“Taking Up the Cross”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
The Lord's Day, March 25, 2007
Mark 8:27-38

An Up Front Admission
      These words from the Gospel of Mark have no direct application to you. An amazing admission for a preacher at the outset of the message! But, the subject matter here really doesn't lend itself to a compact, practical take home application. In particular, I have wrestled with these tough words from Jesus for a long time: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." What are we to make of this hard saying?

The Context
      Ironically, these tough words come on the heels of a moment of triumph for the disciples, most especially Peter. Up to this point, Jesus has been teaching throughout the region of Galilee, and they are now about to turn south and head to Jerusalem for the final time. The time had come for Jesus to test his disciple's Kingdom I.Q. The moment is one of triumph: "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?' And they told him, 'John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.' And he asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered him, 'You are the Christ.'" A moment of brilliant insight. The man could not have been more theologically correct. Peter nailed it!
      But then Jesus douses the moment of triumph with a tone of suffering, telling the disciples that he must now go on to Jerusalem and "suffer many things" and be "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed," but, "after three days," he would "rise again."
      This was much too much for Peter: This ruined the plans. Now is the time when we are going to bring the Kingdom in with triumph! This is the good plan. Now; why on earth are you talking like a crazy man?
      Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to reason with Jesus; but Jesus responds firmly: "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." It is here that Jesus calls to the crowds to gather around him in a move that turns out to be significant for you and I reading this today. What Jesus is about to say is not just for a privileged, select few; but finds its reality in every man, woman and child that names the name of Christ: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it....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."

What Does Taking Up The Cross Mean?
      Now, here's my problem: How are we to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus? What does that look like? There are of course, many different answers to that question in our 21st century American context.
      One of the most influential, respected teachers during my seminary days, Richard Pratt, jolted us all of us future ministers, missionaries and teachers one day in class. He said, "Do you guys realize that in the forty years of the existence of this seminary, we don't have one graduate who has lost his life because of his service of Christ?" In another words, Reformed Theological Seminary has no martyrs to this point in its history. No RTS grad has ever lost his or her life because they refused to renounce Jesus Christ at the point of a gun or knife or spear. No RTS grad has gone into hostile territory and paid the ultimate price.
      I was thinking of those words just before I went to Guatemala: One week in a third world country; pervasive squalor; unable to flush toilet paper down the toilet; bad drinking water; no television; no Dr. Pepper. Okay Richard, you're going to have your first martyr, Cameron Smith!
      As superficial as this sounds, this is the kind of stuff that comes up as Sunday School classes and small group Bible Studies around America discuss denying yourself and taking up the cross as we follow Jesus. It becomes a discussion of personal comfort denied. "Well, my car broke down on the way to work today; but I'll get through it, it's all for Jesus."
      If you do a quick web search through the largest churches here in the United States, and take a look at the sermons that are preached from those pulpits, you'll find that they are usually focused solely on our wants and needs. Honestly, I'm not dissing this type of sermon - this is just our context --our moment, if you will -- here in America. Praise God that these are the most needful things that we, as Christians here in this country, need to hear!
      When I was teaching though Mark a number of years back, as I came to this section, I was blessed to have a missionary from eastern Africa in my class. I was wrestling with the meaning of this passage, and I finally said that we have absolutely no concept of what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
      The class got mad at me. How could I be so calloused. Don't I know how much pain we bear sometimes. But, as I looked over at the missionary from Africa, he was shaking his head in agreement with everything I said. In fact, he said that every time he heard a sermon on the subject here in the states, he had to tune out. You see, he knows first hand what it's like to have to bear the cross.
      To deny yourself and bear the cross literally means to walk to you own death, willingly. It means joining Jesus as he makes his way to the place where he will be crucified. We are to be united with him in his suffering.
      Personal discomfort; illness and failures don't usually qualify one for taking up the cross, though I certainly believe that a case might be made for it on the basis of our share in the fallen-ness of the world. However, in the present context, Jesus has something entirely different in mind. He said, "whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." And "whoever is ashamed of me and of my words….of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in" glory."
      This is pretty specific. Thank heavens this is not our reality. Perhaps we might be tempted to say that this is irrelevant to us. For Marks's original hearers, this was a day to day painful, frightening reality. They were being persecuted by the Romans; thrown to the lion's and the shadow of death from the cross was their reality.
      That was then, but this is now. Or, is it?

The Present Reality of Taking Up The Cross in the World Today
[The following stories come from two web sites that can be linked to from our "Links of Interest" page: The Voice of the Martyrs and Compass Direct.]

On December 22, 2006, Pastor Wang Weiliang and seven other church leaders were sentenced from one year to three and one-half years in prison by the People's Court of Xiaoshan District, China….In prison, the men are forced to make clothing and shoes for export and prohibited from praying openly or reading the Bible. These leaders were arrested after [government] officers bulldozed their church building.

An Uzbek [Uzbekistan] criminal court has sentenced Christian pastor Dmitry Shestakov to four years in a prison colony for alleged "illegal" religious activities.

[In Nigeria,] Muslim students twice have set fire to a [Christian] high school chapel here since it was rebuilt last August…. Previous to [the August] arson attempt, two letters were dropped into the chapel warning Christian students and staff members of an impending attack unless they left the school. The letter included derogatory comments about Jesus.

In New Delhi, the governor of one of the provinces approved an "anti-conversion" bill last week. India now has seven states with legislation banning unregistered or unethical religious conversions - [As a result, the Hindu majority is] arbitrarily invoking [the legislation] to quash Christian growth.

Responding to God's Blessings
      These are incidents within the last thirty days. Our brothers and sister all over the world are denying themselves and taking up their cross to follow Jesus.
      We are not there. These atrocities are foreign to us. Perhaps we could make a case for someone who is made fun of because he or she is a Jesus Freak? Perhaps your boss at work doesn't like Christians and he makes your life miserable? I suppose you could say that's a form of taking up your cross; but, that's not going to lead to your death!
      However, there is a point of contact with our suffering brothers and sisters to be found here: In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."
      These are powerful words. These are words say that we are all members of the one body of Christ. Their pain is our pain. I remember well the emotion of a Chinese pastor speaking at a missions conference back in the early 80's. His name was Eddie Wang. It was uncomfortable having to listening to his horror stories of the persecution he endured for his faith. He would end each example with 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one member suffers, all suffer together…." And then he would weep uncontrollably for a few seconds, then compose himself to move on, only to cry again, over and over.
      This sermon has no direct application for you - Thanks to the graciousness of the Lord. But I do invite you to join me in my wrestling with this hard saying. I invite you to join me in praying for the suffering Church around the world. I invite you to join me in thanking God for the relative peace and security that we enjoy here in this country, and asking ourselves what we can and might do to respond to this graciousness on behalf of the suffering Church. May God find us faithful!

Amen.