Jesus, the Way of the Cross

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God Bless. I want to read to you these

words of John Newton from the meditation page

inside cover of your bulletin. What thank you

of Christ is the test to try both your state

and your scheme? You cannot be right in the rest

unless you think rightly of him. As Jesus appears

in your view, as he is beloved or not, So God

is disposed to you and mercy or wrath is your

lot. Let me pray for us. Lord, we're thankful

again for the gospel of Mark. Lord, I thank you

for how quick it is, how well it is crafted and

the beauty of it. Most of all, Lord, we're thankful

that it points us and tells us and calls us to

our Lord. I pray this morning. that we would

heed that call, that you would touch us, uncover

our blindness, Lord. We would see you and love

you, follow you. Amen. This week I listened to

a podcast, Rethinking Ted, has anyone listened

to that? Adam Grant, the organizational psychologist

who teaches over at Wharton at Penn. He interviews

particularly people that have already like given

Ted talks He finds really interesting and he

like, you know gets deeper in with them And the

episode that I listened to was with Jacob Collier

Does anybody know Jacob Collier the music? I

almost said magician Musician he's actually kind

of like a magician, right? He's kind of amazing

Matt Monticchio our former music director put

me on him like a decade ago And he really is

kind of I did not mean say magician I don't know,

but he is kind of like a magician. He's just

this incredible artist of a musician, you know,

plays just about every instrument. Sort of goes,

brings different genres together, directs orchestras

while he's directing the audience, right? He's

won some Grammys, all this kind of stuff. He's

pretty remarkable. What he was saying in this

podcast, though, in part is that all humans are

are musicians. I don't know what you think of

that, but that's part of his contention that

we kind of have this innate what he calls wiggleness

that music brings out, this liveliness. We're

all sort of musicians if we're given sort of

the freedom. And one of the things that I think

is really interesting in this podcast that he

talks about is he talks about how music spans

all of these different emotions of being human.

So music actually is not only something that

each human has, but it's something that calls

each of us to a deeper kind of experience in

life. So he plays this augmented chord. And he

says, doesn't that sound like a fairy? It evokes

this idea of otherworldliness for us. So he plays

this augmented triad. And I promise you, I tried

to hum it. to the point that I could remember

it. And I was like, if I try that, I'm going

to mess it up, and you're not going to really

get it. But it's sort of this lifting up, right?

What is to augment, but to add to, right? To

bring you beyond, right? And this chord actually

makes you kind of think, well, there maybe is

a world beyond us. Maybe that's why it's so connected

to fairies, he says. And then he plays a diminished

chord. Diminishment, of course, is to take away

from, right? diminished chords are a little less

friendly. They're a little less hopeful. That's

kind of what it evokes in us. They're more sad.

I have hesitated to call myself a musician. This

is probably because I'm not a capital M musician,

but I've loved music my whole life. I've played

music and I've sang and all this. And I've had

a sense of what an augmented chord is and a diminished

chord and all this and how they sound. But in

some ways, I never put these things together,

that actually the words themselves are calling

us out from ourselves or actually calling us

and actually naming for us the sad realities

of the world. And even in the names of how we

sort of describe those kinds of chords has that

experience sort of built into it. Which is to

say, in some ways, I've... I've seen and I've

heard and I've even engaged with music and just

in this little kind of thing where he gets into

in this podcast, I felt like I could see things

a little bit more clearly. I was putting together

musical ideas that I and I just never put together

just in that moment. Sometimes our ears and our

eyes get opened a little bit more. Sometimes

we see things what they are a little bit more

clearly. Of course, what this also means is that

sometimes we don't. Often we don't, right? Most

often we are walking around partially blind and

partially deaf. We know this as we engage with

other people. Listening well is far beyond just

hearing what words are said. I would even say

that we rarely really listen properly. hear the

heart behind, the intent behind what is said,

the experiences behind what's said, the hopes

behind what's said. Our passage this morning,

there's a lot of different stuff going on, isn't

there? Jesus engages with this blind man. He

asks, who am I? And then he says, hey, you gotta

follow me, even to the place of suffering. But

it begins with the story of this blind man who

was brought to Jesus by others, probably his

friends. who begged Jesus to touch him, who was

then brought outside of the town, who was then

touched by Jesus twice, who also spat on him.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Does that sound

