Mark 8,31-38. Quinquagesima Sunday

In the Name of Jesus

Mark 8,31-38 (Matthew 16,21-27; Luke 18,31-43)

Quinquagesima (Sonntag vor der Passionszeit)  022  Estomihi

Fridolin, Abbot at St. Hilaire, France. † 538.

6. March 2011

            1. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, we live in a world that all too often misunderstands You and finds no problem in crafting for itself a Christ in its own image so that it is not called to account for all its wickedness. Not only is the world Your adversary, but even Christians and congregations have become Your enemy for they have rejected Your mission and ministry in this fallen world. Keep us, O Lord, on the narrow path that winds its difficult way up to Jerusalem, the rocky hill of the skull, and the humiliation of the cross. In three days we will embark on this journey in the season of Lent. Prepare our hearts and our minds for the truth of Your crucifixion and resurrection so that we take up Your cross which is the instrument upon which You redeemed us and that we proclaim this gospel throughout all the world.  Amen.

            2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Mark where the holy evangelist writes: ³¹And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³But turning and seeing His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, „Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.“ ³⁴And He called to Him the crowd with His disciples and said to them, „If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. ³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? ³⁷For what can a man give in return for his life? ³⁸For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He arrives in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.“ This is our text.

            3.  Moments prior to today’s Gospel Reading, Peter (speaking for all the apostles) correctly confessed that »Jesus is the Christ« (8,29). Today’s Gospel Reading teaches us what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. Jesus explained the title of the „Christ” – God’s anointed and chosen one – as follows: »it was necessary for Him to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again« (8,31). The Apostle Peter’s response to Jesus is typical of a Jew shaped by first century traditions about the messiah. The perception in Jesus’ day was that the Christ would be an earthly ruler with charismatic powers who would restore Israel and launch an abiding earthly reign (Garland 179). First century Jewish messianic expectation had no room for a suffering and dying Messiah (Gibbs Matthew 838). Peter’s response of recoiling in horror arises out of the natural way that sinful humans think about how God would choose to work in the world (Gibbs Matthew 839).

            4. We have now heard again the Christological confrontation between Jesus and Peter as regards the true, Godly ministry of the Christ. Jesus says the Christ must suffer, die, and rise again; Peter says that the Christ must be protected by the Heavenly Father and be exempt from suffering and death (Garland 180). It is not enough to merely say the words, »Jesus, You are the Christ« (8,29). We must understand, believe, and accept that to confess Jesus as the Christ means to confess that He must go to Jerusalem where He will suffer, die, and rise again (8,31). At this point in the Gospel according to Mark, from 8,31 until the last verse in the Gospel, Jesus teaches His disciples that to be the Christ is about the humiliation and suffering on the cross and the glorious resurrection victory.

            5. This teaching and journey to Jerusalem centers on three aspects:

                                    I.   confession

                                    II.  crucifixion

                                    III. discipleship

I.

            6. We confess in the three, Western Christian Creeds that Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead. St. Paul was so adamant about the priority of this confession that He told the Corinthian Christians: »For I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him having been crucified« (1 Corinthians 2,2), and »Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those having fallen asleep« (15,20).

            7. To emphasize another confession about the Christ is to be in harmony with the will of men and women. When Peter tried to explain to Jesus that surely God would be merciful to Him and spare Him suffering and death in Jerusalem, Jesus called the apostle „Satan“, which means „adversary“. To divert attention from the confession that Jesus is the Christ who must suffer, die, and rise again is to be an obstacle in Jesus’ path.

            8. Jesus will not be diverted from His ministry of humiliation and suffering. He came to this earth to be in harmony with His Father’s will and to carry out His will. To be an obstacle to this Divine will (by focusing on another confession of the mission of the Christ) is to be God’s adversary, yes, to be an antichrist – someone who elevates his or her will above God’s and replaces Jesus’ teaching about the Christ with their own conception of what the Christ should be.

II.

            9. Jesus isn’t concerned about teaching us seven steps on how to manage our money better or what works we can do to merit satisfaction before Him. Jesus is first and foremost concerned about us and our salvation. He must suffer, die, and rise again to justify us before our heavenly Father, and, therefore, this is the heart and soul of God’s Word and preaching. To see how central the theology of the cross is, look around the church and count how many crosses you find. I have counted at least nine! 

