31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.  “Get behind me, Satan!” he said.  “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
- Mark 8:31-38, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

Dear Friends in Christ,

As the Master Teacher, Jesus communicated in different ways to fit different situations.  Sometimes He used picture language to describe what He was all about ("I am the Good Shepherd"… "Light of the World," etc.).  Sometimes He spoke in parables ("The kingdom of God is like…").  And at other times He was brutally straightforward speaking in a way that could not be misunderstood.

Such is the case in our text for today.  Our Lord speaks plainly on some hard subjects; subjects which touch upon everything that Christianity involves.  For the next several minutes it will be our privilege to sit at the feet of our Master as He instructs us on

The background of our text is this:  Peter, as spokesman for the disciples and as empowered by the Holy Spirit, has just made a bold and beautiful confession of faith in Jesus as the promised Savior.  This was a turning point as to the depth of information Jesus shared with His disciples. What He had only hinted at before, Jesus now lays out clearly.  "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this."

What strikes us immediately is how Jesus doesn’t just speak of what will happen, but what must happen.  He says the Son of Man must suffer and He must be rejected and He must be killed and He must rise again.  Note that Jesus doesn’t present any of these things as mere possibilities.  They are necessities.

What made all this necessary, of course, is us.  Or to be more specific, our sin.  As Isaiah the prophet puts it so beautifully: "He was pierced for OUR transgressions, He was crushed for OUR iniquities; the punishment that brought US peace was upon Him, and by His wounds WE are healed…"  What both Jesus and Isaiah describe is the central teaching of the Christian faith.  In theological terms, we call this the doctrine of the "Vicarious Atonement."  Since it doesn’t often come up in casual conversation, let’s explore this expression…

The root word of "vicarious" is "vicar," which literally means, "substitute."  If we divide the word "atonement" into three syllables and throw in a couple of hyphens, we come up with "at-one-ment."  The teaching of the Vicarious Atonement is the basic Gospel message:  Christ, as our substitute, makes us "at one" with God through His life, death, and resurrection.

The Vicarious Atonement speaks not only of God’s plan to save us, but it also speaks volumes of His great love for us.  We are the ones whom God asks to be perfect and holy and sinless.  We can’t, so God became flesh in Jesus Christ.  He broke into our time and our space and our planet for the expressed purpose of becoming our "vicar" – our substitute.  And as our substitute He lived the life God demands of us but which we can’t give Him.

Having done that, Jesus then – again as our substitute – paid out the wages of our sin by dying on the cross.  Should have been us, but it wasn’t, because "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."  The result of this necessary sacrifice?  The words of the hymnist come to mind:  "Through Jesus blood and merit I am at peace ("at one") with God."

This is what Jesus came to do.  He came to live and die so that we might die and live.  The only way to accomplish this was through His sacrifice on our behalf…

But all this talk of sacrifice didn’t set well with at least one of Jesus’ disciples.  "Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, he rebuked Peter.  ‘Out of my sight, Satan!’ He said.  ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’"  From everything we learn of him in Scripture, Peter was just being typical Peter.  Here he engages his mouth before his mind is in gear, speaking before processing what Jesus had just told them.

Peter undoubtedly thought he was doing the noble thing by intervening in a conversation he must have thought was taking a decidedly morbid turn. But the fact of the matter is that Peter was being used, as Jesus clearly pointed out.  What he said was not helpful or uplifting.  It was absolutely Satanic.

Peter’s suggestion to Jesus was essentially that He take the self-preservation route (which Jesus referred to as "the things of men") rather than fully carry out the Vicarious Atonement ("the things of God").  Had Jesus listened to Peter, our lives – now and eternally – would be entirely different.  But He didn’t.  Jesus’ resolve held true.   And as a result, we are saved.  What wondrous love is this.

Having spoken plainly on the necessity of sacrifice and how it applied to Him for us, Jesus now deals with the flip side and speaks of how it applies to us for Him.  "Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up His cross and follow Me."  More plain talk from Jesus, now on the subject of discipleship.  Jesus is talking to us.  And there are a number of things mentioned here that we should look at…

First of all, Jesus says those who wish to be known as His must deny themselves.  What exactly does that mean?  We could answer this way:  In it’s most basic form it means keeping the First Commandment, "You shall have no other gods."  The chief rival god that we all have to deal with is ourself.  To deny myself simply means to live for my Lord.  It means daily going to the cross.  It means each day considering what Jesus has done for me and then, out of love and with the help of His Holy Spirit in my life, living for Him as He lovingly directs me in His Word.  It means willingly and gratefully putting the "things of God" ahead of "the things of men."

