The Little Man On the Cross

Mark 8.27-38

　

There’s a story going around about a woman who went into a major department store to buy a piece of jewelry. “I’d like a gold cross,” she told the sales clerk at the jewelry counter. The sales clerk smiled at the woman and asked, “Would you like a plain cross, or one with a little man on it?”

In many ways, the cross is more popular today than it’s ever been. We can see it everywhere, worn and displayed on necklaces and tee shirts. We see athletes crossing themselves after scoring a run or a touchdown. A candy maker makes chocolate crosses to eat during Holy Week.

And yet, despite this popularity, the significance of the cross has been largely lost on our culture. Often, we in the Church don’t notice it. We’re insulated from what is going on outside our church walls, outside our own circle of friends and acquaintances, most of whom probably attend worship somewhere.

The truth is, the vast majority of people out there – the ones who aren’t in worship anywhere this morning – those people have no idea of the significance of the cross. We may think they do, we may think that surely they’ve been in church at some point in their lives, but they don’t.

In our society today, more and more there are people out there who have never set foot inside a church, not even for a wedding or a funeral. They have no idea what we do on Sunday mornings. They have no memory of singing “Silent Night” at Christmas. “Amazing Grace?” They’ve never heard of it. I understand that this is hard to believe – as I said, we’re insulated inside these church walls – but it’s true. To so many people out there, a cross is nothing but a piece of jewelry, sometimes plain, sometimes with a little man on it.

“Who do you say that I am?” A lot of people, still today, prefer to read the King James Version of the Bible, even though not only is it outdated from a scholarly point of view – we’ve learned a lot about translating ancient Greek and Hebrew in the past 400 years – but its language is out of date, making it very difficult to read and comprehend.

I was talking with someone about this once and my friend said that he didn’t think it was a problem if people read the King James Version, because God could make them understand it. I had to admit that that was true, but I said that it wasn’t a question of whether God could make someone understand the King James Version, but rather a question of whether God would.

I mean, God can do anything God wants to do. That’s pretty much a given. God can make people understand the King James Version of the Bible. If God really wanted to, God could make every one of us able to read and understand ancient Greek and Hebrew. God can make everyone in the world realize the significance of the cross, God can make the entire world aware of who Jesus is, God can make us all obedient to God’s will.

God can do all of these things – but God doesn’t. God doesn’t make us do anything. God lets us figure things out for ourselves. After all, it’s a lot more meaningful if we figure out on our own that, hey, I really don’t understand what this King James Bible is saying, maybe I should buy a more modern translation. And it’s a lot more meaningful when we, like Peter, figure out on our own just who Jesus is.

No doubt about it, God is perfectly capable of making everyone understand everything. But if God did that, there would be no meaning to it. There would be none of the joy and excitement that we feel when we discover for ourselves that Jesus is the Messiah – the Christ – the Anointed One – the Son of the living God. So God lets people work things out for themselves.

Jesus even told the disciples not to tell anyone who he was – at least, not until the time was right – because even people who had been around Jesus were having a hard time figuring out who he was. I’ve heard people say that things would be so much easier if Jesus were alive today. If Jesus were to spend a few days here, in Camden [McNeil], Arkansas, everyone in town would come to believe in him. But that’s not necessarily so.

There were an awful lot of people who met Jesus face to face and didn’t believe. Judas Iscariot spent three years in close contact with Jesus, and didn’t understand who Jesus was. As we can see in this passage of scripture today, most of the people who had come out to see and hear Jesus thought that he was someone else: John the Baptist, maybe, or Elijah, or one of the other prophets.

I think it’s noteworthy that the people thought that Jesus one of the people said to be forerunners of the Messiah, like Elijah. Apparently nobody thought that Jesus was David, or Moses; they all thought that he was one of the people sent to prepare the way for the Messiah. Why? Because it’s easier to think that way. As long as the forerunners keep appearing, life pretty much goes on as before. But once the Messiah actually shows up, life is going to change.

The thing is, we get comfortable with our lives. Even if our lives aren’t really all that great, it’s what we’re used to, and we’re scared to death to make any kind of change, even though change might be for the better. The unknown is more frightening to us than the known, even when the known is pretty scary. So we resist change with all our might. And we know that once the Messiah actually arrives, change is going to occur. I think that was a large part of the problem with the people of Jesus’ day, and it’s still a problem today.

People don’t want to accept who Jesus is because once they do, things will change. That’s what Jesus is telling us in this passage. Peter has figured out who Jesus is, and now Jesus begins to teach the disciples about the changes that are coming. Peter and the other disciples don’t like this new kind of teaching. It’s upsetting their applecart, their comfort zone. And we in the church, today, don’t like having our applecart upset, either.

But when we accept Jesus as the Messiah, when we decide to become disciples – followers – of Jesus, then there are certain changes that we have to make. First, we must deny ourselves. That means putting God and other people ahead of our own needs and desires. “Love the Lord your God … and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Denying ourselves means doing God’s will instead of our own. It means making sacrifices – and  no, I’m not talking about goats. Sacrifices of material goods, sacrifices of time, sacrifices of commitment. It means putting a little more money in the offering plate; it means spending more time each week in study and prayer; it means making it a priority to show up for Sunday School and Worship each Sunday. To deny yourself is to sacrifice yourself to God.

