WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.120 Reading is from Mark 8:31 to 9 1. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:14.000 And he 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. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.000 And he said this plainly. 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:19.280 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:28.719 But turning and seeing his disciples, he 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. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:38.240 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:44.719 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:49.039 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:52.000 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 00:00:52.159 --> 00:01:03.759 For 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 comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.640 And he said to them, Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:14.079 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:15.439 Please be seated. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:19.760 Good morning. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:24.239 I I apologize for the for that text being a little mixed up on the screen. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:29.680 The slide guy always gets blamed for those things, but that was just 100% my fault. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:42.159 I um caught it this morning uh when I was going through the slides that I made, and then I forgot to make it happen on that computer, which is the only computer that it matters for it to happen on. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.400 But either way, you're able to hear the reading. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:45.599 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:47.120 Um my name is James Rathman. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.079 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:51.760 Uh we're glad you're with us. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.319 Um yeah, let's uh let's open these windows and maybe a door in the back. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:58.000 It's really warm in here, right? 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:04.480 Yeah, we're taking a sweat lodge approach uh this Sunday morning. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:08.719 Uh let's pray and we'll move into today's text. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:19.840 Holy Father, we praise you for your love towards us, the gift that you give us in the gathering of your people together each Sunday. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:28.560 Lord, we praise you for your word, which is living and active and still affects and trains our hearts. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:45.039 Lord, I pray that you would make us a people who can hear what you have to say, who would enter into all the strangeness that it entails, and that we would trust you to give us your spirit that we might understand what you have to say to us. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.199 Lord, your word is effective. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:50.159 It accomplishes what you send it out to do. 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.439 Lord, we pray that that would be true this morning in our hearts. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:55.120 Lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:55.919 Amen. 00:02:57.759 --> 00:03:01.919 There are two certainties that Christ offers those who would come after him. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:07.039 The two certainties are victory and death. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.800 Victory and death. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:18.000 Now, the phrases that we will hear in today's text are so familiar. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.800 If anyone wishes to come after me, he must pick up his cross and follow me. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:33.039 You know, these are phrases in Christianity which are are they're so uh like how many times have you maybe even heard a sermon on these these very words? 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:46.639 You know, it's it's so familiar, and yet that can cause us to not confront just this absolute strangeness of the gospel, which is a promise of victory and death. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:47.599 Don't you see? 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:53.680 Those are precise opposites, those are absolutely opposite of one another. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:55.840 Victory is the opposite of death. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:02.719 Death is the opposite of victory, and yet both are promised to us in the gospel. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:05.840 What is this paradox? 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:12.800 How can we understand a world that a gospel that presents itself to us so paradoxically? 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:18.319 How can we begin to enter into a pattern of living that was so paradoxical? 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:23.920 Well, let's move through this text today with the hope of discovering that. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:32.959 Jesus will show us that we live lives that are surrounded by death, and there is no option of getting out of this world alive. 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.439 Death is coming to every one of us. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:40.560 But he will show us that there is a way through death. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:47.199 This is our hope, that there is a way through death, and he is the way. 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.040 So let's look at that. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:05:04.560 Mark 8, 31, and he 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. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:20.959 So Jesus last week we saw, he asked the disciples, Who do people say that I am? 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.000 And they had a list of answers, and he said, Who do you say that I am? 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:27.199 And Peter said, You are the Christ. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:42.319 And then that turns into this teaching that Jesus gives, where he begins to teach them right after that confession, you've identified me correctly, and the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, and die. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:47.680 And then there's this little strange tag at the end, and after three days rise again. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:52.079 Now, what does the confession that Jesus is the Christ mean? 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:54.319 What did that mean to Peter to confess that? 00:05:54.399 --> 00:06:02.160 Well, it means that he is the anointed one, which is the fulfillment of at least three three categories that are given to us in the Old Testament. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:06.319 So we're sort of given the grammar of redemption through which we can understand Jesus. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:09.680 The first is that he is the true prophet. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.879 To say he is the Christ, to say Jesus is the true prophet. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.879 That means he is speaking the very words of God. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:22.000 They are certain and absolutely true and absolutely effective. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:23.360 Jesus is the true prophet. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:25.199 That's what it means for him to be the Christ. 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:28.160 Jesus is the true high priest. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:39.759 That means that with the coming of Jesus, there might be a real unity among the people of Israel because they have a true representative who can bring them together. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:49.600 And under this true representative representative, they would be a united people presented before the Father and presented cleanly before the Father. 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:59.759 There was someone who could finally intercede in between God and the people of Israel, so that God might be on their side. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.079 This is what Peter understands it to mean when he says that Jesus is the Christ. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.439 Likewise, he is the true king. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:18.639 And that means that all of the oppressors and adversaries that had broken apart and exiled the people of Israel will be overthrown under the true king. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:30.000 And all of the oppression that they have faced for centuries and that they currently experience under the occupation of Rome, they will no longer experience under the true king. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:38.160 So when Peter says, you are the Christ, he understands this to mean we finally have our prophet. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:43.120 So the Pharisees that are standing against him, they'll get it soon enough. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:51.519 And we finally have our true priest, so that all of the wickedness that exists within Israel will be cleaned up now and we'll be a united people. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:08:01.920 And in our true king, we'll be able to overthrow this occupation and all the fulfillment of all the hope that we have been given in the Old Testament is finally coming to pass. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:06.079 So this looks like a march from glory to glory. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:13.120 That is the picture, the expectation that Peter would have when he sees that Jesus is the Christ. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:15.759 What will life be like from now on? 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.279 There will not be an adversary that can stand in our way. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:21.040 Pharisees come at us. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:23.279 We've got the words of God on our side. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:24.480 You're unclean. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:25.680 You can't approach God. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:27.279 We have the true high priest. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:28.879 Rome is too strong. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:29.920 They're too powerful. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.159 We've never seen an empire like this before. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:34.399 We have the promised king. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.360 Victory to victory. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:40.639 That is the expectation that Peter has. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:58.720 And then the next thing that Jesus says is it is necessary that the Son of Man will suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:04.240 So Peter doesn't quite understand what's happening. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:06.399 See, here's what's happened. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:10.639 Peter has identified the right character. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:12.960 He said, Jesus, you are the Christ. 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:19.200 And he's identified the right character, but he doesn't understand the story that this character lives in yet. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:34.080 And he doesn't understand how he participates in the story of Jesus and what it is, the depths of transformation that Jesus is actually accomplishing in his life. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:46.559 So instead, he hears Jesus say, I will suffer greatly, even though I'm only speaking the truth. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:58.080 I will be rejected by the scribes and the Pharisees, the people who are best trained to spot the Messiah, will reject me. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:06.080 And this king that I am, my first act in my kingdom is death. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:12.720 In fact, it's being killed by our occupying government. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:17.120 And three days later rise. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.600 But look, I didn't really hear it either, you know? 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:24.960 Well, I don't I wouldn't know what to do with a phrase like that at the end of that list. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:30.879 I like Peter, would probably just hear suffering, rejection, and death, and three days later rise again. 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:35.039 I don't even know what that last part means, but let's talk about how absurd it is. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:40.159 In Mark 8, 32, Mark rarely adds commentary. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:43.679 So when he does, it's it's really meaningful. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.519 Mark says, and he said this plainly. 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:51.440 So Jesus just lays this out. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:58.399 The Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, and be killed, and three days later he will rise. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.720 He says it plainly. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:11.440 Now, Jesus had laid out many parables, and he's even explained to those on the outside, I speak in parables, so that they won't see. 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:16.720 But to those on the inside, the disciples, I explain clearly, so that you might see. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:25.120 And Jesus says this plainly, and it results in utter confusion on the part of the disciples. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:34.720 Now I think Mark brings this to our attention so that he will show what it means to grasp who Christ is and what the pattern of the gospel really is. 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:42.240 We can have it explained to us plainly, in the most clear and precise language possible. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:48.720 And that shows us that the confusion lies within our hearts. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:54.720 See, understanding the gospel is a dialogue. 00:11:55.519 --> 00:12:02.799 There's a gift giver and a receiver, and both of those are a part of this movement of the gospel. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:09.200 Jesus says the pattern of the gospel plainly. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:24.320 It is clear, able to be understood, and it results in confusion, which shows that it is our hearts which need to be transformed in order to receive the news. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.759 So here's Peter's response. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.960 Mark 8, 32, the next half through 33. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.799 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:47.759 But turning and seeing his disciples, he 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. 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:55.039 Who do you say that I am? 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:55.840 I am. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:58.159 We say that you are the Christ. 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:06.480 And Jesus says, it's not flesh and blood that's revealed this to you, it's God in heaven who has revealed this to you. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:09.200 So Peter's like, finally I get an answer right. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:16.639 And it it's an answer that transforms the whole outlook of what this discipleship program means. 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:19.840 And I've really hitched my wagon to the right guy here. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:23.279 I bet on the right horse. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.279 And then Jesus says, I'm the Christ. 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:33.440 What's up next, next week, on the Christ? 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.759 Suffering, rejection, death. 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:43.200 And Peter's like, what's happening in Jesus' heart? 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:46.639 He must have resigned himself already. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:56.399 Has he become so discouraged right off right out of the gate with this program that that all he can see is just suffering, rejection, and death? 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:00.960 That has he has he seen that they are just these twelve? 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.919 And it maybe it was it was hearing, who do people say that I am? 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:06.960 They don't understand. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:08.240 They think I'm some other prophet. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:10.000 They don't get the project that I'm doing. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:14.639 And then hearing, well, who do these 12 fishermen and tax collectors say that I am? 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.159 Oh, they get that you're the Christ. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:17.919 Well, that's useless. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.480 What am I going to do with this pack of strays when I'm going up against the Roman government? 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:38.799 And Peter sees this, and he imagines that this description of suffering, rejection, and death that Jesus is going to, it must be some sort of resignation, denial of the identity of what the Christ is meant to do. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:45.200 But Jesus cuts off that pattern of thinking as quickly as it starts. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.759 Peter rebuked Jesus, Jesus rebuked Peter. 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.519 You rebuke me, rebuke you. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.240 Get behind me, Satan. 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:04.000 You're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:08.639 Why Satan? 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:17.360 Well, look at what the temptation is that Peter is offering to Jesus. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:27.279 Imagine a path for the Christ that involves no suffering, no rejection, and no death. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.639 Jesus, come up with me on this high mountain. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.440 Remember when Satan does this in the wilderness? 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.279 Come up with me on this high mountain. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:38.000 Let me show you all the kingdoms of the world. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.679 You know, these kingdoms are mine to give. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:45.279 The authority of the world belongs to me. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:51.919 Jesus, if you would just kneel to me, I would give you all these kingdoms. 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:58.000 No suffering, no rejection, no death, from glory to glory. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.080 Peter says, You're the Christ. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:07.600 And you're talking about an ending in death. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.120 Isn't it strange how in in three days rise again? 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.120 It's invisible. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.000 It can't be heard by Peter. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:24.320 So there's this. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:33.200 This shows us something about the way that Peter understood the Christ and the way that we come to see Jesus. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:39.919 You know, we can we can understand his identity in in a glimpse, in these glimpses and glimmers. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:48.240 Peter rightly identifies Jesus as the Christ, but he must continue participating with Jesus. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:55.039 Continue in this process of getting to know Jesus in order that he might see him clearly. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:05.119 Now you need to understand that in order to know Jesus in your own Christian life or in your own seeking to know him. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:12.720 Jesus is not something that you identify like the result of a math problem. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:20.400 Or Jesus is not a mere, a mere fact that you can know and then regurgitate the proper information about. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:24.480 All that Peter said of Jesus and confessing him as the Christ was true. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:30.400 But in order to know him, he must enter into Jesus' story with him. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:36.240 And this shouldn't be surprising, because you know this intuitively. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:39.279 That's the way you get to know a person. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.759 That's the way a person becomes known. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:47.279 And we are getting to know the person of Christ. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:56.960 So there is such a category in our knowing of Jesus that is something like almost knowing, beginning to know, starting to see, getting a glimpse of. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:03.839 These are real categories in our knowing and understanding of Jesus is the Christ. 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:07.519 So Peter couldn't name the story. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:21.759 Jesus shocks Peter out of his pattern of thinking, and then he begins to show him a better way, a way of understanding what Jesus is calling them to. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:24.240 Mark 8, 34. 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:36.559 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:44.640 Rebukes Peter, calls the crowd together, and then says this strange word. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:19:04.000 If anyone desires to link themselves with Jesus, to try this Jesus project, then it will look like this self-denial and crossbearing. 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:06.480 That's the pattern of following me. 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:14.640 Self-denial and crossbearing, they're they're almost different ways of saying the same thing, although crossbearing is more visceral. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:26.480 You know, it's it's a lived thing, it's a part of crucifixion, the walking and carrying your own cross. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:40.079 And it's hard for us to imagine a before Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection vision for what the cross would mean. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:52.240 And we could say something like, you know, it'd be like carrying an electric chair down the street, but people don't bear electric chairs. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:56.160 And even when somebody's put in an electric chair, I think Florida still has one. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:59.119 Florida's so sick. 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:02.000 I'm from Florida. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:07.440 Which was another piece of evidence. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:25.440 Um there'll be a reporter, perhaps a family member, the person who performs the execution. 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:28.559 There's something about the event that is private. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:41.200 Crossbearing is designed to make a public experience of shame. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:51.440 So that there it's a parade of shame and guilt and humiliation. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:21:22.079 So Jesus is saying the pattern of following me is denying yourself an entering of your own accord into a parade of humiliation, to be made an object of shame by the whole world, so that the whole world would gaze out upon you and and and despise you. 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:36.559 That's the what Jesus is saying, following him requires is this image of picking up your cross willingly. 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:40.480 There's an absolute absurdity to this. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:10.000 Suffering is a real part of the Christian life. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:18.799 Which means that suffering in itself does not mean you're doing it wrong. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:31.440 Now, our culture explains all of life to us in terms of if you are suffering, that means something is going wrong. 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:34.799 And that there's something that needs to be fixed. 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:35.920 You're missing something. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:41.680 Something that's just around the corner. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:47.200 And what that does, that mythology, it multiplies your suffering. 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:54.400 Because now not only are you suffering, but you're wrong for suffering. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:08.240 Following Christ, what it means to follow this Lord is we do not follow a Savior who keeps us safe from suffering. 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:15.200 We follow a Savior with whom it is safe to suffer. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:28.559 That means that he is the type of person who, when he calls you to follow him in suffering, he is going before you. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:35.519 And he is saying, I will be with you in the midst of this suffering. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:45.119 There is a lot in your life that is sad and feels sad because it's sad. 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:52.480 That hurts and feels hurtful because it is too hurtful. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:54.720 That one wasn't as pretty as the first one. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:05.200 Some of these crosses are tailor-made for you. 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:07.680 In fact, each of them are. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:22.640 Tailor-made. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:29.759 Bearing them is not foolishness. 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:33.599 It's not doing something wrong. 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:44.720 Now, a phrase like this, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:50.079 Do you remember in Fight Club when Meatloaf tries to join Project Mayhem? 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:02.799 And so he's standing on the porch of the Fight Club house, basically like a fraternity for grown men. 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:07.519 It was the 90s. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:13.440 And uh he's like, Oh, I want to join Fight Club. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:15.359 And they just haze him. 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:18.079 You know, like you can't join Fight Club. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:24.720 Uh and and then he just keeps standing out there for a couple of days and they haze him. 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:27.279 They say all these crazy things to him. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:37.279 Uh, and he stands out there, and then three after three days of him just taking the hazing, Brad Pitt walks out and is like, you got three pairs of black shirts, three pairs of black pants, three pairs of black socks, three hundred dollars in personal burial money. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:39.200 It was a formative movie in my life. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:43.599 And uh then they're like, Okay, you can come and join Fight Club. 00:25:43.839 --> 00:26:00.000 I think we can read these verses as like that type of process, where what Jesus is doing is he's like, Look, I only want the toughest and the strongest and people who are willing to go into the fray with me on my team. 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:07.680 And so I'm gonna filter this crowd to see who the strongest and the most resilient people are, and those are the ones that get to join me. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:10.000 You know, the others can ring the bell. 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:13.279 But that's not what's happening here. 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:22.480 This is not an initial hazing of Jesus that's testing the strength and fortitude of those who might call themselves his disciples. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:27.039 He is trying to make blind people see. 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.359 That is what Jesus is doing here. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:49.200 He is trying to take blind people who he can say plainly: suffering, rejection, death, resurrection, and them not even hear resurrection because they're unable to see the pattern of the gospel that will take place in Jesus' life. 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:57.680 And so he's trying to break our minds, saying following the Christ paradoxically leads to death. 00:26:57.920 --> 00:26:59.680 It's a cross bearing. 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:16.000 And what what holding both of those things in our minds is supposed to do is that eventually we can't, they like snap together in a like, I don't know, like two neutron stars or something and create some radical explosion that changes the way that we view things. 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:24.079 And I know that Jesus isn't just doing an initial hazing here because he moves into an explanation. 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:26.880 He gives us the reasons. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:38.720 And when you understand the reason that you ought to take up your cross and follow Jesus, you will see there is no other reasonable alternative to life. 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:44.559 I know there are reasons because Jesus starts with the word for. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:46.720 Mark 8, 35. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:52.240 For why would I take up my cross and fall and follow anyone? 00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:55.920 Those are how I know the people to not follow. 00:27:56.559 --> 00:27:58.160 Mark 8, 35. 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:00.640 For, why would you do something like that? 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:05.440 Because whoever would save his life will lose it. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:12.079 But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:14.000 Great, another paradox. 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:19.920 I hope you're getting more comfortable with the strangeness of Christian reasoning. 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:22.160 Maybe less comfortable. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:31.119 If you desire to save your life, then you'll lose it. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:38.079 But if you lose your life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, you will save it. 00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:51.200 He brings us face to face with this paradox, and what he's showing is this difference between death and sacrifice. 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:55.599 Death is meaningless. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:02.079 Sacrifice is a death that is meaningful. 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:09.119 He's saying there's a meaningful, it's a it's a death that can accomplish something. 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:10.640 That's what sacrifice means. 00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:14.880 It's a death that corresponds to something else. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:18.000 That's what makes it a sacrifice. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:23.599 And so, what does self-denial here mean? 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:35.279 It means not that we don't value our lives, not that we vanish as a person, as a substance. 00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:37.920 That's not what it means. 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:47.440 Some Christians have taken this to mean that they themselves as a person just dissolve and no longer take up any space in the world. 00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:49.200 It's much the opposite. 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:53.440 Oftentimes, as Christians, we're we're we need to take up some space. 00:29:54.079 --> 00:29:56.720 You as a person need to take up some space. 