'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.' Mark 8:34-35
Here’s a refresh, then, on where we got up to in Mark’s gospel before the summer. And a note on where we’re heading now.
Until now, Jesus has been exclusively moving around the region of Galilee (that is northern Israel) healing, driving out demons, teaching the crowds and instructing his disciples.
We’ve encountered him on both the east and west sides of the lake. We’ve encountered him in the north, on the Mediterranean coast; in Jewish synagogues; and in gentile country too.
We’ve seen him challenged by Pharisees but embraced by a synagogue leader. We’ve seen him rejected by his own town’s people but adored by sinners and tax collectors.
And in this chapter, we’ve seen Jesus get into a boat with his disciples on the west coast of the lake and make their way to the north coast; to a town called Bethsaida (v.22) where he’s about to heal a blind man.
This healing of the blind man represents a turning point in Mark’s gospel. Mark is beginning a new section with this event.
He’s also going to end this new section with the healing of blind man - a man called Bartimaeus, at the end of chapter 10.
And what we’re going to see between here and there, is Jesus moving progressively southwards - out of the area of Galilee - and increasingly explaining to his disciples what he knows will soon happen to him.
Three times we will encounter Jesus predicting his death in this new section of Mark’s gospel narrative.
So that’s why we paused midway through chapter 8 for the summer break. It was to honour the bookending that Mark worked into his narrative to show us: a new phase of Jesus’ ministry is now beginning.
The question I want to fly as a flag over this message is ‘Do we see Jesus clearly?’
It’s a provocative question because most of us testify to know Jesus.
So asking if we see him clearly tests whether we know him as well as we think we do.
But the reason for flying this flag is that, at the heart of these verses (22 to 38) is a misconception about Jesus - a misconception we cannotafford to have.
Jesus makes Peter, who misreads him, consider Jesus in a different way. And he does it bluntly and seriously. He wants to make sure his disciples see him clearly - as he should be seen. And he surely wants that for us too, through Mark’s account.
In verses 22-26 Mark gives us the account of Jesus healing the blind man.
Whereas the deaf and mute man of chapter 7 was healed in onemiraculous action - which also involved Jesus spitting - this time Jesus heals with two actions.
After ‘healing round 1’ the man can see, but only in a hazy fashion. Mark says, ‘He looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking around’.
Then Jesus placed his hands on him again and his eyes ‘were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly’.
So evidently Jesus wasn’t satisfied with his partial sight. Rather, he pressed on to see the man regain his full and clear sight.
And this is very encouraging for us at the beginning of this passage because Jesus is going to get direct with Peter and exacting with the crowd as these verses unfold, and since we want to apply these things to ourselves, then it will be comforting to us to know, from the outset, that Jesus loves to pursue the full and clear sight of people who encounter him.
He is not satisfied that we have only partial sight. He wants 20-20 spiritual vision for his people. And he’s going to continue with us, in all our misapprehension, to show himself to us and wrestle with our unbelief until we encounter him fully; and clearly; and definitively.
So, I think we can take some encouragement this morning, that, as we ask the question, ‘do we see Jesus clearly?’ that Jesus wants us to see Jesus clearly.
And we’ll realise, hopefully, that as he interacts with the disciples, and then Peter, and then the crowd, he’s working to make them see him clearly.
So, after the healing, Jesus and the disciples moved further north to Caesarea Philippi. And on the way Jesus asked his disciples, who people were saying that he was.
I think this is a strategy on Jesus’ part. I think he wants the disciples to know that they have seen Jesus more clearly than the crowds have.
Yes, there were some individuals who had seen him clearly for who he was, but most of the crowds were characterised by one view of Jesus.
And it was this: that Jesus was a powerful prophet.
Some had said: the modern prophet John the Baptist - now dead. Others had said: the ancient prophet, Elijah. And still others went for the broader category of ‘prophet’ without naming any names.
