Loving God, your word for us is often difficult, yet life-giving at the same time. May it be your Word of Life that we hear today, and may it sink deeply into our hearts and minds by the power of your Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

He stood there quietly as they slapped him in the face and pulled out the hair of his beard. He was perfectly at peace as they insulted him and spit on him and beat him. How was he able to do this? How could he accept such abuse and not feel disgraced at all? Isaiah tells us that it is because of his relationship with God (Isa. 50:4-9a). He knows that it is only God's opinion of him that really matters and that God will vindicate him when the time is right. His help and his strength come from God, and he knows that if God declares him acceptable and lovable, it doesn't matter what human beings declare about him.

Could this be what it means to deny yourself - to deny your ego? Could this be what it means to live truthfully and authentically - knowing that you are loved by God and saved by God and that God's opinion is the only one that matters in the end? Could this be what it means to have life, and the peace that passes understanding? Could this be what it means to be free?

My suspicion is that we don't usually think of it in that way. When we think about somebody being insulted and abused and not fighting back or getting upset, we tend to think "doormat" or maybe "wimp" or even "zombie." Yet, was Jesus any of these things, or was he instead the picture of perfect peace and trust? He was not dependent upon the opinion of others for his worth, and so it didn't matter if he impressed others or was insulted by them. He also did not allow the actions of others to determine how he was going to act.

We tend to operate quite a bit on automatic responses. You insult me, and I'll insult you back. You hit me, and I'll hit you. You like me, and I'll like you. You say good things about me, and I'll be happy. You criticize me, and I'll be upset and depressed. However, Jesus shows us a different way - the way where God's opinion is the only one that matters, and where how we think and feel and act comes out of our relationship with God, rather than out of whatever other people might do or say. This is the way where we are set free to love, and to follow Jesus, and to take up our cross, and to deny ourselves (Mk. 8:34).

There is no doubt that this passage that we have heard today from Mark is perhaps one of the most difficult ones for people to hear and to understand - especially the part where Jesus talks about what is needed in order to become his followers. Have we really understood what Jesus is getting at here?

When we think about denying ourselves, don't we tend to think about self-discipline and fasting and no enjoyment whatsoever and perhaps even becoming a doormat? Although there is, of course, a need for self-control, and it is named as one of the fruits of the Spirit, I'm not so sure that this is what Jesus is saying here. Rather, should we not look to Jesus' example to see what denying ourselves is really all about?

From what we are told about Jesus, he enjoyed some of the simple pleasures like sharing a meal together or spending time with children or celebrating a wedding or being anointed with perfume or visiting friends. Yet, he did not allow his ego or his pride to get in the way. If Jesus' ego were in charge, he would have been happy to have the people make him king. If Jesus' ego had been in charge, he would have been looking for others to like him and to praise him and to compliment him. If Jesus' ego had been in charge, he would have been devastated when his own family thought he was nuts or when people turned away and didn't want to follow him anymore.

Yet, Jesus had denied himself - had said "no" to his ego - and instead had said "yes" to God's mission for him and God's love and his identity as God's own dear Son. We are asked to do the same if we wish to follow Jesus: to say "no" to our ego and our pride and our feeling of superiority and instead to say "yes" to God's declaration about who we are and what we are worth. And God's declaration goes something like this: "I created you, I redeemed you, and I have made you holy. On your own, with your ego in charge, you will get yourself into all kinds of messes - that's the power of sin. Yet, my love is far more powerful, and my Son has saved you and shown you the way. You are worth the death of my Son, and you are set free through him to be your true self - the person whom I created you to be. So come, and believe, and follow."

As for taking up our cross, this also is different from what you might think. How often have you heard people sigh and say, "This must be my cross to bear." Usually they mean some condition or situation which is causing them to suffer and which they did not choose. However, "the cross Jesus invites his hearers to take up refers not to the burdens life imposes from without but rather to painful, redemptive action voluntarily undertaken for others" (Williamson, Mark, Interpretation Commentary, p. 154).

And so, if I talk about my faith or about what's happening at my church right now and somebody makes fun of me for it, that is taking up my cross. If I put myself out in order to help somebody who is in need or give away something valuable in order to help another, and somebody says, "You're crazy!", that is taking up my cross. If I leave behind a good paying job in order to take up a ministry that will share the love of Christ with others, that is taking up my cross. If I sell all that I have (or even most of what I have) and give it to the poor, that is taking up my cross.

When we take up our cross, we publicly expose ourselves to ridicule. In Jesus' day, that's what carrying a cross was all about. It proclaimed to people that you were guilty, and it was a chance for people to insult you and ridicule you as you carried your cross through the city. And so, if you're going to take up your cross, you can't live in fear of what other people are going to think. Rather, you will need to have denied yourself - to have set your ego aside - so that what God thinks is all that really matters. Otherwise, you will never take up your cross because you will be afraid - afraid of ridicule; afraid of what others might think; afraid of appearing "too religious"; afraid of not being good enough.

The truth is that most of us live our lives with fears like these because we are busy trying to protect ourselves rather than deny ourselves. We want to project a good image. We want to impress others. We want others to have a good opinion of us. We want to appear as if we have it all together. When we live with such fears, we are among the people who, because we want to save our lives, in fact will lose them (Mk. 8:35). We will lose them because we will have lost our true self, buried under a pile of fears and falsehoods, created for the sake of the real or imagined opinions of others.

And so, Jesus invites us today to allow the truth to make us free (Jn. 8:32). We are condemned, and we are sinners, yet because of our faith in Jesus Christ we are redeemed and we are saints. God loves us to pieces, and wants us to live as the people he created us to be. As human beings in this world, we will come up against ridicule or criticism or insults. Yet, we do not need to allow those things to rule our lives. Instead, we have been set free to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and to follow Jesus. For in the end, it is God's opinion of us that will matter. Amen.

Proper 19(B) Mark 8:27-38
September 17, 2006 Isaiah 50:4-9a
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

? 2006 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved