English

He is the Suffering Victor

Mark 8:27-33; 9:2-13

This is the first weekend of Lent – that season when Christians all over the world take time to focus on the journey Jesus took toward Jerusalem where he knowingly and intentionally offered up his life in our place on a cross. The journey Jesus took is sometimes called the Via Dolorosa, meaning the Road of Anguish. I know that most people think about the Via Dolorosa as being the ½ mile path Jesus took when he had to carry his own cross through Jerusalem to Golgotha.

But the Bible describes Jesus’ specific journey toward the cross as being a lot longer. In some ways, Jesus' journey to Golgotha began the day he was born in Bethlehem. Throughout his entire life, the shadow of a cross he must bear to offer forgiveness of sins to people like you and me constantly shadowed his mind and steps. Jesus knew he had come to die.

But, there is one time in Jesus’ life when he set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem. In doing so, he told his disciples plainly that he was going there to die. Mark describes Jesus’ journey as starting from a city called Caesarea Philippi in Mark 8:27 and ending with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Mark 11. During these coming weeks leading up to Easter at the Lake Avenue Church, we will be seeing what Mark wrote about Jesus’ strategic and intentional trip toward his crucifixion.

I want us to start today exactly where Mark started in 8:27-9:13. What this passage shows us is that this Jesus who said he had come to suffer and die is the same Jesus who had consistently demonstrated his authority everything in this world in the first 8 chapters of Mark. On one side, the suffering and death Jesus experienced was torturous. But please make note at the beginning of Lent 2013 that Jesus knew the cross was not his final destination. It was a necessary part of a great victory.

On this journey, Jesus will tell his disciples at least three times that he had come to die – but also three times that there he had a destination after the cross. He declared, “After three days, I will rise again.” Here is a point I do not want you to miss: Both hardship and victory, both suffering and triumph were essential parts of Jesus’ path. And, Jesus insists, the same will be true of us. For Jesus, there was no real victory without the suffering. There is no resurrection life without Jesus’ crucifixion and atoning death.

If you can grab hold of this today, it will lay a foundation for your understanding of what to expect in this world when you follow Jesus. We who follow Jesus should never be surprised by the difficulties that arise. But, there is a purpose to the suffering. There is a final destination beyond the suffering. And, that destination is glorious. So, on this first weekend of Lent, we will see the early disciples wrestling with this question: How could Jesus be the triumphant Messiah and all-powerful Son of God and still declare that he must suffer and die?

If we can grab hold of this, then we will be able to grasp the remarkable claim of the Bible that Jesus invites us to join with him in his work of making all things new. Jesus entered into a world in which other kingdoms reigned. He suffered as he began a work that would destroy the evils in our world. A part of his suffering was due to your sin and mine. But, even as he is doing a work of remaking you and me, he sends us into the world to bring his message, to fight for his justice, and to show his compassion. This will not be easy. But the end of God’s ultimate work and of our own journeys will be the kingdom of God.

How can we be faithful to that calling? Here’s what I want us to consider. Our faithfulness:

1. Begins with having a clear understanding of who Jesus is,
2. Is sustained by having shared experiences of his presence and power,
3. Is strengthened by active service.

I. Our faithfulness begins with having a clear understanding of who Jesus is.

Our studies in the first half book of Mark have been dominated by one question, i.e., who is Jesus? Who is this one who raises the dead and calms storms? At last, in Mark 8:27-30, we find Jesus asking the question: “Who do people say I am?” There are several human opinions found in 8:27-31.

1. The Crowds’ View (8:27-29). “Jesus was a good religious man but not the Messiah.”

The disciples had been traveling a lot around the villages of Galilee as well as into Gentile territories so they probably were in touch with public opinion about Jesus. The interesting thing is that while people had a high regard for Jesus, they stopped short of identifying him as the Messiah or the Son of God. They only said, "John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets of God…” They agreed that Jesus was exceptional but only so far as he belonged in the same category as the inspired spokesmen found often in religion. They weren't talking about him as being unique. He was one of many good religious people.

What do you think was the reason the people were reluctant to think of Jesus as the Messiah? Almost certainly, the answer lies in the style of Jesus' ministry. The people in Jesus’ day almost all expected a Messiah who would focus on political action, a descendent of King David in certain stereotypical ways: 1) he would associate with the high and mighty and 2) he would focus on military strategies. And Jesus simply didn't fit that stereotype. Jesus was a man who associated with the outcasts rather than kings. He was a man of words rather than arms. Hence, their speculation about him was this: an Elijah maybe; another holy man like John the Baptist maybe; son of David never.

I’m not sure that the public opinion today is always so much different that it was then. Here in Southern CA, if we could conveniently put Jesus into the category of religious prophet or guru, then few would have problems with him. There have always been and still are religious types who supposedly help people become more spiritual. But, they don't demand obedience and worship. They're just people -- though there may be a special spiritual quality about them. Prophets are interesting figures, challenging even, but we don't feel that every human being must follow them to be saved. But what if Jesus is more than a prophet? That's what worries people isn't it? And it brings us to the second human opinion.