But Jesus wasn’t first and foremost a prophet. And he was looking for the disciples to show that they recognised that. So, he asked the disciples again.
Only this time he asked who they said he was - ‘who do you say I am?’ (V.29). And Peter pings back the answer Jesus is looking for: ‘you are the Messiah’.
Which was exactly right! Jesus was the Messiah - the promised anointed deliverer.
During Israel’s history, the messiah took on greater and greater significance mainly because of Israel’s captivity and oppression at the hands of conquering kingdoms.
Passages like Isaiah 9:6-7 spoke of the messiah to come: ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever’.
And Jeremiah 23:5-6: ‘“the days are coming” declares the Lord “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour”’.
Peter recognised the significance of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. He saw Jesus for who he really was; whilst the Jewish crowds missed it.
So, this is a commendation for Peter. He had spotted in Jesus something extraordinary. Not just a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but an anointed saviour that Isaiah and Jeremiah - the prophets - had themselves pointed to.
Impressive! But that’s not the whole story. We need to keep reading.
Look at verse 31, ‘he [that is Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer’.
Where does the phrase ‘Son of Man’ come from? It comes from the Old Testament prophet Daniel.
‘In my vision’ Daniel says, ‘I looked and there before me was one like the son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven’.
So now that Peter has declared Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus adopts other Old Testament titles for himself in that same vein - like ‘son of man’ - reinforcing the fact.
‘The Son of Man [the messiah] must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again’.
So now, Jesus predicts what’s going to happen in the weeks ahead. And listen to it: it’s arrest, trial, death, interment and then resurrection.
His words show that Jesus’ messiahship looks like resurrection, but only after suffering, rejection, killing, and death!
Little did Peter know it, but he had got Jesus so right! And he got him so wrong!
Jesus was no ordinary prophet that is for sure. But neither was he what Peter anticipated. Because, as Jesus spoke these plain words to the disciples - not with parables - Peter heard him describing something altogether different from what he was expecting the Messiah to do.
Peter recalled Isaiah speaking of ‘greatness’, and ‘reigning’, and ‘government’. He recalled Jeremiah speaking of ‘salvation’ and ‘living in safety’.
So where were those words in Jesus’ plain speech? Where was the military triumph in what Jesus had said?
Jesus used words like, ‘suffer’; ‘rejected’; ‘killed’ to describe what he was going to do. That was not the messiah Peter thought Isaiah and Jeremiah had in mind.
And before he knew what he was doing, Mark says ‘Peter took him [that is Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him’.
That means, Peter began to scold Jesus for not lining up with the Messiah he was expecting to see.
Suddenly, what looked like clarity for Peter - seeing Jesus as Messiah when most didn’t - showed itself to be haziness in him - he saw like the blind man: ‘people who look like trees walking around’ - that’s what Jesus was in Peter’s sight.
And Jesus was indignant about Peter’s rebuke! He rebuked Peter himself. ‘“Get behind me Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns”’.
Jesus regarded Peter’s rebuke of him as Satanic, and hostile to the will of God. Which must mean that Jesus’ suffering, rejection, death and resurrection are exactly what Satan hated and exactly what God sent Jesus to do.
The reason why Satan hated that outcome of Jesus’ life, and why God willed for it to be the outcome of Jesus’ life, is wrapped in the real reason why Peter was right to identify Jesus as the Messiah but wrongin the way he was thinking about the Messiah.
Here’s why: The war between the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God is not a war waged on land with earthly kings and conquerors. It’s a war waged in the spiritual realms, and territory is the territory of people’s hearts.
Satan wants to keep captive the heart of every single person created in the image of God. And God wants to rescue people from that deadly captivity and set them free.
And the way God designed to do that was by his Messiah.
Jesus - the Christ - is God’s chosen instrument to set his people (like you and me if we have faith) free from their captivity – from their deadlyslavery to sin and death (see Daniel’s message a few weeks back).