00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:59.200 You know, advocate for yourself. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:01.119 Hard things like that. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:05.359 So that's that's not what it means. 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:12.240 It means that you value something else more than you value yourself. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.000 Now, how does this work? 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:30.880 Jesus is teaching us how to enter into a new world, a new landscape of imagination to understand what his project of the gospel is. 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:40.960 He continues in his argument, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:46.480 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:50.720 Jesus says, Let me lay out the world as it is for you. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:31:05.599 All that you would want, all that you could try and gain from this world, from the pursuit of what you think it is that makes your soul meaningful apart from me. 00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:12.720 All that it is that could make your soul meaningful apart from me, he's making a maximal argument. 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:15.039 Imagine that you get it all. 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:22.400 Imagine that all of that is received, and in the process, you lose your soul. 00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:27.359 There is no person left to be able to receive it. 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:34.720 You have been dissolved into whatever it is, these things that you're chasing. 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:42.079 You know, if I think when we hear like we hear a phrase like this, what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:51.039 We think of like a like a wolf of Wall Street or Gordon Gecko type of character, like a Boiler Room or uh what what's the really good one? 00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:52.400 Glenn Gary Glenn Ross. 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:54.000 It's a good movie. 00:31:54.799 --> 00:32:02.559 We think of these just like, you know, these hyper greedy people who are trying to dominate the whole the whole world. 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:05.920 And we think, yeah, yeah, I know that story. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:09.279 I wouldn't want to play that game. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:11.599 And I'm not like that anyway. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:14.720 Uh so good thing. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:16.960 And uh those guys have it coming. 00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:20.799 You know, we've we've learned that lesson. 00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:22.559 At least you'd think we did. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:25.680 It's like nobody finished the Wolf of Wall Street movie. 00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.880 You know, and it just became like a bunch of like hustle culture memes. 00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:31.440 It's like, no, that story ended really bad. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:33.599 We do that all the time. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:38.000 This is a maximum argument. 00:32:38.160 --> 00:33:02.400 So he's saying, look, if this is true at the maximum, or if you could gain the whole world and it would be futile because you lost your soul, how much more true is it of you in these petty little things that you are clinging to, that you think are the things that define you and make your life meaningful, that are apart from Jesus and the gospel. 00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:11.519 What he's saying is you are surrounded by death. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:17.759 That there is no alternative way out. 00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:27.519 You could try and gain the whole world, but you would see that you are just surrounded by death, even if you gained the whole world. 00:33:29.119 --> 00:34:06.240 But if you enter into death with Christ, if you follow him into his death, and all of those things which you would value apart from him, all of those things which Jesus is in competition with in your soul for lordship, for the description of who you are, for the things that would make your life leaningful, meaningful, all of those things, if those are put to death willingly, then in that death with Christ there is a hope of resurrection. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:09.119 You are pinned. 00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:12.639 Look at the shape of the world. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.840 There is no way out. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:33.039 I am speaking like this to try and convince myself because it is so hard to come to an understanding in this type of life, in the lives that many of us have in a wonderful place like this, that we are utterly surrounded by death. 00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:38.960 That this is the inevitability of, this is the way that our story ends. 00:34:47.599 --> 00:34:49.039 Here's what it's like. 00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:54.800 This is what this is the way that Jesus is is trying to transform your mind. 00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:02.000 He's he's saying something like this. 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:10.400 I apologize for all these references, but if you've been here for a while, then you know it's inevitable. 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:30.480 Uh when Aragorn comes to King Thaedin, and King Thaedin uh doesn't understand the threat that he has from Saruman, and he says, I will not risk open war with my people. 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:41.119 And Aragorn says Exactly, open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not. 00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:47.360 Here, look, this is the way that this is the way that Jesus is shaping this argument. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:51.840 He's saying, come and pick up your cross and follow me. 00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:57.519 And this is not just a hazing ritual, because there is no other alternative. 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:04.000 He's saying, look, you are trapped in a world of death, and you don't even see it anymore. 00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:07.519 But I am here to shine a light on this reality of your circumstance. 00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:10.159 You are trapped in a world of death. 