Wandering In the Wild: The Way of the Cross

Mark 8:31-38

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.”

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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

There’s a scene in “West Wing,” a show in which I’ve probably referenced ad nauseam in sermons in my 10 years here at Bethlehem, but today since I’m able to, I want to play the clip for you to get things started today. In this episode President Bartlett is wrestling with a pardon for someone who is one death row. At the close of the day, he invites his childhood priest to the oval office. 

First off, this is Karl Malden’s last recorded scene before he died, the actor who plays the priest, and it’s fabulous. The whole episode is great and I’d encourage you to watch if you haven’t seen it before. But I play it for you today because of a line that Martin Sheen’s character delivers:  

“It’s helpful in those situations not to think of yourself as the man but as the office.”

Intellectually, I get that. When you are arguably the most powerful person in the world, creating some separation from you and the office you hold is appealing. When the press or the public or your fellow politicians are second-, third-, and fourth-guessing your every decision, it might be nice to be able to say, well, it’s not me, they’re mad at the office.

And I know pastors who take a similar approach. They want their congregants to refer to them as pastor so-and-so. It helps to remind them of the office, the responsibility and the call they have.

Again, I understand the approach. But that’s never been me.  

I have a title that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I have a title that has been shaped and influenced by the way hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have held the pastoral office.  

When people hear the word pastor or priest or clergy all kinds of images come to mind of what that person is and what they’re supposed to be, for good or for ill.  

I know that, because of my job, because of my title, people have all kinds of expectations of me. I know that sometimes I’ll surpass them, but more often than not I’ll disappoint. It’s one of the casualties of being a deeply flawed human being. It’s one of the reasons quite frankly that I’m happy to be referred to as Ben.  

I don’t need the title.

Now look I recognize that I’m about to embark into some pretty treacherous homiletical waters right now. I am risking breaking one of the cardinal rules of preaching. So here is my disclaimer. I’m not comparing myself to Jesus. At all. Full stop.

But, I began with this conversation around titles and expectations, because I think that’s what is at play here in today’s gospel reading from Mark.  

For a long time I’ve just kind of felt like Jesus is overreacting.  You know? Like Peter pulls him aside, and says, listen, Jesus umm… aren’t you taking this death and suffering thing a little too far. This isn’t how the whole Messiah thing is supposed to work.  And all of sudden Jesus hauls off and yells at Peter in front of everyone and calls Peter Satan. It’s not the best look for Jesus.

But. Jesus is not Peter’s messiah. I mean Jesus is Peter’s messiah but he’s not only Peter’s messiah. Jesus is showing up as God’s chosen one in a way that is bigger and more expansive and complicated than Peter could possibly imagine. Peter’s framework is incomplete. He thinks he knows who Jesus is supposed to be and when Jesus shows up in a way that’s surprising and frightening and unsettling for Peter, he pulls Jesus aside and says look you’re doing it wrong.

And that’s what the church does all the time. It’s what we do all the time. We think we know what it means for Jesus to be the savior of the world. We think we know who Jesus is and what his mission means and what the scope and limits of is redeeming work are.  

And we’re quick to pump the brakes when we get nervous or surprised or unsettled by where Jesus is going and where he’s calling us to follow. 

You can’t really mean those people, that conversation, that kind of activity. Your salvation looks like that, you can’t be serious?

And when we do that, Jesus looks at us with the same eyes he turned toward Peter. Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.

Beloved of God. If we believe that Jesus is still at work in this world, if we believe in the living God, if we trust and hope that the Spirit is still moving in this world then we can expect God to defy our expectations, we can take God at God’s word when God told Moses I will be who I will be. We will continue to be surprised, to be uncomfortable, to have our expectations and our definitions challenged and pushed.  

We can see, and trust, and believe that there are no lengths, no height, no depths to which God will not go to bring healing and wholeness and life to this world. God even goes to death, to the cross to accomplish God’s purposes. We shouldn’t be surprised by anything that God does, by anyone whom God calls us to love, but anything we’re called to set aside.

But we will be. And when we are we need to pay attention and suspect that God might be in the midst of it all. May you pick up a holy curiosity, a suspension of disbelief, a radical recklessness that is willing to risk what you think you know for the sake of this world that is becoming new. In Jesus Name. Amen.