Palm Sunday

Andrew G. Pittman
Sunday Morning (Palm Sunday)
April 1, 2007
The Cross and Discipleship
Mark 8: 34.

I. Introduction.
Today is Palm Sunday—the Sunday before Easter. Traditionally, this is the day that Christians unite around the cross and suffering of Jesus. It is the day that we remember Jesus’ riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. The crowds were cheering, and the children were dancing, and grown men were shouting “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King of Israel!” For one brief moment, all the people of Jerusalem recognized who Jesus really is. Yet, less than a week later, these same people shouted “Crucify Him!” And they helplessly stood by to witness the shame and rejection Jesus suffered as our crucified Lord.
Today, I want to direct your attention to the cross—the “Old, Rugged Cross” on which the Prince of Glory died.
I want you to see a cross that a friend of mine gave me last year for Christmas. My friend is one of the church secretaries from First Baptist Church, Canton, Mississippi. We stopped by her house when we traveled to visit my family last Christmas.
This cross is a special gift she gave me. It is special to me for at least two reasons. First, it was made from wood taken from a house that our church in Mississippi owned while I was pastor. The house was one of only a precious few Antebellum houses remaining in Canton. It was built in 1860 and was used as a Post Office during the Civil War. Adjacent to the house was the last remaining, free-standing “Slave Quarters” in Madison County Mississippi.
The church purchased the house, because we needed the land for building expansion. We worked with the Historical Commission to find a buyer who would relocate the house to a suitable place to be restored. During my time in Canton, I worked with three potential owners. We did everything we could do to relocate the house—including donating the house and slave quarters to the Historical Commission—but the Historical Commission made us look like the bad guys in every form of local media.
The Historical Commission never accepted the house as a gift from the church, because they could not afford the estimated $1 Million in renovation costs. In the Summer of 2005—after I had left Canton—the house and slave quarters burned. This cross is what is left from that fire.
This cross is made from wood that is nearly 200 years old. It’s really not very pretty. It has lived through the Civil War in Mississippi; intense racial wars; the devastation of fire; and two centuries of suffering. Today, this ugly wood with a horrific past forms a beautiful religious symbol—the cross. A checkered past…But a wonderful future.
This cross has experienced the same transformation as Jesus’ cross. In the First Century world, there was nothing beautiful about a cross. It was an instrument of torture. It was an inefficient way for a criminal to die. But it was the perfect way to steal the humanity and dignity from men who had committed crimes against the Roman Empire. Yet, the cross was also God’s chosen method to demonstrate his love for all sinners.
It should surprise us that God’s only Son faced such a shameful execution. It should surprise us even more that Jesus invited us to embrace the suffering and shame of the cross…

Read Mark 8: 34.
The Gospel of Mark begins with the words: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.
In this one, short verse Mark spelled out his entire premise for writing this book. Mark wants to tell us the story about Jesus. This story is the Gospel—that is The Good News. This Good News story focuses on Jesus, who is the Christ.
The Greek word “Christ” is the Greek form of the Hebrew word “Messiah.” So, Christ is not Jesus’ last name. Christ is his title. It describes who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish on earth. Both “Christ” and “Messiah” can be translated to mean “The Anointed One.” This means that Jesus had a specific mission and purpose to fulfill.
The Jewish people were hoping and praying for the Messiah to come and restore Israel to her rightful place among the nations. Israel was at one time a significant nation with a God-given purpose in the world. The Messiah was the Promised One, who would reestablish Israel as a prominent nation and no longer one of the many nations that served the Roman Emperor. They had hoped for a political leader who could rally support among the Jewish people. They had hoped for a military leader who would lead an insurrection against Rome. But Jesus was neither a governor nor a general. Jesus was something completely different. Jesus was the Son of God.
In fact, those of us who read the Gospel of Mark know who Jesus is just by reading the first verse. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So, as we read the Gospel, we have an opportunity to witness how the disciples, the women and the crowds gradually begin to gain understanding of who Jesus is. But no one seems to understand Jesus.
Well, there was one man who recognized Jesus as the Son of God. It will surprise you. It wasn’t one of the disciples. It wasn’t a religious person. It wasn’t even one of the many people Jesus healed. No, it was a Roman soldier who stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. In Mark 14: 33 – 39, we read Mark’s account of Jesus’ death. When Jesus had taken his last breath, the Roman soldier said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” I understand this to mean that there is only one way to recognize Jesus for who he truly is…The Cross. We have to accept the cross if we want to recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
In Mark 8, Peter got very close to understanding Jesus. Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked a personal question: “But what about ya’ll? Who do ya’ll say that I am?” Peter was the first one to answer, “You are the Christ.”
Since you and I have already read Mark 1: 1, we expect Peter to keep going… “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” But he doesn’t go far enough. Peter stops short of confessing who Jesus really is…The Christ, the Son of God.
Jesus went on to explain that is was necessary for the Christ to suffer rejection and crucifixion in order to fulfill the role God had anointed Jesus to fulfill. Peter rebuked Jesus by saying, “No, Lord. This cannot be.”
At this point, we can make a choice between two alternative understandings. First, perhaps Peter didn’t understand what Jesus was saying and just needed a better explanation. Second, perhaps Peter really did understand what Jesus was saying and didn’t like what he had heard. I think Peter understood and didn’t like it. That is why Peter tried to talk Jesus out of the rejection and suffering of the cross.
At this point, Jesus made a bold statement to Peter. Peter has been understood as the Rock of the church. Peter preached a bold, spirit-filled sermon at Pentecost from which 3,000 men and women became Christians. And, Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Get behind me Satan.”
Peter had become a tool of Satan without even knowing it. He didn’t want to work for Satan, but that is what he was doing. He tried to introduce a way for Jesus to avoid suffering and rejection. He didn’t want Jesus to go to the cross. He tried to impose the Jewish system of understanding the Messiah and perhaps convince Jesus to work in a way contrary to God’s original plan. And anytime we place human expectations above God’s will, we are inadvertently doing the work of Satan...By opposing God’s will.
Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me.” I think Jesus was telling Peter that he had overstepped his bounds as a disciple. A disciple is supposed to follow his or her master. Peter was now trying to lead his master. Instead of following behind Jesus, Peter was trying to tell Jesus where to go. It is impossible for us to follow, if we insist on leading the way.
An interesting thing happens in the Greek text of Mark 8. Jesus used the same words to address Peter and to address the crowds. Jesus commanded Peter: “Get behind me.” Then, Jesus invited the crowd to become disciples by saying, “If anyone wants to follow behind me…”
This tells me that the very first step in becoming a disciple of Jesus is to get into a proper relationship with Jesus. Jesus has to be the leader. You have to become the follower. In other words, Jesus is in front. We are behind Jesus. Jesus leads the way. We will only go into the places where Jesus has already gone. For disciples of Jesus, there is no such thing as uncharted waters. If we follow Jesus, he leads us to places where he is already present.
At this point, I think it is worth noting that Jesus began his invitation to discipleship by demonstrating the voluntary nature of discipleship. No one is conscripted into becoming a discipleship. No one is drafted into Jesus’ army. No one is snatched into a relationship with Jesus against his or her will. NO! Jesus said, “If anyone wants…If anyone wills…If anyone desires…to become a follower…”
Then, Jesus made three points about true discipleship…

