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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Listen again. Yea, Lord, t’was thy rich bounty gave my body, soul, and all I have in this poor life of labor. Lord, grant that I in every place may glorify thy lavish grace and help and serve my neighbor. Let no false doctrine me beguile. Let Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow Thee. Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, my God and Lord, in death Thy comfort still afford.
We’re marching in a very, very beautiful procession. A procession made up of fellow believers. Not just here among us, but also those around the world. And this beautiful procession that is marching is following the Lord of the Church, Christ crucified and risen. And rather than carrying a great symbol of triumph or victory, we’re seen by the world and by ourselves as rather carrying our cross in this long procession of which we are a part.
The procession that we are a part of is not a glorified procession. It is humble, it looks weak and unmajestic, and it does not attract people by anything other than the gospel of forgiveness. There is another procession here in this world that follows a different leader that is much more glory-filled, that is much more attractive, beautiful in its outer appearance, but rotting on the inside. Rather than leading to life, as our procession does, it leads to death and destruction.
Jesus asks the disciples a very important question that he’s really asking you and me. He wants us to make a very, very important observation of these two processions. So he asks the first obvious question, Who do the world say that I am? Who do they say that I am? And the world can make Jesus out to be a great guy. And they would even say, we follow Jesus, sort of. So they told Jesus, John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets, just as the world looks at Jesus and says, well, he’s an important religious figure. He has merit and worth in so much that he is a moral individual. He brings an ethic to the world.
So then Jesus asks the next pointed question. That’s how the world views Jesus. That’s the procession that is glory-filled. That’s the procession that leads to damnation and death. He wants the disciples, primarily these apostles, to see that procession for what it is, because the next question leads to something different. When he asks them the next question, who do you say that I am? Now he’s saying, which procession of which are you a part? Whom do you follow? They’ve already given the definition of the other procession. There is only one other option. The difficulty is, by their senses and by their reason and sight, it’s a quantum leap of reason to even believe that. In other words, it cannot be grasped by reason. It can only be grasped by faith.
When faith grasps such a truth, it has to herald against reason and tell it to go to hell because reason does not grasp this procession of which we are a part. Peter makes the good confession, the confession of faith that has been on the lips of all believers in this procession. You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. We know from Matthew’s Gospel, the Son of the living God, Peter answered as well.
Here are your two processions. Well, now, the interesting aspect of that is Jesus affirms what Peter says. You’re right. You’re right. Matthew, in fact, says, this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. This is a faith aspect. This acknowledgment of whose procession you are in and who are you following. Having made that good confession of faith, Peter could say, yes, I answered wisely. I did it. Now comes the faith part. That is faith, without a doubt. Faith.
But faith is never left idle. For then it shrivels up and withers and atrophies. Faith that has been confessed now is stretched, pulled, and purified. So in Mark’s text, as soon as he makes this great confession of faith, and the apostles are going, okay, this is the procession that we’re in. Because we’re either going to follow a made-up and make-believed Savior for made-up and make-believed sins, or we’re going to follow a real Savior for real sins.
Having said the real confession for the real Savior for real sins, does Jesus then all of a sudden clarify this confession of faith? It says very clearly, “…and He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things.” Necessary for Him to suffer many things. Necessary for him to be rejected, and not just rejected by the world, but rejected by those who claim religiosity and spirituality—the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. It is necessary that this Savior, in whose procession we are a part and the one whom we are following, must be killed. It’s necessary.
And then the great and glorious good news, it is necessary that this Savior, in whose train we follow, rise again. That we will rise again. So now backing up, Peter makes this great confession of faith as to who Jesus is, marking him completely different than the world’s view of Jesus. Just like we have a different word understanding of who Jesus is compared to the world. Now it’s clarified that this Jesus, this Savior, this God, in whose procession we are a part and whom we follow, is a suffering and rejected and dying Savior who will rise again.
Now Peter doesn’t like that idea any more than you and I like the idea. Oh, now we’re very quick to say, oh, we love the idea of Jesus dying for me. That’s what the Christian faith is all about—Jesus dying for us. Yes. Yes. But following in this procession means that the Lord, in whose name he has come and whose death marks us as his children, we’ve been joined to him in his baptism. If he has suffered, then we who have been joined to him will suffer in this procession. If he, who is God of all things, has been rejected by the religious establishment, then we who have been joined to him in our baptism will be rejected.
And if he, who is the Lord of life, had to be crucified in a bloody sacrifice, we too will die. Maybe even die for our faith, but we too will die, living in this and following in this procession of which we are a part. But we will rise again too, just as he, the Lord of life, rose again. Now Peter didn’t like this because it says very clearly, he says this plainly. He doesn’t metaphor it to death. He doesn’t symbolize this to death. He makes it very plainly, this is what it is all about to be Messiah.
Peter takes him aside and begins to rebuke him, as if he says, Lord, come on now. You’re over-dramatizing it. It’s not going to get that bad that you have to be rejected. It’s all a matter of how you talk to these people. If you talk to them in the right way, they won’t reject you. It’s all a matter of how you present yourself, Lord. Come on. You know that as well as I. If you put your foot out there and you put it in your mouth, it’s going to look bad. If you say it the right way, package it in the right manner, they’re not going to turn their back on you. Come on, Lord. Really? Is this how bad it’s going to get?