2. The Disciples’ View (8:30). “Jesus was Messiah but not a sufferer.”

Peter was able to see more than the crowds. Peter rightly called Jesus “the Christ”, another word for the Messiah. Peter was a Galilean so, like all Galileans, he surely thought of the Messiah as a military, revolutionary type. To think that Jesus was Messiah was quite an insight for Peter to have. To get to this point, Peter’s whole mental concept of what the Messiah would be had to be turned on its head. He saw before him one who spent his days ministering to the sick, preaching to the poor, one who taught his followers to love their enemies and to turn the other cheek to evildoers. And yet this same Peter this surly, aggressive, patriotic fisherman from Galilee found himself saying, "You are the Messiah."

But. Peter at this point could only see a part of who Jesus is. He, along with the rest of the apostles, could not yet grasp the idea of the Messiah suffering and dying on a cross. That became clear when Peter rebuked Jesus in v. 32 for saying that he would be killed. Still, something remarkable had begun in Peter's thinking. I've no doubt about that. The crowds were willing to see Jesus just as a prophet, an exceptional man. But Peter knew enough about him to know that he was more than a prophet. He was the Messiah.

And please notice that Jesus did not contradict him. After all, if Jesus didn't think Peter's verdict was correct, he should have set him straight immediately saying, "Don't go overboard, Peter. I'm not the divine Messiah the Scriptures say will come.” But no, Jesus accepted the statement that he was the Messiah. But Peter and the disciples still were blind to an essential part of Jesus’ identity.

3. The religious establishment’s View (8:31). “Jesus was a dangerous threat.”

If Peter's confession that this humble carpenter from Nazareth was the Messiah was a shocker, then Jesus’ statement that the religious leaders would kill the Messiah was an earthquake. In v. 31, Jesus predicted that one day soon, the very leading figures of the Jewish establishment would pass their opinion on him too and that opinion would be that he would have to die as a heretic, as a criminal.

And this would happen not by some tragic accident. No, Jesus said that there was a great necessity that required his death. He said, "The Son of Man must suffer." What made suffering a “must”? If you read the rest of the Bible carefully, you'll find that what Jesus meant was the “must” of biblical prophecy. Jesus' insisted that some OT passages about the Messiah were being ignored in his day. 800 years before Jesus, the prophet Isaiah had said that the Messiah would be a servant who would save people not as a victorious military general but as a sacrificial victim. Isaiah said Messiah would deliver his people by “pouring out his life unto death, being numbered with transgressors, and bearing the sin of many… (Isa. 53:12).”

But, this was not the kind of Messiah they wanted. In fact, they thought a “false Messiah” like they thought Jesus would keep the true Messiah from coming if he was not stopped. So, their verdict was that he was a dangerous man – a liar or a lunatic -- who had to be put to death.

Here then are the three human opinions about Jesus. The Galilean crowds could accept him as a prophet, Peter knew he was Messiah but could not see that Messiah must suffer, and the establishment denounced him as a heretic and put him to death. Who do people today say Jesus is? Who do you think he is? Is he the one who has power over all other kingdoms? Or, is he the one who has to suffer in this world?

You need to decide what you believe about Jesus. Will you follow him only if he gives you what you want? Only if being a Christian “works for you”? Do you only want a miracle working Jesus who does his miracles for you? Or will you follow him and share in his suffering until you see his victory. Our faithfulness in living for God in this world begins with a clear idea of who Jesus is and what he came to do.

That brings us to a second key to our faithfulness in this world.

II.Our faithfulness is sustained by having shared experiences of his presence and power (9:1-7).

There is so much that could be said about the Transfiguration of Jesus recorded in Mark 9 but we will focus today only on one thing. In 9:7, God the Father tells us definitively who Jesus is: A cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

What happened was amazing. Six days after calling all disciples to self-denial and cross-bearing, Jesus took Peter, James and John up onto a mountain and read 9:2b-4. What is recorded here is a foretaste in this world of what it will be like in heaven. We see the glorified Jesus with his people.

The thing I want to notice here is that Jesus was not an ordinary man, not one prophet among other prophets, and certainly not a dangerous pretender to being the Messiah. He was and is the Messiah and the one and only Son of God. What happened on that mountaintop is that the deity of Jesus -- which was really there all the time though veiled by the flesh of his humanity -- that deity broke through. What Jesus was inside was made known to human eyes. It was like the bright light of the dawn breaking through a partially drawn curtain. The disciples caught a mind expanding glimpse of Jesus’ glory as it was before the manger in Bethlehem and as it would be after he would return to his Father. This was the majestic Jesus that John met on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation1.