By making such a statement Jesus reminds us that Christians have two natures.  We have our old, sinful nature with which we are born and which we will carry around all our lives.  The selfish tendency of my old nature is to enthrone myself over God and not deny myself anything.  This nature sees God as an interference in my life.  And it must be said that following this nature may bring us more outward things in life, but the reality is that the path of selfishness and indulgence is never the path of true joy or satisfaction…

That comes by another route.  Opposite our old nature is the new nature created in us by the Holy Spirit when He brought us to faith in Jesus as our Savior.  For the Christian, this is our predominant nature.  It is the nature that sees the wisdom of God and leads us to trust and believe in Him over ourselves as we increasingly understand that God is God, nothing less, and that man is man, nothing more.  It is the nature that stands before the cross of Christ and says "take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee."  And it is this nature, richly and daily nourished through Word and Sacrament, that gladly denies its sinful counterpart.

Secondly, Jesus says the disciple of Christ will "take up his cross."  The word picture is of a condemned man forced to carry his cross to the place of his execution.  We remember that Jesus did this on the way to Calvary.  But what the convict does under duress, the disciple does willingly – just as Christ willingly took up the cross for us.  Behind this all is the understanding that the life of committed Christian discipleship will involve hardship as we live out our lives of faith.  And that hardship will come to us for no other reason than the fact we pledge our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Hardship, of course, is a relative term.  In the Book of Acts, in the early church and still in some places today, Christianity is considered a capital offense.  People have in the past, are in the present and will in the future actually die for their faith.  However, to us in "freedom of religion" America the concept of carrying one’s cross of faith to the point of death is entirely foreign…

Nevertheless, there will always be crosses to bear because of our allegiance to Christ (lesser though they be), and I’m sure most of us have felt them.  Maybe it’s the knowledge that we are the butt of jokes because we take our Christianity seriously.  Maybe it’s certain people excluding us from certain things because they know where we stand.  Maybe it’s people labeling us or dismissing us because of certain of our Christian principles.  But whatever it is – and you can fill in the blanks of your own examples in life – it’s not even remotely close to what Christ bore for us.  And so we willingly take up our crosses for Him…

"If anyone would come after Me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me…"  To follow Jesus means to go where He goes and do what He does.  It is the mature, spiritual version of the children’s game, "Follow the Leader."  Jesus tells us follow His will and His example.  Even when it may be uncomfortable.  Even when it may be unpopular.  Even when it may seemingly be inconvenient.  Basic and fundamental to our decision making process must be the sincere question, "What would my Savior have me do?"

Let me give you a modern day illustration of a man whom I believe both understood and exemplified Jesus’ words on self-denial, cross-bearing and following Him. Some of you may be familiar with the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer.   He was a Lutheran pastor who lived in Germany during the Second World War.  Convinced that it was his Christian duty to work within his own country for the defeat of Adolf Hitler, Bonhoeffer became a part of an underground resistance movement.  Unfortunately, his involvement was discovered and he was sent to a prison camp.  He never returned.  In1945, at the age of 39, he was executed by hanging. We may not share in all of his views, but by any and all definitions he is a 20^th century Christian martyr.

By the time of his death he had already done quite a bit of writing.  Perhaps his best known work (still available and popular today) is entitled, "The Cost of Discipleship."  In it he offers many thought provoking statements on the Christian life.  One of the phrases he uses over and over again (and something he accuses many modern Christians of buying into) is the concept of "cheap grace."

Listen to how he defines it:  "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church.  Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ…"  In other words, we make God’s grace cheap when we are willing to accept the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, but unwilling to sacrificially and joyfully embrace the life of self-denial, cross bearing and following Jesus Christ… wherever those pursuits may take us.

May God ever spare us from such ungratefulness.

So what is this text all about?  It’s some straight talk from Jesus about the necessity of sacrifice.  Willing sacrifice.  First, Christ’s willing sacrifice for us through the Vicarious Atonement.  Then in response, our willing sacrifice for Him through a life of committed, deepening discipleship...

A life that daily gazes upon the cross and through word and deed gratefully declares:

Jesus, I my cross have taken

All to leave and follow you.

Destitute, despised, forsaken,

You on earth once suffered, too.

Perish every fond ambition,

All I’ve ever hoped or known;

Yet how rich is my condition!

God and heav’n are still my own.  Amen.