This is the supreme meaning of messiah. Jesus is the pinnacle and embodiment of everything that messiah foreshadowed in the Old Testament.
But he’s not an earthly messiah; he’s a spiritual messiah. That’s what Peter had missed. He had not seen Jesus so clearly as he had thought he had.
Oh he recognised Jesus as messiah, when others had not, but he had missed what manner of messiah he was. He had missed that Jesus, at least in his first appearing, would be the suffering saviour of Isaiah 53, not the conquering king of Isaiah 9.
‘You have in mind…merely human concerns Peter! You’re focusing on the liberation of your people and your nation from Rome; you’re focusing on the wrong thing Peter’.
Now Jesus is going to show Peter, and us, what the core of seeing Jesus clearly is.
Turning to the crowd and the disciples he says something very exacting which crystallizes what it means to see Jesus clearly.
And to emphasise the point, he’s going to make it three times.
This is what he says, ‘whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it’.
That’s one way of saying it.
The second is, ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?’
And thirdly he says it like this, ‘Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul’.
They are all ultimately saying the same thing. They are showing what it means to really see Jesus.
And to summarise them: to really see Jesus is to regard him as more precious than your life in this world.
Jesus wants us, and Peter, to compare our lives in this world with eternal life with Jesus and to conclude, to be with Jesus forever is infinitelybetter.
And then he wants us to know that eternal life comes through Jesus alone.
Jesus wasn’t a ‘conquering king’ kind of messiah. He was a ‘suffering servant’ kind of messiah. So, it follows that his disciples who receive eternal life through God’s messiah - sent to die for them - might alsofollow in his footsteps - not as earthly conquerors but as earthly sufferers.
This is what he means when he says that his disciples - you and me, and Peter - must deny ourselves, carry our cross - that instrument of torture and execution - and follow him.
Verse 35 ‘for’ - that means ‘because’ - ‘whoever wants to save their life[in this world] - I’m inserting that because that’s what he means - will lose it [for eternity] - I’m inserting that because it’s what he means.
So he’s saying invest in life on earth and you’ll lose life in heaven - that’s the equation.
‘But [by contrast] whoever loses their life [on this earth] for me [why for him? Because that’s how you show that he’s worth more to you than your life] and for the gospel [that’s the good news of God to humanity that results in glory to Jesus when people who hear, treasure Jesus in this way also - as more precious than life] will save it [for all eternity in heaven].
So, seeing Jesus clearly - not hazily like the blind man after healing round 1; but clearly, like the blind man after healing round 2 - seeing Jesus clearly is when you treasure Jesus more than anything this life has to offer - even your own life.
Which, if that’s true for you, means you can deny yourself the fleeting pleasures of this world and invest your life in owning Jesus and spreading the aroma of Jesus so that others can own him too.
Someone will say, ‘that won’t do because where do you draw the line - one person does this that another denies themselves. Which is right?
I think a Christian’s life has to be characterised by a loose hold on this world. The kind of loose hold that says, ‘if I lose everything here, I’m going to be so rich! That’s the point.
And that reality in a person is shown by an earnest desire to be with Jesus now; and to see his kingdom come now.
I don’t think Jesus would say that Christians should feel like they are about to lose everything when they are on the verge of departing this world.
If you think you might feel like you would be losing everything, I think Jesus would say ‘in that case you love this world too much’.
Jesus doubles down on his point by saying ‘what good is it to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul’.
And his point is, no one thinks like that!
Not one single person is investing in this world thinking they will gain the whole thing.
So his point is, if throwing your soul away for the whole world would be absolute folly, then you’d have to be out of your mind to throw it away for the kind of return it actually offers.
And his final way of putting it is to say, even if you could gain the whole world, would God accept the world in exchange for your soul? And the answer is, he would not!
Your soul is more valuable than all the world and Jesus expects you to glut your soul on him because your soul was made for him.
So, if you throw away what God has given you - namely your soul - on something as cheap as the world, don’t expect to be able to give God anything to get it back!