familiar? Some of you, that sounds familiar,

right? I mean, last week, last week we had a

deja vu moment, didn't we, with the Feeding of

the 4 ,000. We were reading it and we're like,

wait, that was on this page. Just the one before,

with the feeding of the 5 ,000, so much was so

similar. There were some differences, but it

was so similar, a little deja vu. And if you

remember actually two weeks ago, we had a story

that Mark told us about a deaf and a mute man

who was brought to Jesus by some of his friends

who begged him, same word. Touch him who was

brought away from those who may have maybe had

mocked him for his speech impediments and all

this Outside of the community and Jesus touched

him and one other thing he did is he spat in

that thing? And of course initially we're like

what's going on here, but what is unquestionably

happening is Deja vu again Mark doing Why why

is mark doing this y 'all repetition is the Only

a few of you listened last week. Let me say it

again. Repetition is the key of learning. Repetition

is the key of learning. Okay, we'll get it. Mark

wants you to get it. Mark and Jesus want us to

learn. They want us to hear. They want us to

see Jesus. And part of the thing that we learn

is actually the difference that's taking place

in these stories, just like the part of what

we learned in the feeding of the 5 ,000, the

feeding of the 4 ,000 is actually in the differences

of the two texts. So what's the difference here?

There's a process here that's a little bit different,

but that was sort of similar. One of the big

differences is that in the first passage, it

was the ears and the mouth, and now it's the

eyes, right? And it's an interesting process

because first Jesus touches him and he sees a

little bit. He says, I see people, but they're

like trees that are walking around. They're ants.

And then Jesus lays his hand on the man's eyes

again, and his eyes are opened. And he sees everything

clearly. Sees everything clearly. His sight is

restored. And he saw everything clearly. Now,

keep in mind, he was taken out from the town.

He's seeing people maybe walking in the distance,

but who's right there? He's seeing Jesus clearly.

And Jesus wants him to see him clearly. He wants

us to see him clearly. He wants us to move to

a deeper understanding of him. He wants us to

hear him well. Jesus wants us to see him clearly.

I think he's doing this in some ways because

we are actually a lot like the disciples in the

boat. What was the last thing Jesus said to the

disciples in the boat? After they spent so much

time with them, after they seem to do so many

wonderful miracles, after he saw the 12 baskets

gathered from the 5 ,000, the seven baskets from

the 4 ,000, he ends with, do you not yet understand?

And I wanna suggest to you that this morning

Jesus is saying is, do you not see? you do not

see. And when we have this passage, we have some

reasons why we don't see. And then I think also

we have the reason why Jesus actually wants us

to see him clearly, okay? So first a few reasons

why we don't see him clearly. So check it out

in verse 27, the next passage after this engagement

with this blind man. Jesus went with his disciples

to the village of Caesarea in Philippi, and on

the way he asked his disciples, Who do people

say that I am? Who do people say that I am? And

the response, they told him John the Baptist,

others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets.

Which, again, is kind of a, make us scratch our

heads, right? Why, when did John the Baptist

die? Again, one more page behind, right? Chapter

six, John the Baptist has his head cut off. We

know that Elijah slipping 900 years earlier.

But what we can kind of quickly at least put

together is unquestionably, if people are saying

somebody like John, at least somebody in the

vein of Elijah, Let's say just one of the prophets.

Jesus is one of the prophets. What we can quickly

say, if we kind of just look at that little list,

is that most people are at least saying, Jesus,

you're one of the great teachers. One of the

great teachers. A lot of people went out to John

the Baptist here. A lot of people here are the

prophets of all. You're like those guys. And

doesn't kind of everybody say that? Pretty much

everybody says Jesus is a good teacher. Almost

nobody denies that. Aristotle is known as the

first teacher. Maybe some of you think of the

great teachers like Confucius or Socrates or

Solomon in the Bible. But it is an undeniable

fact that Jesus is the great teacher. Most people

think of Jesus, at least, at the very least,

as a great teacher. The Bible itself! Supposedly

there's like five, I googled it. Five billion

copies of the Bible in the world. Far more than

any other text. Far, far more than the Quran

or the Little Red Book or Don Quixote, A Tale

of Two Cities, all of the greats. I'll engage

with Jesus as at least a teacher. The Bible's

in a different category. I mean, everyone here

today and everyone who will listen to the sermon

I am betting will say Jesus is a great teacher.

