Following Jesus with a Cross

Our passage today begins the 2nd half of Mark’s Gospel.

The 1st half asks the question: “Who is Jesus?”

Which Peter finally answers in v. 29, where he says, “You are the Christ.”

Of course, Peter understood the Messiah to be the promised military conqueror who would overthrow their oppressors & usher in a new age of peace & prosperity, of health & wealth.

So Jesus clarifies, “Yes, I’m the Messiah. But I’m not General Petraus or a TBN preacher.”

31 And He [Jesus] began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

He says: “Listen, I’m not going to Jerusalem to live, I’m going to die.”

I’m not going to take power, I’m going to lose it.

I’m not going to rule, I’m going to serve.

In v. 32, Peter pushes back, like so many professing Christians would today, who think Jesus came to give me a better marriage, a bigger house, a better car, a bigger bank account.

Jesus says in v. 34,

“No, if you want to follow Me, you have to deny yourself &  pick up a cross.”

The cross was the opposite of power & privilege.

You were stripped, nailed open, exposed. So everyone could gawk at you & mock you.

The cross was the epitome of helplessness & shame. You had no dignity or power.