II. Deny Self.
Again, Mark 1: 1 tells us that Mark wrote his Gospel to tell us the “beginning of the Good News about Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.” The Gospel is about Jesus. Everyone else in the book of Mark is a supporting character. In other words, Mark does not tell us the story of the Twelve disciples. Mark tells us the story of how the Twelve disciples relate to Jesus.
The First Century disciples serve as a model—or perhaps a picture—of what discipleship is supposed to look like in the Twenty-First Century. This picture of discipleship began with Jesus’ very simple call: “Come. Follow Me.”
When Peter and Andrew heard Jesus’ call, they were fishing. James and John heard Jesus’ call while they were repairing their fishing nets. Levi first encountered Jesus while he was counting the money at his tax collection booth. These five men were doing the things they were most comfortable doing. Then, one day, everything changed. Their lives were never the same again.
Jesus called them to enter into an uncertain, new life of following behind Jesus. When faced with a choice between the certainty of their past lives and an uncertain future with Jesus, these five men dropped everything. They left their old way of life and entered into a new life.
This is what it means to deny your self. To become a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must deny your self by leaving the things you are most comfortable doing and enter into a life that is no longer comfortable. Before you become a disciple of Jesus, you get to do anything you want to do. You are fully in control of your own life. But when you hear the simple call from Jesus—Come. Follow me.—you are no longer in control. Jesus is now in control of your life and your desires.
Discipleship is the same thing for us in the Twenty-First Century. We must leave our old way of life for Jesus. We must leave our past behind. We must give up any rights we think we have to own our future in order to hand the future over to Jesus.

III. Take Up Cross.
This is one of those expressions that has lost its “shock value” over the past 2,000 years. There wasn’t a single person in this sanctuary who was offended when I read this Scripture. That would not have been the case in the original, First Century setting. First Century people would have immediately remembered the gruesome scene of lifeless criminals hanging on crosses on the side of the “interstate highway.” Perhaps they would even remember watching condemned men agonizing under the weight of a cross-beam, walking through the city streets.
It was a typical practice for Roman executioners to force criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of execution. It was a part of the shame of crucifixion. Everyone could watch. Everyone could ridicule. Everyone could experience the terror of the Romans. Yet, Jesus said this shame and humiliation is a part of being a disciple.
We can interpret this in two ways. I think both of these interpretations are correct. First, Jesus’ life was headed toward a literal Roman cross. And we know now that most of Jesus’ original disciples faced extreme suffering and humiliation just because they were followers of Jesus. This tells us that we will not have an easy life just because we are Christians. We can expect to face the same kind of life that Jesus and his disciples faced. We will face the sufferings of the human life, and we will suffer for our faith.
Second, we can build on the image of a condemned criminal carrying his own cross. As the criminal was marched through the busy city streets, everyone who saw him knew that he was headed to his own death. He was a “dead man walking.” That is what it means to be a Christian. Your life is over. You can no longer live for your own desires. You belong to Jesus. Your past is over, and your future is in God’s hands.

IV. Follow Jesus.
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, this is the primary characteristic of a disciple. Outside of the New Testament, disciples were students and learners. For Jesus, disciples are followers.
In a very literal sense, this means that we should go where Jesus goes and always stay behind him. In a figurative sense, this means that we should do the things that Jesus has demonstrated for us. In a spiritual sense, this means that we should conform our lives to the life of Jesus. We should live like Jesus lives…Love the people that Jesus loves…Pray like Jesus prays…Preach like Jesus preaches…Desire what Jesus desires…And ultimately, give our lives away…