His words to say that I maybe should listen to

that might guide some areas of my life So many

have had their eyes at least rubbed open to that

right They come to Jesus for advice for morals

for stories that help them understand themselves

and the world better But of course, the disciples

were saying a little bit more than this, too,

right? They were saying a little bit more than

this, which I think gets to sort of another reason

why we don't quite see Jesus clearly. The people

were saying that he is a prophet. John the Baptist.

You know, they're not just listing random good

teachers. It's John the Baptist. It's Elijah.

He's a prophet. Jesus, they are saying, is one

of those which is to say that he's sent by God.

He sent by God with the words of God. He sent

by God with the words of God to call people to

God, show them the way. So maybe you don't just

take Jesus as a good moral teacher, somebody

whose words are worth sort of considering as

you wonder how to live your life. Maybe you think

he's one of the divine ones, the gifts from God

to instruct us specifically. Muslims believe

this, right? Some say he's one of the prophets

sent by God. One of the prophets like Noah, the

great prophets, or Moses, one of the great prophets,

Esau, Jesus, great prophet. Their eyes are murky.

They still can't see. They can't make out. They

can't see Jesus. I think part of why we don't

see Jesus clearly is that we in some ways don't

see him enough, right? It's not that some people

can't see him somewhat, you know? Give me your

words. I'll go along with the idea that you may

be somehow from God. We get caught up with the

idea of having a good teacher, maybe a prophet.

My guess is that some of you maybe this morning

have at least that much of Jesus. You might not

want to go all the way, but you're like, good

teacher, I'll take it. Maybe one of the greats,

I'm there. But a partial understanding, a partial

seeing of Jesus is not what Jesus longs for.

He desires. It's not what he's about. So Jesus

goes on to ask his disciples, right? What does

he ask them? Who do you say that I am? Who do

you say that Jesus is? Who do you say that I

am? And I think he's doing this in sort of the

same line of that last question from last week.

You do not yet understand. Why do you not yet

understand? In some ways he's saying you... yourselves

don't quite see. How are you viewing me? Do you

not yet see? Do you not yet understand? And Peter

gives a fairly good answer. You are the Christ.

Why do we know this is a at least fairly good

answer? You know, Jesus, he doesn't rebuke him.

He doesn't correct him. He just says, hey, Let's

not talk about that. Let's not talk about that.

And I think, in fact, even part of Jesus' response

is a way of saying, you're sort of seeing right,

but you're still blurry. Some say that when Peter

said, you are the Christ, He's pulling together

all of these other Old Testament passages that

talked about messiahs and used that word, which

is the Hebrew word for Christ. Christ is the

Greek word meaning messiah. And the word is used

quite a bit in the Old Testament, and it's used

in a lot of different kinds of ways. Messiah

means anointed one. And so messiah, that word

is used when the priests were anointed in the

Old Testament. It's used when kings are anointed.

It's used sort of in a reference to the anointed

patriarchs of Israel. It's also used, actually,

like we heard in our Psalm reading, of Israel

itself. Psalm 130 mentions that Israel is the

anointed one. Whole body. What does anointed

mean? But consecrated by God. Consecrated by

God. set apart by God. And there were a good

deal of others who claimed to be the Messiah

around Jesus' time. So this audience, Peter's

understanding of Messiah would have had all these

Old Testament connotations set apart for God,

but it would also have had contemporaneous sort

of context. There was Judas the Galilean. Y 'all

remember him? He was mentioned in Acts chapter

five. You probably know the story of Judas. Don't

feel bad if you don't. I looked him up. He led

a revolt in the year 6. So when Jesus was alive,

toddling around, Judas the Galilean in the area

of Galilee in Judah led a revolt against the

Romans in the exact area where most of Jesus'

teaching took place. He died for it. But people

called him a messiah, an anointed one by God

who sought to establish political strength. There

was Simon of Perea. Simon of Perea was an ex

-slave. He lived in the year 4 BC. He led a band

of rebels against the Romans again, crowned himself

king and then was killed. There was Theodos.

He's also mentioned in Acts chapter five. He

also led a revolt against the homens and was

killed. Yeah. See, to be a messiah at the time

was to be consecrated by God, appointed by God,

but appointed by God for the sake of dealing

with the political enemies. I want you to think

about this too. Think of how often and how much

we come to Jesus for our political gain. I mean,

my word. Yes, people come to Jesus as a good

teacher. Yes, people come to Jesus thinking you

transcend just teaching. But man, don't we often

like to come to Jesus for political gain? We

come to him maybe on one side, pricing his teaching

of personal responsibility, maybe traditional

values, and his deep care for the poor, his demand

that we give of ourselves, blessing of others.

