Taking up your cross and Mark viii

This Thursday our Home Fellowship will go over the first half (verses 1-23) of chapter vii, and next Thursday we'll cover the second. The following week (unless the Lord chooses to turn us a different direction that week; it happens) we will start into chapter viii. I will be facilitating the discussions in that chapter, so I thought I would delve into a particular portion of the chapter here, to develop some thoughts and ideas.

As a whole, chapter viii can be looked at in five parts, some larger, some smaller. In 1-10, Mark brings up the feeding of the 4,000. In 11-13, there's a condemnation of the Pharisees for seeking a sign. 14-21 discusses a teaching of Christ on leaven and the lack of understanding the His disciples, who have already been called apostles (οι αποστολοι, hoi apostoloi), had with respect to what Christ was doing and Who He was. In 22-26 there's another healing by Jesus, of a blind man in this case, and yet again in a different way than He healed other people. We then reach verses 27-38.

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 (Συ ει ο Χριστος)." And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things (πολλα παθειν) and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Ει τις θελει οπισω μου ακολυθειν, απαρνησασθω εαυτον και αρατω τον σταυρον αυτου και ακολουθειτω μοι). For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it (και του ευαγγελιου). For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? 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.

While the two paragraphs break the section into different parts, this as a whole is an awesome section of Mark's Gospel. After asking His disciples who they think He is, He teaches them for the first time about the suffering He will endure, as well the suffering they must accept for His sake. "The Christ" told the people if someone wants to follow (or "come after") Him, first that person must deny himself (απαρνησασθω εαυτον, aparnesastho heaton), then take up his cross (αρατω τον σταυρον αυτου, arato ton stauron autou) and follow Him.

To deny yourself is to say "no" to yourself; to refuse or utterly reject yourself. Following Christ is not about what you want or desire, or even the preservation of your own life. Remember that Christ is saying this in response to Peter's attempt to rebuke the Lord for talk of His suffering and death. Peter tried to pull the Lord away from His cross, His destiny, and deny God. On the contrary, we must deny ourselves. The Christian life is not about conquering or gain, but about utterly rejecting yourself for the sake of Christ.

The cross is, in my opinion, one of the ideas in the Gospels so often misinterpreted and misapplied in today's American Church. Let me be very clear: the cross is no mere burden or struggle. When Christ said, "take up your cross," he by no stretch of the imagination meant, "carry your burdens" or "be vigilant in your struggles." The cross is not your financial lows, car accident, five children, 9-5 job you can't stand, wheelchair, or hearing aids. The cross was known by the disciples and the crowd as a way of execution. They knew to be crucified was to be humiliated (likely naked) and in sheer pain (from the nails and broken bones) while suspended for days until you asphyxiated. The cross signified suffering and death. Jesus had just talked about His own suffering and death. The cross for His followers stems from the denial of the self. That denial results in true affliction and suffering, and possibly even in death. That cross we must agree to carry is that affliction and suffering. And if you have denied yourself, you will not lay that cross down. This is not the nicey-dicey Christian persecution most Americans will suffer, e.g. your boss tells you take take the Bible off your desk, or to change the radio station from that Christian talk or music.

Please do not be misled by the addition of "daily" in Luke ix.23. "Take up," αρατω, is in the aorist tense, meaning an action in the past. He is not saying, "Take up your cross one day, then lay it down at the end. The next day, take it up again." You take up your cross, and each day you carry it. You can never lay down the cross as a follower of Christ. You persevere and endure in your afflictions and suffering, even if that cross takes you to Heaven.

The confessors and martyrs of the early centuries of the Church, the Church of the persecuted, knew all too well what these words of Christ meant. They suffered immense persecution for denying themselves and calling themselves followers or disciples of Christ. Many were killed; them we call martyrs. Many others were allowed to live; they are known as confessors. These confessors were left most of the time with a personal stigmata, whether it was an eye having been gouged out or a severed limb, etc. They took up their cross proudly, but not for themselves. They did so for their Master, as Peter and the Apostles did in Acts v.41.

After, Jesus said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." Those who save their lives, who do not deny themselves, who hold on to what they have and who they follow now, will lose their life. Their life will not be saved. But those who deny themselves, who give up their lives for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, will save their lives. Here again the Church of the martyrs exemplified and amplified the words of Christ. They rejected themselves for Christ and the Gospel, and though their physical life was taken, their true lives were saved. Their crosses took them to heaven.