“No sugar-coating here”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Mark 8:34-9:1 (Forward, p. 11) CEV p. 1038

Far too often in our recruiting efforts we do people a profound disservice. We downplay the obligations or responsibilities or duties of the role, and make it sound ‘like a piece of cake.’ We sugar-coat it and make it sound so very easy and undemanding. And so, no wonder that people can sometimes be angry or upset or disillusioned when they eventually discover what it was really like.

Jesus does none of His followers that disservice. He tells them right up front what following Him will entail:

You must forget about yourselves”. Now, that doesn’t mean

thinking less of ourselves, putting ourselves last or putting ourselves

down. It means not thinking about ourselves at all, but thinking only

of Christ and His kingdom;

You must take up your cross”, which means not only living a

sacrificial life in general—it may not entail an actual cross—but

surrendering the right to choose to run our own lives the way that

we would want. As John Stott once put it, it means that whenever

‘the cross of Christ runs counter to our own wills and agendas,

we chose Christ’s”;

You must not be concerned with saving your own skin, protecting

ourselves, but being willing to risk all, even our lives for Christ.

Gaining the ‘world’ and what it offers at the risk of our own

eternal souls is not worth it. We may end up destroying not only

ourselves physically but even our own souls;

You must be willing to stand up for Christ and His message and not

be ashamed of either, yes, even in the midst of an unfaithful, sinful

and sinful generation.

If you are at all like me, this is a very tall order, one that I consistently and repeatedly fail to measure up to. But here, we are not alone. The earliest disciples, the Twelve, often failed miserably at this. On several times they argued among themselves who was the greatest in the kingdom and at the

end they, with nary an exception, deserted or denied Jesus. Yet, all of them were accepted by Jesus, and forgiven, even when they flubbed it badly. And, I am glad to say, the same can be said of Jesus and us. He accepts us in His fellowship, His church, even if we don’t ‘quite’ make the grade at every point. Thanks be to God for His incredible grace. Amen.

Forward notes: “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” (verse 35).

“Jesus insists that true life is found in the great reversals: servant and master, first and last, losing and finding. True greatness is found by serving, and that which appears weak is the true strength. Even for us who follow Jesus, this project is never easy.

“These great reversals don’t make common sense. This hierarchy isn’t rewarded by the world. Yet this is the way of God, according to the witness and example of Jesus of Nazareth. As Saint Paul writes to the Philippians: ‘Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus…[who] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness (2:5-7).

“I don’t think such a premise can be debated. It is unprovable. But this reversal is the way of life. So says Jesus. And I believe him.”

Moving Forward: “Can you see past the lure of great accomplishment to see that true life is as simple as letting go?”