Again & Again: We are Called to Listen
Scripture: Mark 8:31-33
Quote: Faith is not about saving yourself. Jesus says that by trying to save yourself you will end up destroying yourself. Faith is about trying to show people the love of Christ because of how amazing it is to set aside myself for the good of another person.
Ever noticed children, not getting along, not listening? Asserting what they want and not listen to what you the adult or the parent is saying…?
Sometimes we say children acting like this need an attitude adjustment. That is, they need stop thinking only about what they want and listen to what you are saying.
Listen to this passage from Mark 8:31-33
Then he 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.”
What the Problem? Peter’s mind.
How do we know this is the problem?
Greek word for mind found in this passage: phroneo – φρονέω – to think, regard, hold an opinion; to set one’s mind on; to have a (certain) attitude
Peter had an attitude problem!
He had an opinion, a thought that was at issue. It was focused on the human – most likely meaning himself. He set it on something other than what Jesus was saying! Likely he was worried about his own interest if Jesus perished. Because of what he wanted, he was not listening to Jesus, but rather insisting on his own thought, his own way!
Jesus speaks. Peter refuses to hear what he says. Peter Insists on his own way. And then, Jesus rebukes him with these words:
“Get behind me, Satan” (Mark 8:33).
Then look what Jesus does – this is important!
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.
Too many of us Christians doing little more with our faith than trying to save our life!
But Jesus calls you to lose your life for the sake of the gospel!
What does that mean…?
It means you’ve got a ministry to do!
We have to stop being concerned only with a safe, comfortable life. And be willing to lose our life for the sake of God’s kingdom!
That seems to be Peter’s problem…and it is ours as well. We have our own ideas that we put before God. I am convinced that many of us mistake the will of God for our own thoughts. We justify what we want saying that its God’s call. I’ve said this before, but allow me to tease us all again: wouldn’t it be convenient for God to call me to ministry in Hawaii?
Ever notice how convenient it is that when there is a struggle at work or home or church, God somehow calls people to a new place? Really? God doesn’t want you to see the trouble through? God wants you to just walk away?
I struggle with this too! I fear I have done it in my life as well. For some of my most clear decisions, I still ask these though questions. And honestly if I didn’t that would probably be an indication that I just did what I wanted and not what I needed to do.
But in this story, Jesus calls us to lose our lives and by doing so we will gain life.
Lose your life for more life, for the sake of good news, of being good news, of co-laboring with God to usher in good news…
Who at work is going through a tough time and could use you to listen? To really hear shat’s going on in their life? And then just offer a few words of simple but meaningful prayer?
Who is at the grocery store, the restaurant you love, the gas station you frequent, the coffee shop -they smile at you, but you have no idea the pain behind that smile?
Which friend do you think you know so well, you think you have them pegged, that you know exactly what they are thinking and feeling, what they will say next – but in reality they are thinking silently to themselves: “She has no idea what’s really going on…”
What person on the corner, at the intersection, in the parking lot – may be veteran, a former member of the peace corps, a retired pastor, a disenfranchised deacon – who has come on hard times because of debt or mental illness or because they gave their life away to such extent that they are now on the street waiting to receive the life God has promised – and God is waiting for you to be the instrument of peace, the conduit of life, the arm of liberation?
It’s time to worry about the kingdom instead of our bank accounts. Time to consider our call instead of our comfort! Time to think about things above instead of things below! Time to ponder peace instead of power. It’s time to lose your life for the sake of the gospel.
Let’s talk more about this phrase: Lose your life… what exactly does this mean?
Again back to some Greek: the word for life: Psuche – ψυχή – life, soul, heart, mind – not the flesh and blood part, but the immaterial part of us – our self – lose our self
What Jesus is saying is like the prayer:
“God, more of you and less of me”
Last Greek word for today, the word for loss: apollumi – ἀπόλλυμι – destroy, kill, die, perish – lose – not because it is taken from us, that is not the point here
The point is that by trying to save yourself you will end up destroying yourself.
Ever seen one of those movies or television shows where someone gets a glimpse of the future and then tries to work so hard to prevent that future from happening, but in trying to prevent that future they actually end up causing it to happen. I think that’s the idea here.
If your concern for faith is to save yourself, to have some hell insurance, then you will end up losing yourself, destroying yourself.
Faith is not about saving yourself. All those folks who pass out tracks about do you know where you’ll go when you die – they are appealing to your desire to save yourself. And Jesus rebukes that in this passage. He says stop trying to save yourself. Lose yourself because in losing yourself you will save yourself.
We should be trying to show people the love of Christ because of how amazing it is to set aside myself for the good of another person.
Most of you know what I am talking about. You have experienced the spiritual high of being part of God’s good news to someone who needed some good news.
Take, for example, the meals we share at Cottondale – that is why Christianity is so beautiful and attractive – because it brings together people who would otherwise never come together. Because through one another God’s love is extended and shared. Everyone leaves having been built up – some physically with food, all spiritually with prayer and mutual support.
But let me push a little further: It is interesting to me how some are willing to do this in some areas of their life, but not all.
We are not only called to be good news individually… Jesus puts no caveat on losing your life:
- Only lose it when you are with a church group.
- Only lose it when that person in need is a family or friend.
- Only lose it when your working with a non-profit.
Jesus says none of that.
We are called to lose our life everywhere – with our friends and our enemies! That’s right! With the spouse we love and the ex-spouse we cannot stand! With the customer that thanks us every time and the one who is rude and ungrateful. We are called to lose our life in the church arena and in the political arena – now there’s one we don’t want to think about! Even when dealing with or working within government, we are called to lose our lives for the sake of divine good news.
People want to make helping others an argument about doing it privately or publically, as if the welfare of others should be relegated to one sphere or the other. It’s both folks! No entity, no group of people, no person gets a pass on being good news, of working for the common good, of the welfare of God’s children. So I won’t take one side or the other – it’s both-and (like so many things in the world that we argue about!)
Because here is the way it works…. no matter where we are losing our lives, no matter who we are losing it with, no matter what we are giving up, no matter what idea or opinion we are setting aside – when we actually following Jesus instructions, one thing becomes clear – what we see before us is Christ alone! We see not the sacrifice or the person in need, we see not that our opinion was right or wrong, we see not an argument over who should rightly do this or that part of the work…
We see Christ served before us, Christ fed and clothed before us, Christ honored before us, Christ lifted before us, Christ glorified right before us!
Listen…that’s what the story says, it ends this way…
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
When Peter finally followed Jesus and saw Jesus for who he truly was right before his eyes, things changed. Peter set aside his own way and began to serve. He saw others Elijah and Moses along with Jesus. And he served them – made them dwelling places. I don’t know about you but that sounds an awful lot like saying that whatever the need was, Peter attended to it – made them a place they could dwell within! Didn’t just band-aid a situation, but made a home. Really met a need – not in one way, but through every possible way.
And at the end of the day….what did Peter and the others see? – he the disciples saw was Christ alone! As he was serving these folks whom he recognized at first as Elijah and Moses, he turned around and saw only Jesus. Exactly the way it should be, whomever we serve, whether through church or state, whether through Kiwanis or social services, whether through week of compassion offering or a Covid vaccine clinic, whether through a weekly donation or delivering a meal to our brothers and sisters at cottondale – if we are losing our life, we look up and see before us Christ – sometimes in a distressing disguise, sometimes in beauty and glory – but always Christ before us. For as we serve the least of these, we serve Christ losing our life for the sake of divine good news and a the end of the day gaining life evermore.
Yes, we are called to listen. And when we listen to Jesus we hear that we are called to lose our life.
Amen.