Jesus talked there with the OT greats, Moses and Elijah – great men of God who had met God on a mountaintop. Moses had gone away from one encounter with God with his face glowing. But, the shining and the glory emanated from Jesus. He was like a hologram (though surely more than that). The disciples could see this was Jesus but they also saw the glory radiating as a part of him. He is the glory of God. Moses and Elijah had pointed toward God but they were not the one and only Son of God. And the Father declared, “Listen to him!” “Obey him!”

And, in v. 9, having seen the glory and uniqueness of Jesus, they looked again and saw the Jesus they had seen walking among the poor, bringing hope to the needy, and bringing healing to the broken. This was the same Jesus who had just said he would suffer and be killed. It was the same Jesus.

Jesus obviously thought these men needed a very clear experience of his greatness if they were going to be faithful to carry his good news to the world. There would be other glimpses of Jesus’ greatness recorded in the Bible like this, e.g., in Luke 24, John 21, Acts 1, Acts 9, Revelation 1… It’s my conviction that what is normal when we follow Jesus is that we will have many times that we simply must trust him even when we do not see. When he leads us through the kinds of difficult times he went through himself, we must trust that his promise is true and that he never leaves us or forsakes us.

But sometimes, God gives us more of a glimpse of his presence and his glory that we normally have. I have had those times in my life – often coming quite unexpectedly as it must have been for these disciples. And, I’m convinced that one of the reasons we are called to meet as we meet each week in a service like this one is to pull aside from the normal activity of the world and “worship”, i.e., to put God at the center of our vision and affirm that he is who he says he is – the all-powerful, all-loving, all-holy God of the universe who is at work in this world even when we don’t know what he is doing.

“Don’t forsake meeting together!” That’s how you will be provoked to live faithfully in this world, according to Hebrews 10. But come to meet God. Come, and ask God to make himself real to you. Come and ask him to say something to you when we open this Word. Listen to him. Hear God say, “Jesus is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

And then go into this world with no illusions about there being no hardship. But, also go -- knowing that there is no hardship greater than the Lord who is with us. We are sustained in our faithfulness by having experiences of worship that remind us that God is great and that he is with us.

III.Our faithfulness is strengthened by active service offered to an imperfect world in Jesus’ name.

Let’s go back and look at Peter’s comment in v. 5 when he saw Moses, Elijah and the transfigured Jesus: "This is great Jesus. Let's put up tents and stay here!" Peter, though frightened, surely thought that this spiritual experience was much better than all the talk about suffering and death. “Let’s just stay here and stay away from that hard world, Jesus.”

We’re still tempted to do the same. If we have a wonderful experience with God together with other believers in our church group, we’re tempted to say, “Let’s just spend our whole lives in Christian things. Let’s stay on the mountain and talk about how bad things are down in the streets.” But we can’t do that and follow Jesus. Jesus didn’t live that way. The story of Mark’s gospel is that Jesus walked and talked with people struggling and failing in every possible way in his world. But, in doing so, he offered us a way out of the sin and darkness of the world. But, to do so, Jesus had to leave heaven – and he had to come off the mountain and touch people’s lives in his world. And that’s what we must always do too. We need to come and worship God together – but then God sends us back into our neighborhoods to live for him.

So, in v. 9, after the transfiguration, Jesus immediately began talking again about the death he must die. And the disciples were confused. They still couldn’t put the all-powerful Jesus together with the suffering Jesus. But, Jesus would not stay on the mountain. He came off the mountain to bring God’s kingdom to the streets and he called his disciples to stay close to him. Come week by week over the next few months and you’ll see what Jesus had to face in the streets: Marriage issues. Jealousy! Materialism! Selfishness! Sickness! It sounds like our world. It is our world. But, it’s a world Jesus loves.

Jesus left the mountain to bring good news to the world. As he did, he called his followers to go with him. And, he calls you to follow him today. When you go with Jesus, you discover he sends you both to serve your church community and to serve the hurting places in the world. Beware: when you bring Jesus to your world, you’ll find the “kingdoms” reigning in our world fighting back. But the kingdoms of the world will not win – not in the end. As you serve those coming to our church who need to know the Bible and need you to get involved in their lives, you will find Jesus is there with you. As you serve wherever God sends you in the neighborhood, you will find Jesus is there with you. When you serve in Jesus’ name, you will face challenges – but you will also know he is with you and that he is sufficient. We do not grow simply by having mountaintop experiences. Service is essential. So, serve:

1. Those who are a part of our church family,
2. Those who need the love of Jesus in our world

Jesus came off the mountain in Matthew 9 -- and in the very next story, his disciples could not cast out a demon. They did not take any time to pray. They thought they could do it without Jesus. Jesus had to correct and teach them. But, he did not give up on them. He called them to follow and eventually – they saw more. Because of their faithfulness, the gospel made it out of Jerusalem and has reached all the way – all the way to Pasadena.

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor