Sunday, March 15, 2009: Survival or Revival

Survival or Revival
Mark 8: 31 – 38.

I. Introduction.

The current economic situation has a lot of people talking about “Survival.” There are some older folks who are reminding us about their experiences surviving the Great Depression. There are authors who are promoting their books on the Internet by encouraging people to begin stockpiling gold, guns and food. There are even entire industries which have made “Survival” their top priority for the rest of 2009.

All of this has caused me to think about my own “Survival” and to wonder how I can “Survive” in the world today.

From the early 1900’s through the 1970’s, there was a world-famous tight-rope walker named Karl Wallenda. Karl grew up in an acrobatic family, known as The Great Wallendas. They were famous for performing their death-defying tight-rope act without a safety net, and they were the first aerialists to master the “7-Man Pyramid.” And, they eventually became a featured act in the Barnum and Bailey Circuses.

In 1968, Karl Wallenda is quoted as saying, “Being on the tight-rope is living. Everything else is just waiting.” For Karl, walking the tight-rope was what made him feel alive. Everyone else thought it was crazy to walk on a wire with no safety net. But, Karl thought this was exciting and what made his life worthwhile.

Karl Wallenda’s life came to a tragic end on March 22, 1978. Karl Wallenda was walking a tight-rope stretched 75-feet above the ground between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when he lost his footing and fell to his death.

Several years after his death, Wallenda’s widow was asked about her husband’s death. She recalled, “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to it was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, and it seemed to me that he put all his energy into not falling, not into walking the tight-rope (Warren G. Bennis, “The Wallenda Factor,” in An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change [Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1997]: p. 57).”

Leadership expert Warren Bennis tells this story to describe what he calls “The Wallenda Factor.” Basically, the Wallenda Factor describes what happens when we focus all our energies and thoughts on failure rather than on success. Leaders who fail usually have an unhealthy preoccupation with failure. Leaders who succeed are more interested in accomplishing the task at hand and rarely spend their time thinking about failure. Successful leaders are more like Karl Wallenda in 1968 (Being on the tight-rope is living. Everything else is just waiting.) than in 1978 (preoccupied with falling).

Perhaps this is some good practical advice for us to implement in our uncertain economic times. Perhaps it is a good lesson for us to learn that the more we focus on not failing, the more likely we are to fail. But, does this message fit with the Bible and the teachings of Jesus? I think it fits very well.

Read Mark 8: 31 – 38.

This passage falls at the beginning of a passage I refer to as “the Discipleship Section” of Mark. The section begins in Mark 8:22 with the story of a blind man and ends in Mark 10: 52 with the healing of “Blind Bartimaeus.” Everything in between the two stories of blind men can be described as Jesus’ attempt to open the eyes of his disciples to what it means to be a disciple, or a follower of Jesus.

The Discipleship Section contains three predictions of Jesus’ death and resurrection. After each prediction, Jesus gives a teaching about discipleship and the disciples immediately do something to demonstrate how they still don’t understand. In other words, there are three predictions of Jesus’ death, three teachings about discipleship and three actions that demonstrate the disciples’ failure to understand what Jesus is teaching. Again, Jesus was opening their eyes to the realities of discipleship.

We just read Jesus’ first prediction of his death and resurrection. It comes at a very important time.

Up to this point, Jesus and his disciples had remained fairly close to home. Now, Jesus has pulled them away from home to the region of Caesarea Philippi. Here Jesus asked the disciples a theological question, “Who do people say I am?” The disciples answer, “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah and some say one of the other prophets.” Then, Jesus made the question personal… “What about ya’ll? Who do ya’ll say I am?”

The question is plural and indicates that Jesus is asking what the disciples as a group have learned and understood about Jesus up to this point in the Gospel. But, Peter is the only one to answer: “You are the Christ.”

You and I have the benefit of two-thousand years of history, so we recognize Peter’s answer as the correct answer. Yes. Jesus is the Christ. We know that, and we know what that means. But, Peter and the rest of the disciples did not know the full meaning of what Jesus had come to accomplish. So, Jesus told them.

Notice what Jesus said about himself first… “the Son of Man MUST suffer (verse 31)…” There is no doubt in Jesus’ mind what he had come to do. He MUST suffer. And, this was no general kind of suffering. It was specific. Jesus would be rejected by the Jewish elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. Jesus would be killed. Then, Jesus would rise from the grave after three days.

For some reason, Peter didn’t like what Jesus had to say. More than likely, this is proof that Peter (and by implication all the other disciples) had a different understanding of what the Christ was supposed to do. They probably thought like the rest of the First Century Jews. They were hoping for a coming Christ who would lead Israel back to prominence in military strength and in political power. But, Jesus did not come to establish an earthly, political kingdom. Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God, which is something entirely different.

An earthly kingdom focuses on earthly things—politics, power, economy. The Kingdom of God focuses on heavenly things—forgiveness of sin, relationship with God, overturning the power of Satan in the world.

An earthly kingdom can be destroyed by earthly forces. The Kingdom of God can never be destroyed. An earthly kingdom is temporary. The Kingdom of God is eternal.

Peter didn’t understand this, so he pulled Jesus to the side and rebuked him. In Peter’s mind, Jesus’ mission could not survive if Jesus himself did not survive. In Peter’s mind, the disciples themselves could not survive if Jesus was no longer present with them. Peter’s rebuke was his attempt to “save” Jesus and to “save” himself. He was thinking about “Survival.”

