Bible Passage: Mark 8:31-38
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: February 28, 2021

Bulletin February 28, 2021

Mark 8:31–38

³¹Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. ³²He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”

³⁴He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶After all, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? ³⁷Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸In fact, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The Deadly and Necessary Cross

1. Jesus’ cross was deadly and necessary.
2. Our crosses are deadly and necessary.

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant of the LORD,

In the Old City of Jerusalem, there is a route marked out known as the Via Dolorosa. Via Dolorosa means “Sorrowful Way” in Latin, and this route called the “Sorrowful Way” has been suggested as the path the Savior may have walked when he went from his sentencing under Pontius Pilate to his execution outside the city on a hill known as Golgotha. In total distance, the Via Dolorosa measures about 2,000 feet. That’s about 800 to 900 steps for the average adult, and every year multitudes of Christian pilgrims walk those 800 to 900 steps in commemoration of their Savior and the sorrows he carried for them.

We could say, though, that our Savior’s Sorrowful Way began long before the morning of Good Friday. We could say that our Savior’s Sorrowful Way covered a distance much longer than 800 to 900 steps. Jesus’ entire humiliation was a Via Dolorosa, from the moment he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, to the moment when his lifeless body was laid within a tomb. That span of Jesus’ humility was a Via Dolorosa. It was the death march of the Lamb appointed for slaughter.

Our Savior recognized this, and he wants his disciples to recognize this. He wants us to see his path as a sorrowful way, a way that leads to The Deadly and Necessary Cross. He wants us to recognize also that our path will be a sorrowful way. As we follow behind our Savior, we walk a Via Dolorosa, and our lives, also, are marked by The Deadly and Necessary Cross. So let’s listen to our Savior this morning and let’s hear him teach us about this cross.

The beginning of our text places us in Jesus’ traveling classroom. He is on the road with his disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, and as they are walking along the way Jesus is giving them instruction. They have just completed a unit covering who the Son of Man is. You might remember the unit test. Jesus asked them “Who do people say that I am?” [27], and then he turned the question personal, “But who do you say I am?” [29]. You might remember how Peter passed that test: “You are the Christ,” [29], he answered correctly. The disciples know who Jesus is. But now Jesus begins to lecture on material that is new to these students, and in the very first verse of our text we get a summary of this new material: “Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again.” [31].

Peter and his classmates already know that Jesus is the Christ. Now Peter and his classmates need to know more about Jesus’ mission as the Christ. Now Peter and his classmates and all disciples, both there and here, need to know that being the Christ is dangerous business. As our Savior speaks, he can see with clarity the Via Dolorosa that extends before him. As our Savior speaks, he knows with certainty what kind of a destination this route will lead to.

Just as he informs his disciples, Jesus is heading toward many sufferings. One of those sufferings will unfold when he stands before the Jewish tribunal, and shame that might crush another man’s soul like a boulder will be plunged upon his innocent shoulders. The leaders of the people, to whom the people look with respect, will spit on him. They will beat him. They will accuse him of falsehood and condemn him. Further suffering will then unfold at the hands of the Romans, whose scourges will tear him, whose laughter will demean him, whose thorns will sting him, and whose nails will pierce him. But the suffering beyond all suffering, the suffering for which there is truly no equal, will unfold when the LORD lays on his Servant the iniquity of us all. A deadly cross, deadly beyond imagination, waits for the Savior just down the way.

And before anyone has the chance to suggest a different road, Jesus tells us all that this suffering that waits for him is necessary. Did you hear how he introduces it? He says, “The Son of Man must suffer,” [31]. That word “must” is translated from the Greek word dei, a word that refers to necessity. In this case it refers to divine necessity, a thing that God has ordained must happen. Notice that when Peter insists on an alternate plan, Jesus rebukes him for having in mind the things of man. But the sufferings waiting for Christ, those are things of God. All of the sufferings waiting for Christ are the things of God. Not one of his sufferings is coincidental. Not one of his sufferings is optional. Jesus says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things.” Every single suffering that is about to unfold is one drop in the cup that the Father has given his Son, and the Father’s intent is that the Son will drink the cup down to the bottom.