See, those good intentions of Peter, thinking that it didn’t need to happen, is what the road to hell is paved with—good intentions. Good intentions. We have a lot of good intentions in this world. If we do things a certain way, then it won’t be rejected. If we soft-pedal it, then they won’t turn their back on us. If we do it in this manner, it’ll be more appealing and appease their soft nature, as if we’re walking on eggshells and rice paper. That’s man’s good intentions. That’s the other procession.
See, the other procession can still say, oh yes, Jesus is a very important figure in time and history. Yes, this Jesus is a very important person for those who hold to the Christian faith, but then he’s also important to those who hold to the Islamic faith. And he’s also used as a great example in other religions. That’s how the world views this Jesus. He’s a symbolic savior for symbolic sin. But he’s not a bloody sacrifice for bloody and ugly sin. And being joined to him implies our own suffering because of Christ.
You and I know we don’t like to suffer. We don’t like the conflict that standing up for God brings. We don’t like the uncomfortability of being the odd man or odd woman out in a conversation with friends and family members even. In fact, that’s kind of the hardest one of all, isn’t it? Family members. That probably strikes to the core of our person when family members look at us and say, we’re too much this or we’re too little that. That probably hurts the most.
He rebukes Peter and says, get behind me, Satan, because this is not of God. These are good intentions of man that make sense to reason and intellect, but not to faith. It is the procession that leads to hell and death. Now, one could argue, if you look at the date of when this is spoken to the disciples, it’s nearly three years—not quite, but two and a half years—prior to Jesus’ rejection, death, crucifixion, and all that goes along with it.
Was Jesus kind of like overdoing it prior to that horrible moment? No. He was saying it for the sake of the very one who confessed Him clearly, and then rejected him clearly as well—Peter. Peter confessed him rightly, didn’t he? And then Peter biffed it and confessed him wrongly when he took him aside and rebuked him. Peter’s also the one who, yes, heard that rooster crow and knew that he had denied him again.
But there is a comfort when you think about it. You can’t deny someone you don’t know. You cannot deny someone whom you don’t know. You can only deny one whom you do know. This procession does not know Jesus. In their denial, they do not even think in terms of denying Him because they don’t believe in Him. This text is for you and me who do deny Him, who shrug off the cross of our own lives, who choose different crosses for ourselves because we like the way it feels upon our back rather than that cross that God lays upon our back.
The cross of which he lays upon our back is not suffering in general. Every human being, whether they are a part of this procession that leads to death or this procession that leads to heaven, suffer in this world because they’re sinners in a sinful world. The cross of which Jesus speaks is suffering for the sake of being in this procession, of being connected to him—suffering for being the one who eats and drinks his flesh and blood, other than anything else in this world that brings eternal life. This is why we suffer, for the sake of our faith, which makes us different and, which does exclude us from the vast majority of this world. That’s of which he speaks, the cross.
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Notice to whom he addresses this. It does not say he addressed merely everybody. He called the crowd with his disciples. He’s ultimately calling those who are believers to take up the cross and follow me. An unbeliever can’t take up the cross yet, can they? No. This is for people like you and me. People who have been joined to Christ. People who have confessed Christ. People who are in this procession—but people who are in this procession that kind of grow weary or forget why we’re so markedly different and, in fact, repulsive to the world.
In the upper left-hand corner of the window, it may be too bright to see, you’ll see Christ crucified, John on the right and Mary on the left. At the base of the cross, you’ll see a yellow piece of glass. Whether you can make it out or not from the distance, it is a skull and crossbones. The reason that a skull and crossbones is symbolically placed at the base of the cross is because, well, that’s because that’s what is ugly about us. We’re death, and it’s not a symbolic death, it’s a real death. And it’s sin-filled, and it’s not a symbolic sin. It’s a real sin that you and I wrestle with regularly.
And being joined to Christ means we’re joined to the one who gave a bloody sacrifice for such ugly, repulsive sin. And if him on the cross is bloody and ugly and repulsive to the world, who says that’s way over-dramatizing it, that’s going over the top, it’s not necessary, it’s because they don’t want to deal with the reality of their own sin either. You and I, because we’re his children, deal with it regularly. Hence why walking in this procession, which is beautiful in the eyes of believers, is so repulsive to the eyes of the world.
Carrying our cross and following Him means we are repulsive to the world. We are not attractive. Boy, that seems really, really negativistic. No, it’s keeping us where we’re the most benefit. Because at the selfsame time, for those who are believers, this procession wafts with beautiful perfume, frankincense and myrrh. This procession is beautiful in that we see the glorified Christ with those glory-filled scars upon His hand and side that’s leading us.
The shepherd goes before the flock, His sheep. We know that as He bore the cross willingly and was resurrected, we who bear the cross sometimes unwillingly shall also be resurrected as well. Now Jesus does make a very, very strong statement at the end. Whoever is ashamed of me and 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.
All of us have felt shame. All of us have been struck by the cock crowing in our ears as we remember the words such as these spoken to us, and our heart is pricked. But the beautiful thing is, just as the great poster child of denial, Peter, received the call back from the Savior to come and be his disciple again, so are you being called back even today. Get back in line, pick up the cross, and follow him, the procession that leads to eternal life. Forsaking the world and the procession that’s so glory-filled and so elaborately boisterous.
Step in line in the quiet procession that brings resurrection at the end. Because there are only two processions in this world. Follow on, brothers and sisters. Follow on. Let at last thine angels come and bear us home to Abraham’s bosom. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding be it your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