Jesus, on the other hand, was not concerned about “Survival.” In fact, Jesus was thinking about something completely different. Notice Jesus’ first words to Peter after the rebuke: “Get behind me (verse 33)…” This is significant, because it describes the proper relationship we are all supposed to have with Jesus. If we want to be followers of Jesus, then we must place ourselves BEHIND Jesus. We can’t go running off to do whatever we want to do. We must stay BEHIND Jesus and follow him wherever he goes. In this particular case, Jesus was on his way to the cross. Jesus was walking on a path toward self-giving love for other people. Jesus was not concerned about his own “Survival.” No. Jesus was more concerned about giving his life away as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

The next thing Jesus said to Peter indicates that there are two opposing ways of looking at life. On one hand, we can think like human beings. On the other hand, we can think like God. Peter was thinking like a human being and NOT like God.

The best way I know how to describe the difference between these two ways of thinking is to look again at Jesus’ words to Peter. In verse 35, Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the Gospel will save it.” In other words, Jesus says that the human way of life is to focus all our attention on “Survival,” and God’s way of life is to focus on “giving our lives away.”

The human way of life is motivated out of fear. It is absolutely normal and natural for us to have an instinct for self-preservation. We want to live. We want to prosper. We will do anything in our human powers to stay out of danger and to protect our human resources. This might be normal and natural, but that doesn’t make it right.

In fact, Jesus teaches us that one important aspect of discipleship is that followers of Jesus ought to resist the normal and natural human instinct to save our own lives. Instead, we must “get behind Jesus” and follow his example of denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus every day. Survival is NOT the most important thing for a follower of Jesus. The most important thing is to be like Jesus: to give your life away for the sake of the Gospel.

The only way we can ever make this shift in thinking is to put FAITH before our fears. Survival is motivated out of fear. Giving life away is the result of faith.

Think of it like this…If this life is all there is, then you and I should do everything in our power to protect our lives and resources. However, if there is something more important than this life, then we should not be afraid to give our lives away in favor of something better. What can be better than this life? We read headlines every day about crime in our community. We worry about our own personal safety. We read headlines about our shaky economy. We worry about our financial future. We witness the effects of rampant sin and selfishness. We worry about the world our children and grandchildren will inherit. If this life is all there is, then someone has played a terrible joke on us. There must be something else. There must be a place called Heaven—a place God has created us to live in.

II. What Happens When We Try to Save Our Own Lives?

There is a story in Matthew 14 about when Jesus’ disciples were on a boat in the Lake of Galilee. Jesus was not with them at this time. Jesus had stayed behind to dismiss the crowd of people he had been teaching. It didn’t take long for the disciples to find themselves in trouble. (Most of the time, the Bible tells us that the disciples found themselves in trouble when they were separated from Jesus.)

The disciples found themselves in the middle of the lake with a storm surging around them. The winds were howling. The waves were crashing into the sides of the boat. The disciples were afraid for their lives. In this moment of great need--their moment of FEAR, Jesus came to his disciples on the lake.

Jesus didn’t have a boat, but he came to their aid. He walked on the water and came to their rescue. When the disciples looked up, they thought they were seeing a ghost. They had never seen anyone walking on the water. So, Jesus called to his disciples, “Do not be afraid. Take courage! It is I.”

Remember how Peter is usually the first disciple to speak, even when Jesus is speaking to the entire group of disciples? Well, it happened again. Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”

When Jesus called him, Peter jumped out of the boat and started walking on the water. But, Peter was different from Jesus. Jesus walked all the way across the lake. Peter only took a couple of steps. After only a few steps, Peter realized what he was doing. He was walking on the water! In the middle of a storm! He was afraid of the wind. He was afraid of the waves and the depth of the water below him. And, immediately, Peter began to sink.

Peter began to sink when he was motivated more by fear than by faith. Faith led Peter to get out of the boat and take his first step toward Jesus. Fear led Peter to notice the dangers around him.

Anytime we focus on the danger around us—we are just like Peter—we will begin to sink and fall. Sure, we might start out in great faith and get out of the boat. But fear is what causes us to sink. Remember what Jesus said, "If you want to save your own life, you will lose it!"

III. What Happens When We Give Our Lives Away?

In Acts 16, we read a story about the Apostle Paul and his missionary companion, Silas. They had preached the Gospel in Philippi and cast a demon out of a young slave girl. The masters of the slave girl didn’t want her to be healed of her demon, because the demon had helped them to earn a lot of money. The girl’s salvation was an economic downturn for her masters.

Paul and Silas were thrown into prison to be watched closely by the prison guard. Instead of focusing on their danger, Paul and Silas spent their time praying and singing. Their behavior was so unusual that the rest of the prisoners noticed there was something different about these men.

At midnight, the prison was rocked by a violent earthquake. All the prison doors were flung open, and all the shackles were broken from Paul and Silas’ hands and feet. The prison guard thought the prisoners would escape and knew he would be killed for allowing them to escape. But that is not what happened.

Paul and Silas stayed in their cells and somehow kept the other prisoners from escaping. The prison guard was so impressed by their FAITH, that he sat down and listened as Paul and Silas told him about Jesus and the source of their faith.

The prison guard gave his life to Jesus and invited Paul and Silas to tell his own family more about Jesus. This family became one of the first members of the Christian church at Philippi.

Remember what Jesus said, "If you lose your life for the sake of the Gospel, you will save it!" And, as a result others will notice your faith and find what is truly important.

IV. Conclusion.

The story of Paul and Silas is the best story in the Bible to demonstrate what can happen when we look at our lives through God’s eyes. Peter demonstrates how trying to “Survive” leads to failure. Paul and Silas show us that giving our lives away leads to “Revival.”

Today, we have two choices: the human way or God's way. Saving your own life out of fear, or giving your life away out of faith. Survival or Revival. Revival is God's way; and it is only possible through giving our lives away for others.