February25 Worship

Music.

Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and

be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed, and after three days rise again.

He said all this quite openly, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said,

Get behind me, Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, If any want to become

my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their

life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it.

For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

Those who are ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation,

of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in glory of his Father with the holy angels.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Music.

You may be seated. Let us pray. Sit with us, Lord, as we hear Jesus teach his disciples and teach us.

Your steadfast love does not always look like what we are looking for,

but your love for us is sure and certain.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in

your sight. O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Suffering, rejection, death, raised on the third day.

In today's Gospel text, Jesus broke the news to His disciples as to what was

in store for Him as the Messiah.

In order to gain a better grasp of today's text, Next, I'm going to do a quick

summary of the preceding verses.

As Jesus was traveling to Caesarea Philippi, a village with quite a storied

history, for another day,

Jesus was walking with his disciples through the village that was full of idols

and images of false gods.

And he asked, Who do people say that I am? Several of the disciples responded,

John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets.

But Jesus took the conversation deeper.

But who do you say that I am? Peter jumped right in. You are the Messiah.

Peter said the correct words. And at first glance, we think that Peter and possibly

the disciples understood who the Son of Man was.

But Jesus knew better. Our text this morning starts as Jesus clearly told the

disciples that he would undergo great suffering, rejection, and that he would be killed.

But he didn't stop there. He also said that after three days, he would rise again. in.

But who could hear those last words Jesus said about being raised after being

gobsmacked by the words great suffering, rejection,

and death?

We know Peter's reaction.

Now he got it.

Peter understood what Jesus was saying, and he didn't like it,

nor did he want any part of that.

Peter was looking for a Messiah that would conquer the Roman Empire with power

and authority, not with sacrifice, suffering, and death.

Isaiah's prophecy of a suffering servant was not what Peter was expecting.

Peter rebuked Jesus. Yet the writer in Mark's gospel does not let us in on what Peter said.

But in turn, Jesus rebuked Peter and offered the disciples a very important teaching moment.

For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.

Jesus went on to tell the disciples and everyone within earshot what that meant

if they planned on following him.

Deny self. Take up your cross.

If you want to save your life, you must lose it.

At the time Jesus spoke these words, people understood what taking up one's cross actually meant.

Death on a cross was a form of execution used for criminals.

Their deaths were horrendous and humiliating.

Jesus used this image to describe the ultimate submission that would be necessary for his followers,

the effort it would require to journey with him every moment of each day,

to follow his will even when it would be difficult.

And often not make logical sense.

Lutheran theology is full of paradoxes. You know these.

Law and gospel, saint and sinner, Lord of all, servant of all,

kingdom of the world and kingdom of God, theology of glory, and theology of the cross.

Today's gospel lesson is one of the greatest paradoxes of the Christian faith

That in order to really live,

we have to die Before we can participate in the reign of Christ We must also

share his sufferings Old things,

old ways, old ideas must pass away Death must happen so that resurrection can occur her.

People in antiquity had ideas of what a Messiah would look like and do,

and it did not involve suffering and dying.

Yet I would submit to you that people today also have ideas about who who Jesus the Messiah is.

And sadly, their ideas do not look like the Jesus we find in the Bible.

Listen to this poem by Stuart Henderson, who will illustrate that premise for us.

It's titled, The Splintered Messiah.

I don't want a splintered Messiah in a sweat-stained, greasy gray robe. I want a new one.

I couldn't take this one to parties. People would say, who is your friend?

I'd give an embarrassed giggle and change the subject.

If I took him home, I'd have to bandage his hands. The neighbors would think he was a hooligan.

I don't want his cross in the hall. It doesn't go with the wallpaper.

Don't want him standing there like a sad ballet dancer with holes in his tights.

I want a different Messiah, Messiah, streamlined and inoffensive.

I want one from a catalog who's quiet as a monastery.

I want a package tour Messiah, not one who takes me to Golgotha.

I want a king of kings with blow waves in his hair.

I don't want the true Christ.

I want a false one.

Like Peter, we too may not have our minds set on divine ways, but on human ways.

Peter wanted a Messiah with strength and power, and so do we.

We often pray for quick and easy fixes.

We pray for cure instead of healing.

We want to see the light of Christ at every dark moment in our life,

rather than being comfortable in the darkness until the light breaks through.

We want Jesus to fit our image and our agenda, instead of us submitting to who

He really is and what He calls us to do.

For in God's eyes, strength looks quite different.

Cost of being a follower of Jesus, we'll be sacrificing our misguided ideas

and assumptions in order to accept Jesus and his mission,

and that is to love and to give life.

The struggle is real, discerning what is of God and what is of our own ego. go.

Just as Jesus will not leave us alone in our wildernesses as we heard last week,

neither will he abandon us as we struggle to see and to know him as he really is.

What are we to do but to turn our hearts and our minds toward the cross and

give God the time and space to work in our lives,

like tomorrow afternoon at 1215,

like Wednesday evening at 630.

The cross is the instrument of a shameful death that gives life.

The way of the the cross is true messiahship and to true discipleship.

Christ is the one who laid down his life, suffered, and died just like he said

he would so that we might live.

If we want to know Jesus' love, power, forgiveness, and saving grace.

We must also know Jesus' suffering, rejection, and death.

When we accept Jesus for who He is, then we can become who we are called to be.

A significant part of our Lenten pilgrimage may be creating enough space in

our lives to allow our hearts,

our minds, and our hands to release our false images,

our ideas, our judgments, and notions, the things that we hold on to that are not of God,

and to deny self and take up our crosses so that we follow the true Christ to

the cross on Good Friday and faithfully join in the celebration of the true

Christ on Easter morning.

Thanks be to God. Amen. Thank you.