            10. The only acceptable ransom for sin is Christ crucified. And starting in our Gospel Reading for today, Jesus begins to show the Divine necessity of His rejection, suffering, death, and resurrection in Jerusalem (Gibbs 218). Such events are impossible to comprehend within the categories of the Second Temple Judaism in Jesus’ day and its eschatological, messianic expectation (Gibbs 218).

            11. God is not going to be merciful to Jesus, but rather He will pour out all of His wrath upon Him on the cross. When Yahweh visits His wrath upon His enemies, it is like drinking a cup of foaming wine that makes one stagger and fall into shame, ruin, and death (Gibbs 221). Jesus utters words of complete desolation and abandonment when He cried out on the cross, »My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!« (Mark 15,34). „The Father abandons the Son to rejection and wrath. This is the judgment day, as all the apocalyptic signs (the temple curtain tears, the earth quakes, and the tombs are opened) break loose demonstrate. The judgment has come upon Jesus” (Gibbs 222). This is what it means to say „Christ crucified“.

            12. Jesus went to the cross where He suffered and died in the place of sinners. He assumed the condemnation of sinners and bore the punishment that God’s wrath poured out. He took your place and my place; He bore all of your sins and all of my sins; He hung on the cross in our place, and God struck Him down as our payment for sin. Yes, all of the petty sins we never give a second thought to, and all the big sins that we never seem to want to forget about, Jesus bore all of them and in doing so He saved us. There is no greater love shown to us than Christ crucified.

III.

            13. Jesus, therefore, exhorts us to follow Him and be His disciple. Yahweh is merciful to us because He poured out all of His wrath on His crucified Son. Yes, we must deny ourselves and all our attempts to merit Yahweh’s favor. We don’t have to do anything to make our Heavenly Father love us because He has already performed the one merit that counts: sending His only Son to suffer and die for us and our sin. The Christ way, therefore, is the Calvary way – the theology of the cross way.

            14. The only cross we take up is Jesus’ cross. His cross saved us. We need do nothing to merit salvation except believe that Jesus did it all for us and gives us forgiveness freely, without cost. Yes, we will suffer hardships and trials in this life as Christians. We will be tempted to do salvation our own way, water down the pure gospel, and a host of other things to please people. The theology of glory still clings to our sinful flesh and it downplays purity of doctrine in favor of pizzazz. But we need never stoop so low. We merely need to bear our cross, the cross of Jesus, relying fully on Him and His grace, because we know that the cross doesn’t end with death, but with life.

            15. Jesus died in our place and He also rose from the dead in our place (Gibbs 225). Disciples follow Jesus all the way through. We endure ridicule and heartache on account of our faith in Christ. We know that our sins are completely forgiven. One day we will lie down and die, but soon we will be raised up as a new creation. Jesus has saved us from our sins, from all the effects of our sins, and promises to restore us in pure holiness and righteousness.

            16. The gospel isn’t in the Apostle Peter, mighty hero of the faith, prince of the Church, number one pope (Nagel 262). „That is all law stuff. Rather, Peter, greatest possible sinner, who had such a Savior, who was the biggest sinner for us all, for He had the lot and He answered for the lot at Calvary. Such is Christ the Son of the living God“ (Nagel 262).

            17. The cross way is the rock way (Nagel 276). The rock of certainty is Christ (Nagel 276). The rock, the Calvary rock against which little tyrants, nor sin, nor death, nor the gates of hell can prevail (Nagel 277). Peter confessed the Rock – Christ Jesus (Nagel 277). He often slipped from the Rock, but the Rock carried Him through (Nagel 277). Lord Jesus, be our Rock too (Nagel 277).  Amen.

            18. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Son of Man who accomplished all that the Prophets had written of You, lead us onward and upward to Jerusalem so that our eyes remain focused upon Your suffering, death, and resurrection whereby you paid the price for our sinfulness.  Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

                All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Mark © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson. 

                Garland, David E. Reading Matthew: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the First Gospel. Copyright © 1993 by David. E. Garland.

                Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Concordia Theological Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 2008). ,,The Son of God and the Father’s Wrath: Atonement and Salvation in Matthew’s Gospel“. Copyright © 2008 Concordia Theological Seminary.

                Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 11:2 – 20:34. Copyright © 2010 Concordia Publishing House.

                Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

                Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.