Sunday
02/25/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Must undergo great suffering”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 22:23-31
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 4:13-25
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 8:31-38
Sisters and brothers in Christ, friends, welcome again on
this the Second Sunday in this Season of Holy Lent. This season where we
prepare our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies for the coming
crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
On Easter every year we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, and every other Sunday of the year can be seen as a “mini-Easter”. We
celebrate on Easter and every Sunday that Jesus Christ overcame sin, death,
pain, and hardship. Before his triumphant resurrection on Easter however, Jesus
suffered.
Most people that I have met in my life do not like
suffering. Does anyone here like suffering? The recent Florida school shooting
shows us how terrible and heart wrenching suffering is. How suffering can
really almost destroy us.
Maybe
this is why so many of us don’t like going to the doctor or to the dentist. It
will be uncomfortable, and what if we have a cavity or a health problem? If we
have a cavity, then we will need Novocain and there will be some pain involved.
In going to the doctor, if we hear news that we don’t want to hear, there could
be pain and discomfort involved. Most of us, if we are honest don’t like to
suffer.
In general, I think that we live in a culture that does
everything that we can to avoid pain, suffering, hardship, and or loss. I have even
heard and have even read that as of recent years that less and less people go
to funerals or memorial services. You see, to go to a funeral or a memorial
service is to potentially enter into pain, suffering, and mourning. In our culture,
I believe that many of us do everything we can, at all costs, to avoid pain,
suffering, and discomfort. Any sign of pain or discomfort is something that
many just avoid or reject.
Due to all of this, and for some other reasons, some people
in our culture have in more recent years struggled with the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ. I don’t mean that most people, whether they are people of faith
or not, deny that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ happened. What I do mean, is
that some have shifted their theological or otherwise view of Christ’s
crucifixion.
I have in more recent years heard some people lament on how
brutal, harsh, and or inhumane that the passion and the death narrative of
Jesus Christ is, in the gospels. I have heard questions such as, “Why couldn’t
God have just forgiven us? Why did God need to come down to earth and be
brutally tortured, crucified, and mocked? I just doesn’t seem fair or right.”
Has anyone here ever heard similar questions or statements to
these? Why did Jesus have to die a horrible, painful, and inhumane death? Some
would also argue that Christ’s death on the cross was not for our sins, but
rather it was because He was showing his love and his solidarity with humanity.
That he died as a symbol of love for the oppressed, down trodden, and the broken,
but not for our sins.
I believe though, that Jesus Christ had to be brutally
tried, sentenced, crucified, and resurrected. Among some of the many reasons
that I will present to convey the historical view of Christ’s crucifixion, is that
Jesus Christ himself said that this had to happen. So if the gospels have any
truth to them, which I believe they do, then what is contained in them are the
words, the teachings, the life, and the ministry of our Lord and our Savior
Jesus Christ. As I said last Sunday, I believe that gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John are accurate accounts of Jesus’ life.
Since I believe this, I believe that what Jesus said in the
gospels is true, and that what was recorded about Jesus is also true. With this
said, this morning once again, Jesus says in our gospel of Mark reading
speaking of himself:
“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”
(Mk.
8:31-32a, NRSV).
So Jesus Christ, in his own words, if you believe that he
said this, which I do, explained why he had to be crucified. Remember in this
gospel of Mark reading, he is also saying this prior to the events of his
crucifixion and the resurrection. This is to say, that he is accurately
predicting his own death and resurrection before it happened. In addition to
this, which is the title of my sermon for this mornings, Jesus says:
“the
Son of Man must undergo great suffering” (Mk. 8:31a, NRSV).
Why did Jesus
have to come to earth and die a brutal and a violent death? The answer is,
because this was God’s plan from day one. It was prophesied in Hebrew Bible or
Old Testament in books like Isaiah. In fact, the prophet Isaiah said many years
before Christ’s birth this prophetic statement in 53:5:
“But he was wounded for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment
that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isa. 53:5, NRSV).
Throughout
the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament there are many other prophetic statements
and words about the coming Messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus’s death
that we will remember on Good Friday next month, was brutal though. It is not
something that we greatly enjoy. Yet I believe that this was God’s plan from
day one. Could God have decided another way to reconcile Himself to us?
Perhaps, but this is what God chose to do. Believe me, it got humanities attention.
This morning Jesus Christ himself, God in the flesh, said once again:
“the
Son of Man must undergo great suffering” (Mk. 8:31a, NRSV).
Even though
Jesus said this publically, many did not want to hear this, as so many of us
like to steer away from violence and suffering. This reality of Christ’s crucifixion
is also reaffirmed in our reading from Romans for this morning.
In looking further at our gospel reading, it would seem that
the Apostle Peter got a little angry, as he didn’t want to hear this from Jesus
either. Once again Peter says to Jesus:
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”
(Mk.
8:31b-33, NRSV).
While I personally think that Peter was a “loose cannon”, I
believe that he meant well here. He didn’t want to see his Lord and his friend
suffer. Yet Jesus said, but this the plan.
Jesus goes on
to say in this gospel reading:
“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” (Mk. 8:34-38, NRSV).
Jesus says, follow me, I am teaching you, leading you,
guiding you, and I will even lay down my life for you. In the gospel of John
15:13 Jesus says:
“No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13,
NRSV).
In his letter to the church in Rome or the Romans, the
Apostle Paul says in 5:8 of Jesus Christ:
“But God proves his love for us in
that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom.
5:8, NRSV).
How many of us
here would be willing to suffer and even die to save the ones that we love? I
remember seeing a young student on the news during the recent Florida school
shooting. This student was remarking emotionally on how her teacher saved her
from being killed. Unfortunately this teacher ended up being killed protecting
this student.
“No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13,
NRSV).
Jesus is the ultimate expression and embodiment of God’s
love, and He had and has so much love for us all that he even died for us. Every
year when I prepare for our Good Friday service I get a little emotional in
reflecting on the fact that Jesus would have died for me. Me who is so
unworthy.
In John’s gospel that famous line of scripture says it so
perfectly:
“For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may
have eternal life”
(Jn.
3:16, NRSV).
In this season of Holy Lent, we are called to prepare our
hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies for the coming trial, crucifixion,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Some of us in this season might be giving up something for
Lent. Yet, if Christ did truly come to earth to teach us how to love, heal, and
forgive, and if we believe in him, how can we live this out during this season
of Lent and always. What can we give up in our lives, what can we give up that is
separating us from God, and what can we give away to show the great love of Jesus
Christ. God loves you so much, that Christ went to the lengths that He did on
Good Friday. So I invite us all this day to come to the lifesaving cross of
Jesus Christ.
My hope is for me and for us all, is that this great love in
Jesus Christ changes us, so that we may live lovingly and sacrificially for
others. May we do as Christ said in in the gospel this morning, deny ourselves,
and take up our crosses and follow him. For as Jesus said once again:
“No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13,
NRSV).
Amen.
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