“The Things of God”
Original sermon given February 25, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
This sermon was not recorded.
“The Things of God”
Mark 8.31-38
Mark 8.31-38
In the name of the Living God and his crucified Christ. Amen.
Simon Peter has just got it all right. He’s confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the son of the Living God. You’ll recall that’s where he gets his new name, Peter—Petros, “Rocky”. For he gives the confession of faith upon which the whole church is built. But now, the one who Jesus called “the Rock” is here called Satan. He goes from “Rock” to “Satan” in just a couple of verses. Ever have a day like that?
In this morning’s gospel, Jesus has to teach them what it means that he is the Messiah. The Messiah won’t lead an army. He won’t found a charitable non-profit. He won’t begin a school of philosophy or ethics. He won’t rule over any earthly nation, or hold public office, or invent any new gadget, or invest in real estate, or make any money, at all. This is a messiah of a different kind. He will undergo great suffering. He’ll be betrayed and rejected. He’ll be killed, and then in three days rise again.
Now, upon hearing this, ol’ Rocky St. Peter rebukes Jesus. Yeah, he starts ordering Jesus around, “This will never happen to you”. How about that? Giving the Lord instructions on what he should be all about. Ever try that one?
And then, in what I find as one of the most dramatic moments in the New Testament, Jesus turns his back on Peter and rebukes him in response, “Get behind me Satan, for you have not in mind the things of God, but the things of man”. Peter wanted to cast Jesus into a mold that would fit nicely in earthly expectations—the way of the crown and not the cross.
But our Lord would have none of it, because for this very reason Jesus came to earth—to go up to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day rise again. Anything that would distract him from that very purpose could only be described as Satanic, demonic, from the very gates of hell.
It would be a difficult road that Jesus would walk—this road to calvary. And one might rightly ask “why?” he would do this. But perhaps the better question would be “for whom?”. For it was for you and me and indeed the whole world. For us and for our salvation, as we confess in the Creed. Even we who are gathered here—those who in sin have rejected and rebelled against God, who sell their souls for earthly stuff which perish and spoil and can never fill us, those who turn constantly way from the things of God unto the things of man. Oh, how great a journey this would be for the savior, to go all the way to the cross for us. Truly, this was the great divine mission—to win the whole world back to God in forgiveness and grace.
The Lord had his cross, but he promises one for us too. All those who believe and are baptized are now grafted into the very life of this same Jesus of Nazareth, whose feet soaked in the sea of Galilee, whose hands touched spittle and dirt, and whose head held a crown of thorns. We are so joined with him so that his cross becomes ours, his death, ours, and his glorious resurrection ours too. This means in the first place something very powerful about our eternal identity: your relationship with God is no longer about who you are, what you can offer or do or claim or accomplish, but it is now about who you are in Christ, Joshua Messiah. And if you’re anything like me that’s good news. That’s what the word gospel literally means. From the Old English, “Goo Spel”, from the Greek, “Eu Angelion”. We are freely reconciled to God, because of the work of Christ Jesus who chose the cross before the crown, having in mind divine things.
But secondly, the fact that the lives of those who believe and are baptized are placed into the life of Jesus of Nazareth also says something powerful about our earthly identity. And here is where the logic of St. Mark’s account of the gospel cannot escape us. Where the Christ goes, those who are in him are sure to follow. They do not follow in the same way—his death and resurrection fully and finally have brought reconciliation with God—and they do not follow on their own prompting—they follow at His bidding and because he calls them—but none the less they do follow. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Those engrafted into Christ follow wherever he leads and however difficult the path which lies ahead.
I was reminded of this call to remain faithful regardless of what comes in a conversation with one of our community meal’s guests yesterday. He grabbed me for a moment after I had said the prayer before the meal and was on my way back to choir. His mother was Lutheran and during the ravages of the second World War somehow ended up in a Nazi concentration camp in Austria. She was somehow able to survive, and perhaps in an even greater miracle, kept her faith in Jesus.
With tears in his eyes, he thanked me for the work we do here at First Saint Paul’s, and then told me the last words his mother ever said to him, “Stay faithful. No matter what comes. Stay faithful”.
After Rocky gets called “Satan” for trying to get Jesus to take the crown before the cross, Jesus asks us in turn probably the most important rhetorical question ever posed, “What will it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul?” Or, “What would you give in exchange for your soul?”
“Nothing” of course, is the right answer. Not wealth, not security, not comfort, not power, not even earthly peace. Being faithful, no matter what comes, might cost you. It might cost you a lot, even everything—as it did Jesus. But take the cross before the crown. Know that you belong to the savior. Walk the difficult road with joy, for you walk it with him.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.