I mean, truly, don't we see folk on the right

and the left claiming Jesus as their Messiah?

Theirs? The one who justifies their political

thought and their actions? Do we? Come on, we're

a call and response church a little bit. I mean,

not normally in this kind of way, but if we had

it written in the liturgy, you would then say

we do, right? Don't we? We do, yes. And we find

this impulse among ourselves, the impulse to

have Jesus baptize our own political sort of

thoughts, right? We do, don't we? We do. Good

job, you are fast learners. Don't we often see

Jesus as one who is there, really, to baptize

our view of the world, our own personal, our

social ambitions, don't we? We do, we do. Which

is to say, at least in a way, we see Him, but

we see Him... Fuzzy. And Jesus wants us to see

him clearly. He wants to receive him for who

he really is. Look down starting in verse 31.

I think in these verses we have one of the greatest

reasons why Well, let me say this side note.

I think in these verses, we see one of the great

reasons to take the Bible seriously. You've got

to at least consider that it's far more beyond

just some human text, because no one puts their

leader, which is Peter in the early church. I

mean, you have Paul and James and John too, but

Peter saying in one moment, you're the Christ,

then being told that he's Satan. People don't

do that when they're like in charge of writing

their books, right? Unless it's true. Anyway,

if you look down these verses, what you see is

that Jesus teaches them that he must suffer many

things, that he must be rejected by the elders

and chief priests, scribes, and he must be killed.

Then on the third day, he would rise again. And

Peter knew these stories of Messiah. And yet,

Peter does this remarkable thing. Peter, putting

his arm around Jesus. Jesus, I need to rebuke

you. Right? Peter took a Messiah, verse 32, and

began to rebuke him. No, Jesus. You're not supposed

to be the Messiah that dies. You're supposed

to be the Messiah that lives. Peter can't see

Jesus clearly. He will go along like everyone

else with Jesus as a good teacher. He will go

along like most people with Jesus not just being

a good teacher, but being somehow divinely given.

He will go along with the knowledge that he is

the anointed one, the consecrated one by God,

all of its political overtones at the time. By

the way, Jesus actually never calls himself a

messiah, interestingly. But if it means suffering,

if it means dying, if it means all that stuff

that we heard from Isaiah that his visage was

one so marred that we would not want to look

upon him, then he needs to be rebuked. And I

want to suggest to you again, this is another

reason why we just can't see Jesus clearly. We

don't want a Jesus who suffers and dies, even

if he does rise again, because we don't want

to believe and confess and live into the reality

that our sins are that bad. Jesus, guide us in

a way to live. Jesus, give us a divine anointing.

Jesus baptized our view of the world, but don't

tell me that you actually have to die for me.

Even if you're gonna rise from the dead, my sin

can't be that bad that it demands your life.

One of the great reasons why we don't see Jesus

clearly, why we don't come face to face with

him is because we can't come face to face with

what our sin demands. The death of the Anointed

One. We don't wanna see Jesus clearly because

we don't really wanna see ourselves clearly.

I think these are some of the big reasons why

we actually don't see Jesus clearly. Partly because

we actually are interested in his teaching, but

we only wanna go that far. Partly because we

want Jesus just to go along with us, right? Just

be like me, have my views, Jesus. largely because

we just don't want to come face to face with

the reality of our own sin. But I did begin with

saying that this passage isn't just about seeing

Jesus clearly and the reasons why we don't, but

also the reason why he wants us to. So Jesus

calls this crowd to him, right? He calls the

crowd to him and his disciples and he says, if

anyone would come after me, Let him deny himself

and take up his cross and follow me or whoever

would save his life Will lose it But whoever

loses his life for my sake the Gospels will save

it Think about this we see Jesus as a good teacher

because we want to know how to live well true

We see Jesus as a teacher sent by God because

we want God's blessing. Yes We see Jesus even

as a Messiah because we want our political power

But we rebuke him to reject him for his suffering

Because we want to see ourselves as good and

we want the good life We want self -preservation

right Self -preservation Jesus says that is the

way of death When you seek to save your life

you lose it when you lose your life you save

it Jesus says despite what we think the way of

self -preservation is the way of death The only

way to life is through death The only way to

resurrection is through the cross the only way

to rising again is through suffering Which is

to say if you want to see Jesus clearly you have

to be willing to die And we like more the idea

of a guru who teaches us how to live Politicians

that promote the good life Messiah's who conquer

the Romans, not die on a Roman cross. But this

is the way to see, this is the way of life. All

right, think about this with me. I heard this

from a friend I used to RUF with. Imagine I just

hit your car and totaled it. Ignore the whole

insurance thing that hopefully you have, or I

have. But there are only two options, right?

