on a scenic
drive across Wyoming, but look around you. We use smooth-sanded, stained, and
polyurethaned wood for our crosses. Precious metal crosses of gold and silver
adorn our necks. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yet, unlike Martin Luther,
many Americans are averse to seeing Jesus’ body upon a cross.
Does anyone love an ugly cross? The true ugliness of death
by crucifixion, especially from a medical standpoint is often too much to bear,
too much to behold. Yet we could consider the following. Would you ever
decorate your home with an electric chair made of beautiful polished wood? No.
Would you wear a necklace with a silver syringe on it, like those used for
executions by lethal injection? No again! Yet, we will wear the cross, an
emblem of suffering and shame.
We embrace the cross not because it looks like a plus sign
(+) or because it is a simple way to put two lines together. Nor do we worship
the cross. We cling to the cross because of He who died upon it for us and our
salvation.
Jesus taught His disciples about His own cross. But they
didn’t love an ugly cross either.
27 And
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?” 28 And
they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of
the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no
one about him.
We know that the command to tell no one was temporary. Jesus
wanted the disciples to wait in order to tell the whole story, Good Friday AND Easter Sunday, when they told the story of
Jesus and His love.
When we read an account like the one before us from Mark 8, we
tend to identify with those disciples. Peter confesses, “You are the Christ,”
and rightly so, for it is the truth. But there were some parts of the truth
Peter couldn’t handle. He couldn’t love an ugly cross.
31 And
he [Jesus] 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. 32 And he said this plainly.
Jesus tells the
whole story: suffering, crucifixion, death, AND
Resurrection. He knew what was going to happen to him. Holy Week was no
surprise to the Son of God. He was honest and clear about these things with His
disciples.
31 And
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. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took
him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But 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.”
Peter says “No” to the ugly cross. Simon, newly-called
Peter, gets the newer nickname of “Satan.” Why? He said no to suffering, to
pain, to…the ugly cross before Jesus. Peter rebuked Jesus. That was wrong.
Jesus rebuked Peter. The cross was part of the things of God. Peter wanted no
part of it for himself or for Jesus.
34 And
calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 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.
Self-denial is the true purpose behind “giving something up
for Lent.” I encourage you to pick up something new for Lent. Add a devotion.
Add a work of service. Pray for those you never have prayed for in the past. It
is also important to learn to give things up…at least for a time. A good place
to start is to give up a sin for Lent. In saying this, I don’t mean that you
should start doing it again once Easter comes—no. Use Lent as a time to teach
yourself to say no to yourself. Wean yourself off of the sin during these forty
days. Give it up for good. Then, live in Easter freedom and go and sin no more!
Christians have given up other things for Lent in the past.
They are all part of self-denial. This is a spiritual discipline, like fasting.
Some have used Lent to show their devotion to God by abandoning bad habits,
like costly addictions—costly due to the physical, emotional, and financial
toll they take on you and your family. I know some who have given up meat on
Fridays. Others have gone all Lent without French fries. That’s really an
exercise in self-denial. The point of learning self-denial is not to earn
salvation or favor with God. We should be clear on that point. Self-denial
reminds us to not become too attached to this world so that we would eagerly
pray, “Thy kingdom come” in anticipation of the unexpected Last Day or the day
of our own death.
By faith, we learn to love the cross. Holding a cross during
a time of prayer or a time of physical pain could be a tangible reminder of
where Jesus won salvation for you. Our sufferings could never earn our own
salvation, yet they help us to identify with Jesus and He with us. We follow in
humble, repentant, faith, willing to suffer all, even lose everything we have
in this life, in the hopes of enjoying eternal life and rest with Christ. God
doesn’t want to spoil your fun. He wants to save you from Satan, the fallen
world around you, and even from yourself.
“If anyone would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 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 when he comes in the
glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Jesus loves you so much He loved and died upon an ugly
cross. His shed blood forgives your sin. He gave His life so that you would not
forfeit your body and soul to the old evil foe. He lost His life to give you
life. He took up the cross, not merely as an example for you, but to accomplish
for you what we could never accomplish for ourselves. The cross is where Jesus
won forgiveness. He delivers it in Holy Baptism, the Holy Gospel, Holy
Absolution, and Holy Communion. He gathers you around these gifts. Receiving
them, by faith, is why we go to Church in the first place.
Johann Sebastian Bach, the great Lutheran composer, wrote
the following and set it to music, practically a commentary on Psalm 23 and this
Scripture text: “….To my shepherd I’ll be true. Though he fill my cross’s
chalice, I’ll rest fully in his pleasure, He stands in my sorrow near. One day,
surely, done my weeping, Jesus’ sun again will brighten. To my shepherd I’ll be
true.
“Live in Jesus, who will rule me; Heart, be glad, though
thou must perish, Jesus hath enough achieved. Amen: Father, take me now!
“If I then, too, the way of death And its dark journey
travel, Lead on! I’ll walk the road and path Which thine own eyes have shown
me. Though art my shepherd, who all things Will bring to such conclusion, That
I one day within thy courts Thee ever more may honor” (TDP 44).
Amen.
In the Name of Jesus Amen.