00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:11.599 And I give you an option. 00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:16.880 It is not one that avoids death, but it is one that follows me into death. 00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:22.400 And if you follow me into death, there is resurrection on the other side. 00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:25.039 There is hope on the other side of this. 00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:28.480 There can be death and victory. 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:31.920 This is the pattern of the gospel. 00:36:33.599 --> 00:36:37.119 It is the most maximum war possible. 00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:52.079 How would you recruit for the most maximum war possible, where even you yourself are an enemy and must be transformed in a whole world that has fallen into death? 00:36:53.920 --> 00:37:03.519 I heard this wonderful description of the gospel of how Jesus has to go to the very bottom, to the very bottom in order to bring the world into life. 00:37:03.679 --> 00:37:04.320 You know what it's like? 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:06.400 This is so silly, but it's so sticky. 00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:10.239 It's like trying to, it's like a sock that's inside out. 00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:16.880 You have to reach down to the very bottom to pull it out to make it right side up again. 00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:42.400 Jesus is exposing to us that it makes sense to willingly pick up your cross, something that upside down makes sense in a world that is upside down, in a world that is satanic, inverted from God's good designs. 00:37:42.639 --> 00:37:45.760 In a world like that, it makes sense. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:52.639 And the reason that it doesn't make sense to us is because we don't understand that the world is upside down. 00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:59.920 And so when Jesus comes in and he's right side up, then he says things about his kingdom. 00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:07.440 And he says things like, you must pick up your cross and deny yourself and come follow me into suffering, rejection, and death. 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:12.559 That could only make sense if you assume the world is upside down. 00:38:12.719 --> 00:38:15.039 Well, how can I convince you that the world is upside down? 00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:19.280 Jesus says, Well, imagine you gain the whole world. 00:38:20.639 --> 00:38:25.039 If you do, you would still destroy your soul. 00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:27.360 So what's left there? 00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:31.679 Then Jesus starts to talk about shame. 00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:33.519 Isn't this interesting? 00:38:33.920 --> 00:38:50.719 Mark 8, 38, for 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 comes in the glory of his father and with the holy angels. 00:38:51.039 --> 00:38:57.760 Look, you you you're you're gonna have to figure out what the type of thing that you are. 00:38:58.639 --> 00:39:01.840 Because do you know what it means to lose your soul? 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:14.159 It means that the Son of Man, when he comes in the glory of his father with his holy angels, if he is ashamed of you, you have lost your soul. 00:39:14.639 --> 00:39:16.400 Those are the same thing. 00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:25.039 Because we are not creatures that exist just of ourselves. 00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:31.760 We are creatures that exist in relation to God. 00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:37.360 That is the nature of our existence. 00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:44.639 Who you are is who you are in relation to God. 00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:47.840 That is who you are. 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:54.239 That is what it means for you to be a creature, is who you are in relation to God. 00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:59.840 Here's this wonderful quote from like the only person I quote lately, Esther Meek. 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:07.280 She says, God creates neither out of necessity nor out of arbitrary, all-powerful will. 00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:10.320 So God doesn't create because he's like, oh, I have to. 00:40:10.400 --> 00:40:14.960 It's the type of thing that I am, nor does he create out of arbitrary, all-powerful will. 00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:18.880 Ah, thus spake Zarathustra type of stuff. 00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:24.800 Neither of these would grant, this gets a little technical, it might be wrong. 00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:30.239 Neither of these would grant particularity in relatedness to either God or creation. 00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:48.559 What that means is that neither of those would allow you to be a real person that exists as a particular person, not like a drop in the infinite sea of samsara that you might dissolve into one day at the end of your life. 00:40:48.719 --> 00:40:49.360 No, no. 00:40:49.679 --> 00:41:00.800 You yourself, a real person, and exist in relation to the infinite, so that you don't dissolve into it, into the infinite. 00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:08.320 You're not devoured by the infinite, but in your relation to the infinite, you become more of yourself. 00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:12.880 This is one of the shocking things of Christianity that the incarnation shows us. 00:41:13.039 --> 00:41:21.519 But it shows us that I'll continue the quote: He creates freely out of love and he redeems freely out of love. 00:41:21.840 --> 00:41:26.800 Love is indeed at the core of all things. 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:30.719 It is because God creates out of love. 00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:37.679 And that that means that love is the sustaining feature of all existence. 00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:41.760 And this makes sense because do you know what love does? 00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:54.639 It maintains relationships without either side, the love, the lover, the beloved, without either side devouring or destroying or absorbing the other. 00:41:55.039 --> 00:41:57.920 The identity of both are maintained. 00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:04.000 The identity of the lover and the beloved are maintained in love. 00:42:04.639 --> 00:42:12.719 So that's why we have a that's why we use words like universe to describe the thing that we live in. 00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:19.920