Two options to repair are the wrong. I can buy

you a car. Cost me a lot. Or you can forgive

me. Why can't God just forgive? Why can't God

just teach and give people a good life? Just

forgive me for totaling your car. But you know...

that you can't actually just do that. If you

did that, it would cost you. I mean, literally,

it would cost you buying a new one yourself,

cost you your time and your energy. It would

probably actually mean costing the anger that

you felt that you had to eat yourself kind of

at me, that I'm gonna forgive you. I'm gonna

take a lot of deep breaths and not want to punch

you in the face. Or think about it like this

because this works in all of our relationships,

too All of our human relationships and our divine

relationship Someone hurts me their words their

actions With their omissions and comissions with

things they do and don't do that they should

do for me. I Can hurt them back, right? I can

pull out their hair Gouge out their eyes. I can

say mean things behind them, behind their back.

I can mean, say mean things to them in front

of their back, right? I can hurt them. They hurt

me. Or I can forgive them. But don't think that

forgiveness doesn't mean dying. Forgiveness always

means dying. In order to forgive, I must absorb

the pain that they caused. Which is why true

forgiveness and true repentance has to deal with

the actual pain. Somebody's got to deal with

it. I mean, in order to forgive, I would have

to turn away from my desire for revenge. I have

to let that die. Put to death bitterness, anger,

malice. My right to be right and my right for

you to teach or treat me like that All of that

would have to die if I were to truly offer forgiveness

There's an absurdity forgiveness some of you

know Walter Wangren's book as for me in my house

Some of you know that because in premarital counseling,

I've given it to you He says only the one who

is wronged can make things right In order to

make things right, in order to forgive, death

has to happen. The way of the world. You know

that in order to forgive somebody who's really

hurt you, truly hurt you, it is a suffering that

you have to bear. And the forgiving one is the

one that has to bear it. It is always a death.

Always a death. And what Jesus is saying is that

you don't see this, that in order to gain your

life, you must lose it. In order for resurrection

to happen, there must be a cross. In order for

forgiveness to take place in your own relationships

and in my relationship with you, somebody must

die. He says, in order to see me clearly, you

have to see that I'm going there and you can

follow. See we're interested in Jesus as a teacher

and Jesus the political baptizer Jesus and all

the rest we want from life Because we want life

he says if you want life follow me to death Find

there your own forgiveness And find there the

only power for life to coming to you because

you're gonna have to die in your own life for

it to actually flourish bear fruit in the world

Let me try to get back to music and then I'll

close, okay? What's so powerful about music?

It gives us a voice for what we're going through

so often, right? I think one of the things that's

most powerful, and this is what Jake and Collier

says, is that in some ways music doesn't come

to life in just the major chords, the augmented

chords that make you go, ah. The wonder of music

is that it makes you go, ah, and also makes you

go, ah. It's dealing with all of life, right?

And this is what Jesus is inviting you to, to

see him. He is the great teacher. He has tons

to say about our social life together. Tons.

He is the divinely given prophet. That's true.

He is the ultimate messiah who has loads to say

about his kingdom in the world. But if all you

do is keep Him up here in the augmented fifths,

right? Do not see His beauty. To see Jesus, to

hear Him well, see Him clearly, you have to go

to the minor, have to go to the cross. And it

is there that we see what we sing about, love

poured out to the life of the world. Amen. Lord,

thank you for this text. Thank you for your great

grace to us. Thank you that you are slow to anger,

that you are willing to go with the process,

that you know that we often treat you in one

of these different kind of categories, that you're

slowly rubbing our eyes, that we can see you.

Lord, do that more and more in us, please. Give

us open ears like you did the other man. Give

us open eyes like you did here in this passage.

The soft hearts and then give us eager feet that

we would walk the way that leads to life, the

way of the cross, and follow you. Amen. Thank

you for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.

We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship

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