Jesus, then, is warning us that if we live for this life, we are missing whohe really is.
He’s saying if we’re living for this life then we don’t really have him, even though we may look like we have him. Which is sobering. It surely means that we have some soul searching to do.
Seeing Jesus hazily is seeing him as special, but not embracing him as treasure. And there are many who do that. There will be many on that day who will say lord and lord, and he will say I never knew you!
That’s why Jesus says what he says in verse 38. ‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels’.
Jesus is coming a second time. And when he does, he is coming as a conquering king. Peter will have been right about the Messiah the second time he comes.
Jesus is using the fact that he’s coming a second time, with his holy angels, in judgment, defeating his enemies to nail home this message.
When we call Jesus our Saviour – our sin-conquering messiah – but do not value him more than our very lives there is a shameful misuse of Jesus going on there.
In that case he is being treated like an insurance policy not like a loving brother; not like a precious friend; not like the prized protector he really is.
He wants our hearts. He wants us to be so for him that we are happy to live our lives for him and die our deaths for him.
This world lives for this life and when you see Jesus clearly, your life is going to look very different.
The question is will you fall in-line with the world, or will you own the difference that Jesus makes in a person’s life and live shamelessly counter-culturally?
Jesus says, if you don’t own the shame of following Jesus in this radical way, then when he returns - in conquest mode this time - he will be ashamed of you. And believe me, you do not want Jesus to be ashamed of you on that day!
So, this is a rallying call from Jesus to his people on earth: ‘see me so clearly that I am more precious to you than your very life. Don’t use me as an earthly conquering messiah. Don’t add me like an accessory to your good life here on earth. In that case you will lose me for eternity.
No! Make me your life here on earth. Be willing even to lay down your life for me, and I will not be ashamed of you when I come in my glory.
Then you will inherit eternal life!’
I want to finish by sharing with you someone who believed what Jesus said here in these verses. His name was Jim Elliot.
Recently, when I went to see my brother, and friend of Jesus, Daniel Latimer in hospital after his heart attack, he was reading the diary of this man, Jim Elliot.
Jim Elliot died aged 28, just three years after marrying his wife Elizabeth Elliot in Ecuador, and just one year after the birth of their first child in 1956.
He had gone to Ecuador with the express purpose of reaching an indigenous Ecuadorian tribe called the Huaorani with the gospel of Jesus.
Having made tentative contact with the Huaorani people in late 1955, he and his three companions decided to build a camp close to the tribe’s location. But shortly after landing on January 8th 1956, they were approached by 10 Huaorani warriors.
Jim stepped forward to greet them and they speared him and his 3 companions to death where they stood.
There’s a famous quote attributed to him which goes like this: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose’.
Jim gave his life for Jesus and the gospel, but he was no fool, even though he had a wife and daughter, because he gave up what he could not keep in order to gain what he could not lose – eternal life with Jesus.
That doesn’t mean that every Christian who doesn’t end up martyred like Jim Elliot isn’t going to inherit eternal life; or that Jesus will be ashamed of them when he comes.
There are all kinds of ways to lose your life for Jesus and most of them don’t look like martyrdom. After-all if every Christian were martyred, there wouldn’t be many mouths to share the gospel!
So that’s not what Jesus has in mind. He does have in mind that we be willing to live lives for him on the basis that, if we were to be martyred for his name and the gospel, then we would not consider ourselves to have ended up worse off but infinitely better!
We’ve all got to figure out, with Jesus, what a life like that looks like in practice.
With the help of his Word, we can do that.
But it starts with seeing Jesus clearly – by faith and not hazily. Whole heartedly and not superficially.
And, like I said at the beginning, Jesus shows us here that he wants us to see him clearly. That’s why Peter ended up writing two letters and being martyred himself. And why Jesus will not be ashamed of Peter when he comes in his glory.
Jesus wants us to see Jesus clearly too. So take heart!
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