I have a confession to make. I guess
this might be an appropriate time with pastors to help with my confession…its
not that bad…I am not a big fan of Lent. Before I started seriously discerning
a call to ordained ministry, I really did not like Lent. I mean, I couldn’t
understand what the big deal about Lent was. You could not say a particular
word and I used to get really upset about this. I was thinking that this was a
drag. Jesus went to the cross for us and we should be rejoicing. We should be
preparing our hearts with shouts of acclamation. I didn’t get it.
I think that I could relate to Peter
in this sense. A few short verses before this, Peter declares that Jesus is the
Christ. This is the one who has come to save us. This is the powerful Son of
God; yet, Jesus tells of his suffering at the hands of the elder priests and
scribes. Best of all, this powerful Son is going to be killed. Peter does not
want to believe it! Peter wants Jesus to take care of business. I can imagine
Peter saying, “you are the Son of God so you better do something about this situation
because we are all depending on you.”
Peter does not want to hear what
Jesus has to say; because it would upset Peter’s understanding of the world.
The powerful had control and the weaker people would have to abide by what the
powerful determined. It helped define who was who in society. People were
defined by their status; who do you know, who is your relative, what tribe you
came from. All those factored in to tell others who you were. It went so far as
to determine the kind of job you had, the kind of family you would be…it
defined you and me. If I was the son of a slave who worked on a farm, I
probably would follow in my father’s footsteps. So Peter defines Jesus as the
Christ, Savior of the world.
Jesus tells Peter that all he knows
will be different. Jesus is re-setting the definition of what it means to be
the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus does not send an army of angels to protect
him or take care of the Romans, or even the priests or elders. Instead, Jesus
will be defined by the actions that are to come when he is handed over.
Let’s look at what gets redefined.
First of all, there is Jesus. God re-defines Jesus at the very outset of this
Gospel of Mark. After all, he was destined (by social standards) to be a
carpenter. His father, Joseph, was a carpenter and so it would make sense that
he too would be a carpenter. But Jesus was led to the water…the river Jordan to
meet up with his cousin John; and there in that Baptism, coming out of the
water, God set Jesus on a different path than that of a carpenter.
So what is this redefinition of
Jesus? God calls him God’s beloved and Jesus sets out on a path of being
tempted in the wilderness, he stands by God’s Word, picks disciples, goes into
the world and teaches about who God is, and Jesus heals, eats, and spends time
with people that society would deem as outcasts. These are big deals in the
time of Jesus, because these things that Jesus does are going against the very
nature of society. They are stepping out of the norms of judging books by their
covers, so to speak.
Jesus is redefining what it means to
be children of God and followers of God. Jesus shows us a different definition
of who we are. He is pointing out that it is how we care for our neighbors, how
treat one another, care for the earth…God’s creation that matters. It is not
the societal standards that define who we are as children of a loving God.
So it is with Jesus’ invitation.
Jesus invites us that if we want to be followers of Jesus, “let them deny
themselves, take up their cross and follow me.”
Jesus is telling us that if we want to follow
Jesus, the Son of God, then we are to redefine our lives…maybe the better way
to put it is to let God redefine our lives. Maybe we should not let the
societal standards define who we are: job, wealth, lineage, where we live.
Maybe we don’t let that be the sole thing that defines who our friends are, who
we share meals with, or who is in our group of friends.
It
sounds easy to say but it may not be that easy. I know it is not easy. At our
Baptism, God did not promise a life of ease or smooth sailing. We too often
find that out the hard way. Denying ourselves does not mean giving up the
things you have and living in poverty. IT does not mean going out and finding a
cause to be persecuted over. What it means, allowing yourself to be defined as
child of God, is that we take all of Jesus’ teachings and try to live them out
as best we can: Loving your neighbor as yourself. That could mean understanding
that you neighbor next door or down the street is struggling and trying to help
out. It is forgiving someone that has hurt you or seeking forgiveness when you
have hurt someone. We see a hurtful world on our television, our radio, and
social media. We see Cyber bullying and government people screaming at each
other calling one another names.
That
is not who God called us to be; denying ourselves means that we give ourselves
to God each and every day. It means knowing and living out that each one of us
has value because it is God who created each and every one of us. It means that
we may be laughed at, mocked, or even be persecuted for doing what God calls us
to do. BUT, God does not abandon us.
And
now, I confess that I know what I didn’t know. The reason I did not like Lent
so much before was because I did not understand that Lent calls us to “re-define”
ourselves as child of God. It made me uncomfortable to allow myself to be
redefined. Here we all are on this 5th week of Lent; allowing
yourselves to be uncomfortable. You are allowing yourselves to be redefined by
this Lenten journey: redefined as child of God, follower of Jesus Christ: AMEN
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