Journey to the Cross: Thy Will Be Done

I'm going to stay on the ball with these Lent sermons. Here is today's. Click the title for audio if you'd rather listen. Or you can download the audio and play "How many times did Scott mess up his own sermon?"

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Journey to the Cross: Thy Will Be Done

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There’s an old joke my dad used to tell. I saw it somewhere yesterday and thought it would be a good one to share this morning.

There was a small plane flying 5 passengers cross-country. In the middle of the flight the pilot appeared looking troubled. He said, “I’ve got some bad news and some good news…and some bad news. The bad news is that the plane is going down. The good news is that there are several parachutes right here. The bad news is that I’m taking one and that leaves 4 parachutes for the 5 of you.” Having said that, he grabbed a chute, strapped it on and jumped. The passengers looked at each other. One man jumped up and grabbed a chute. “I’m the world’s most prominent brain surgeon. My patients depend on me.” He strapped the chute on and leapt. A woman jumped up, “I am a partner in a huge law-firm. If I die, the firm will collapse.” She grabbed a chute and jumped. Another man stood. He announced, “I am the smartest man in the world. My IQ is so high it would embarrass you to know it. I cannot die in a crash.” He grabbed a parachute and jumped. The last 2 passengers were a UMC pastor nearing retirement and a young Boy Scout. The pastor looked at the boy. He patted him on the knee and said, “I am a pastor. I’ve lived a full, happy life. You are still young. You take the last parachute. I’ll go down with the plane.” The Boy Scout answered, “Thanks Pastor. That means a lot to me. But there are two parachutes. The smartest man in the world just jumped with my backpack.”

I used to love that joke. I still like it. But it tells us a meaningful story. We see a plane full of people who would do anything to save their own lives, and it cost one of them his life. And another who was willing to give up his life, but in the end, he saved it. This actually fits well with the message of today’s scripture. 

Mark 8:31-38 - 31 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. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But 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.’

34 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. ³⁵For 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. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those 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.’

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Just before this morning’s scripture, Jesus asked the disciples a couple of questions. “Who do people say I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist. Elijah. One of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” This time Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.” “You are the Christos.” I wonder if Peter even knew what he was saying. If he knew who Messiah was, or was supposed to be. I think he had an idea. Messiah was to be the King of Israel. He would be a ruler. A military leader. A conqueror. A savior…from Rome. At this time, many Jews saw the Messiah as all of those things. A military leader who would overthrow Roman tyranny and establish a new kingdom of Israel. He would deliver Israel from Roman oppression. And this is probably what Peter thought as well. This is what Peter meant when he called Jesus Messiah.

Jesus, though, would explain exactly what Christos meant. “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

This description doesn’t jive with Peter’s idea of Messiah. Imagine the shock Peter must feel in hearing Jesus, the man he’d devoted his life to following, announce that he would suffer and die. And be resurrected? That’s ridiculous. What Jesus said completely contradicts his perception.

So Peter takes Jesus aside. He tells him, quietly, “Jesus, you’ve got to cool it with this suffering and death talk. The guys, they’re starting to grumble. Didn’t you hear what I said? You’re the Messiah. And besides, you know we’ll protect you!”

Jesus, it seems, is fuming. He turns from Peter to look at the rest of the group He’s trying to prepare his followers for what is about to happen and he knows they don’t get it. And he tears into Peter and really the rest of the group too, because they likely thought the same thing. “Get behind me Satan!” Get behind me tempter, serpent in the garden. You are too focused on human things to think about divine things. You need to refocus and get your mind right.

Peter had made up his mind about how the next few months and years would go. Jesus would throw Rome out of Jerusalem and Judea and assume his rightful place as king. And he, Peter, would assume a prominent place in the king’s administration. He was so focused on his own will that he couldn’t see anything else. Especially anything contrary to his ideas. Peter’s will focused on human things. Human ideas of power. Human ideas of glory and esteem.

 And this is in direct conflict with God’s will. Which is almost always the case. Our will is contrary to God’s will. Doing God’s will requires that we focus on divine things. In Peter’s case he had his own ideas of who Messiah should be. But those ideas were based on human things – Power through conquest and might. God’s will is focused on divine things and the true Christos’ power comes from sacrifice and serving others.

Jesus explains these divine things to the disciples and the crowd that is following them. He tells them exactly what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus.

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Just those words alone would have the crowd scratching their collective heads. Jesus told the disciples that he must suffer and die. I don’t know what kind of detail he gave, but the mention of a cross here and everyone there would know what Jesus meant. Today, we see a cross and it’s a pleasant thing. It makes us think of church and Jesus. But for Jesus audience… Imagine if Jesus said, take up your noose, or take up your IED and follow me. Maybe those aren’t perfect analogies, but you get the idea. The cross was not a pleasant sight. A friend of mine wrote this about the cross: “The cross used to be a symbol of pain and death.  In Jesus' day, it was the ultimate in pain and agony.  Looking at it reminded you of Rome's immense power.  Looking at it told you to shape up, or else.”

The crowd had seen men take up their cross and drag it to a place of execution. They’d seen them nailed to those crosses and hung there until death. They knew what Jesus meant by take up your cross and follow me. So they knew that Jesus was saying he would take up a cross. I’m sure many of them reacted just like Peter. “No way! Jesus, stop saying that stuff! They can’t kill you! We won’t let them!”

Jesus continued. “If you want to save your life, you’ll lose it. If you lose your life for my sake, for the sake of the gospel, you’ll live. Does it really matter if you get everything you want if you have to give up your soul to get it? Is anything worth trading for your soul? For eternal life? If you’re embarrassed by me and the things I say, things like I must suffer and die and rise again on the third day, then you are an embarrassment to me because you just don’t get it.”

This is what I hear Jesus saying, “You’re focusing on human things when you should be worried about divine things. It’s time to re-focus. It’s time to think about things like sacrifice and service. It’s time to ignore your own selfish desires and instincts and really love people. It’s time for you to follow my example. It’s time to put away your will and find and follow God’s will.”

We are called to a life of sacrifice and a life of service and that is not our instinct. Our instinct is to worry about ourselves, to make sure our needs are met and to control our world. As Alyce McKenzie of the Perkins School of Theology says, “there are times in klour lives when we realize that in losing our agenda, our control, our wants, we find our true identity and purpose. It's not that nothing is lost. It's that something more important is gained.”

Last week, I talked about Lent as a time of self-reflection. This week, I invite you to examine your own life. Where is your focus? Is it on human things? Your wants, needs, your agenda. Or are you focused on divine things?  Sacrifice and service.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. I won’t go into all of the reasons today. Jesus goes off alone to pray just before his arrest. He prays, “Father, if you are willing take this cup away, but not my will but yours be done.”

Jesus turns from his own human instincts of self-preservation to focus on the divine. And he gives us a great road map for refocusing ourselves away from human things and onto the things of God. “Not my will but yours be done.”

Or, as we prayed earlier, “Thy will be done.”

One last thing to remember. God’s will takes work. Just praying for it doesn’t necessarily bring about God’s will. CS Lewis wrote in one of his letters an interpretation of that portion of the Lord’s Prayer. "Thy will be done…by me…now."

It’s a twofold prayer. We are submitting ourselves to God’s will. Opening ourselves to doing our part in bringing about the Kingdom. And we are praying for grace. Because it is only by God’s grace that we can refocus ourselves from human things onto the things of God.

Thy will be done.