Mark 8:34-38 — Whoever Desires

Mark 8:34-38 “Whoever desires…”

When He had called the people to Himself,

                    with His disciples also, He said to them,               

      "Whoever desires to come after Me,

                          let him deny himself, and take up his cross,

                                        and follow Me.

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it,

 but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.

               For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world,

                                                           and loses          his own soul?

                Or what will             a man give in exchange for his soul?

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words

                                               in this adulterous and sinful generation,

                                        of him the Son of Man also

             will be ashamed when He comes

                                               in the glory of His Father with the holy angels

Comments:

“Whoever desires…”, used twice in this passage, is an interesting phrase for we all have desires and we all follow our desires sooner or later. The question is, “What, or who, do we desire?” Do we really desire to follow Jesus or are we more oriented toward saving our own lives and dreams? We see the ironic interplay of “saving” and “losing” that we do well to heed. Losing your life for Christ’s sake has in many times and places been referred to martyrdom, but in our culture, this would rarely if ever take place. So what about us? Is there something more being said? Why is it so common for western Christians to compromise their convictions in the face of peer pressure? Is it because we love the approval of men more than the approval of God; because we love ourselves more than we love Christ? How different would our lives and culture be if we lost sight of any self-fulfillment in our wholehearted love for Jesus?

C.S.Lewis in chapter 14 of The Screwtape Letters has the senior tempter, Screwtape instructing his nephew Wormwood, about the Enemy's [God's] desire for humanity,

“Remember, always, that He really likes the little vermin (mankind), and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. When He talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.” (p. 56)

Why would we not desire to respond to such love?

“Take up your cross and follow me.” How terrible that phrase must have seemed to the first disciples! Certainly it meant that you were going to die… they had no positive concept of the cross as the source of their salvation at that time. It didn’t mean putting on a nice gold cross necklace or getting a Celtic cross tattooed on your arm. For Jesus’ audience that day, “taking up your cross” meant only that you had been sentenced to die by the Romans and were carrying the instrument of your death to the place of execution.  At the time Mark recorded these words, they were ironically directed to Roman Christians who were facing the horrors of Nero's persecution. They literally were facing death for their beliefs each and every day.

Discipleship means that we willingly follow Jesus’ lead, even unto death. We no longer try to preserve our own lives (by denying our faith in Christ) for ourselves, but we give them up like Isaac on the altar of Abraham. The results will be the same…for God himself has provided the sacrifice. We are not to be ashamed of our suffering Messiah or the challenging way that he calls us to walk that may involve suffering…because we are not alone on the journey (2 Corinthians 1). And (since I am always looking for any excuse to bring Psalms back in), let me close by saying that Jesus truly is our good shepherd.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So it doesn’t all end in death, for in Jesus Christ that is just the beginning of an amazing journey! 

Tie your shoes, grab your backpack, and a loaf of bread for the journey and follow along. He has invited us to come.