That is what makes Peter’s rebuke such a satanic speech. Picture Jesus, who has just laid out a teaching that was painful to give, and now Peter takes the teacher aside to speak to him in private. To human thought it certainly seems like Peter is being respectful. He doesn’t want to embarrass Jesus. He doesn’t want to make a scene. To human thought Peter’s wish certainly seems pious. He does not want to see his master come to any harm. Yet Peter’s actions and his wish in truth are diabolical. You might remember what Isaiah prophesied concerning the Christ, “It was the LORD’s will to crush him and to allow him to suffer,” [10]. To insist on something that opposes God’s will is by definition un-godly and idolatrous.

Peter doesn’t get to determine what is good and what is evil. Nor do you and nor do I. That is God’s domain, not ours. God has determined that it is good for all your sins to be forgiven. God has determined that it is good for you to be saved. God has determined that he wants you to live with him in paradise forever. The sufferings of Christ were the price that was necessary to bring that desire in the heart of God to fulfilment. So you see that the God who reigns over the earth and the heavens is a God who loves you dearly. He loves you dearly enough to sacrifice his only Son for you. To insist that God would do differently, to insist that he love you less, is to insist that he no longer be the God who he is. To desire a god who does not love you so dearly is to desire a god who does not exist.

The God who does exist determined in eternity to give his only Son as the atoning sacrifice for your sins. The Son of God in eternity accepted his Father’s plan. He saw ahead of him the Via Dolorosa, and, still, he came. He came for the joy set before him, to accomplish your salvation. It was the Father’s determination to bring Christ to glory through suffering, and Jesus glorified the Father by submitting to his will. He would suffer many things. He would die a terrible death. He would rise from the dead in glory. The cross would be deadly. The cross would be necessary. The cross would be good, and would lead to Christ’s glory and our salvation.

But Jesus’ lesson isn’t over with his rebuke of Peter. God has sufferings appointed for Christ, and God has sufferings appointed for Christians. As the teacher goes on with his lesson, he desires everyone to hear him. Our text says, “He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,’”[34]. All who would be Christians need to know that being a Christian is dangerous business. Jesus would have us see that a Via Dolorosa extends before us. He would have us see that we walk on a Sorrowful Way, that we have been called into a fellowship of suffering, that we have been baptized into a death march in the footsteps of Christ.

It’s kind of interesting that when Jesus tells us to take up the cross and follow him, it is the first time the word “cross” actually appears in Mark’s Gospel. Evidently, the Holy Spirit saw no need to include the word earlier, but when it came to letting us know what we’re in for, the word “cross” could not be omitted. And make no mistake, our cross is a deadly cross. The cross knows no other goal than to put its bearer to death.

Our Teacher does not tell us just what kind of cross we will each carry. But he does include one detail that will be common for every Christian. Carrying the cross involves denying ourselves. So we don’t get to choose what to do with our bodies. We don’t get to direct our lives according to the priorities we think matter. We don’t get to set the rules. We don’t get to decide what’s next. We don’t get to judge the goodness of God. No, he will be God, and we will submit to his will. He will be God, and we will fall in line behind our Savior. Even when he leads us through darkness. Even when the march brings pain. Even when we don’t understand, and especially when he calls us to die.

Our cross is deadly, and our cross is necessary. Just like the sufferings of Jesus were appointed for him by his Father, the sufferings that we bear as disciples of Jesus have been given to us by God as well. And the Bible does not try to hide this or soften it. When Job is suffering terribly, he says to his wife, “If we accept the good that comes from God, shouldn’t we also accept the bad?” [Job 2:7]. And in the book of Hebrews, we are encouraged, “Endure suffering as discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. Is there a son whose father does not discipline him?” [12:7]. It is God who imposes the cross on your shoulder.

But while he puts you to death with one hand, he makes you alive with the other. Without the mortification of the cross, we would think we could have everything our way, and that would land us in a truly terrible place in the end. We might think we could save our lives, but we would lose our lives in the attempt. We might think we could gain the whole world, but we would forfeit our souls in the attempt. So God gives a dear cross. God puts to death our sinful nature. God conforms us to the image of his Son, calling us to suffer in the present, but promising us glory in the future.

So we live by faith in Jesus and not by the wisdom of our world. We follow him step after step along the Via Dolorosa, and everything that falls away from us along the path we leave behind. The journey is painful. The journey is tolling. But Jesus is with us, and Jesus is ours. He is our strength. He is our righteousness. He is our glory. He is our life. His promise continues to resound in our ears, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it,” [35]. To him be glory both now and forevermore.

Amen.

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