Second, we must take up our cross. Just like denying ourselves, taking up our cross is something we must choose to do. God won’t force a cross on us. We have to take it up on our own. This means suffering unjustly for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the Gospel message.

In order to become disciples of Jesus Christ, we have to suffer for the sake of the Good News about Jesus. Our suffering, in this place and time, isn’t likely to take a physical form. But we may very well suffer in the workplace, or in our social group, if we really and truly live out the will of God. Even other Christians, those who have different beliefs than we do, may cause us to suffer. Because when we really live out our belief in God, we are opening ourselves up to ridicule from all sides. Voltaire once wrote that “It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.”

That’s what happens when we take up our cross. Other people won’t understand, and people ridicule and avoid that which they cannot understand. If you become a disciple of Jesus Christ, you may be ridiculed, or your friends may avoid you. But it’s a cross we must take up, in order to be a follower of Jesus.

Finally, when we decide to become disciples of Christ, we must follow Jesus. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But this is the one that Peter forgot. Peter didn’t want to follow Jesus. Peter tried to take charge, tried to become Jesus’ manager, tried to advise Jesus on his next career move.

But to truly accept Jesus as the Messiah, we must follow. This means that we have to discern God’s will for our lives, then commit to following God’s will for our lives. Jesus warns us that following him will often put is in conflict with the popular culture, because following Jesus will mean setting our minds not on human things but on divine things.

Denying ourselves. Taking up the cross. Following Jesus. None of this is easy, but, really, that’s what makes it all worthwhile. If God simply programmed us to believe, it wouldn’t mean anything – to us or to God. But when we figure out for ourselves who Jesus is, and when we decide, of our own free will, to become disciples, then we have accomplished something great. Unfortunately, we have accomplished something that most people in this world won’t understand.

The cross, you see, doesn’t measure up to the world’s definition of “success.” In fact, the cross doesn’t seem to make much sense at all. If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if Jesus can heal the sick and make the blind to see, if Jesus can raise people from the dead, then why did Jesus go to the cross? Why didn’t Jesus stop the crucifixion? That’s what so many people have such a hard time understanding. What is the significance of the cross? Why did Jesus have to suffer and die?

We ask these questions because our minds are set on human things. We really can’t help ourselves. We look at suffering and death as always being undesirable. Jesus challenges us to think as God thinks, not as human beings normally think.

Jesus’ healing miracles and his compassion for the poor and the downtrodden make it abundantly clear that God does not delight in human suffering. However, neither does God shrink from sacrifice and suffering. Jesus, the Son of God, was willing to suffer and to sacrifice himself on the cross in order to make our human suffering and sacrifice worthwhile.

Through the cross, we have hope for the future. Because of the sacrifice of the “little man” on the cross, we have the hope that our suffering is not in vain, the hope of eternal life with Jesus, in paradise. There is no greater joy than that.

Too many people out there don’t know the joy that we have found. Some have never even heard of Jesus, or, if they have heard of Jesus, they don’t know who he really is. I’m not a big Will Ferrell fan, and I’ve never watched the movie, “Talladega Nights,” all the way through, but I saw a part of it where Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, was praying before a meal. Ricky Bobby prayed to the “little baby Jesus,” because that’s the only Jesus Ricky Bobby knew. Some people only know the baby Jesus of Christmas; others only know the tough, warrior-Jesus of those ridiculous “Left Behind” books.

These people don’t know the sacrifice that Jesus made on their behalf. They don’t know that “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” They don’t know, so it’s up to us to tell them. We know who Jesus is. We understand the cross – or at least I hope we all do. We can’t afford to be ashamed of the fact that our Lord and Savior died like a criminal, in such a horrible fashion. Instead, we need to shout it from the rooftops!

“Who do you say that I am?” Singer/songwriter Cindy Morgan says this:

“Who did you call him? Did he demand your all, and in your pride now you fall once again? I’ve touched the wounds in his side, and he dried the tears from my eyes, and he’s alive! Shattered darkness brought the light, poured the blood and pierced the night. Sweet salvation shine the light – my Savior, he’s alive and well!”

Jesus Christ, our Savior, is alive and well! We need to spread the word. We need to tell those people out there who don’t understand, we need to tell them that the little man on the cross died for them!

We need to tell them that, if they will only believe in him, he will dry the tears from their eyes.  If they will only believe in him, they can have an abundant life here on earth – not abundant in the things of this world, but abundant in love, mercy, and peace.  If they will only believe in him, they can live eternally, with Jesus, in heaven.

“We’ve a Savior to show to the nations, who the path of sorrow hath trod, that all of the world’s great peoples might come to the truth of God, might come to the truth of God!”

All of the world’s great peoples – starting with our family and friends and neighbors. The little man on the cross loves them; we need to let them know.