Mark 8:27-38
“Getting Behind”
September 16, 2012 - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

         We owed more than when we started the mortgage. That was our church when I came here 19 years ago. Our building went up and we took our first mortgage out in 1986. Then the Oregon economy took a huge downturn as the “spotted owl” marker limited timber harvests. Members lost work and moved away, the congregation shrank and our church got behind on mortgage payments.

         Our lender was a Covenant entity, so they didn’t foreclose. But they had to keep faith with their investors. They added unpaid interest back into the principal for a couple of years. When I arrived in 1993 the principal was more than when it began. Only prayer, sacrifice and help from our denomination and especially from God changed that picture.

         It’s hard to get behind. Whether it’s mortgage or credit card payments, school assignments, scheduled work or just house cleaning or home maintenance, when we get behind we get anxious, worried, and fearful. Peter felt that way the day Jesus rebuked him.

         Peter started out completely behind his understanding of Jesus. He had learned a lot and it showed. Like some Greek philosophers, Jesus instructed His disciples while they were walking. So in verse 27 He tossed out a discussion question for them to consider along the way, “Who do people say that I am?”

         Peter’s hand shot up before the question was finished. You can see him bouncing on his toes, waving his hand in the air like the eager, bright student he was. But Jesus let others answer first. They reported what people had been saying. We heard about king Herod weeks ago. Some thought He was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Others said He was Elijah, the prophet who never died and who everyone expected to return from heaven one day. Still others were sure Jesus was one of the prophets. They just didn’t know which one.

         All the while Peter was bubbling over, excited. He knew. Jesus gave him his chance. In verse 29 we read, “Who do you say I am?” He probably nodded at Peter who was about to burst from holding it in. “You are the Christ!” Peter figured it out. Their teacher was none other than the Messiah, the “Anointed One,” foretold by the prophets and expected for centuries. He put the pieces together and had the answer.

         Matthew 16 tells us Peter got congratulated by Jesus for getting it right. But Jesus  immediately put a damper on it all in verse 30 here in Mark and in the other Gospels as well. He told them not to talk about what Simon discovered. Peter didn’t get to brag about his brilliant answer. They didn’t get to publicly call themselves disciples of the Messiah.

         Imagine how annoyed they were, especially Peter. Here they are, in the inner circle of the greatest secret on earth, and they don’t get to tell anyone. But Peter didn’t have long to stew about it, because with verse 31 Jesus was already beginning the next lesson along the road there:  “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed…”

         Peter wasn’t grinning when he heard that. When Jesus started talking about dying, Peter began dying inside. He was totally behind Jesus. He was totally behind the Messiah program. And for Peter, that program did not include dying. Other people may suffer, but not the Christ, not the anointed one of God, not Jesus his Master.

         Think of your teenage daughter with friends over at your house. Trying to be with it, you talk with them and offer your own thoughts on popular music or clothes or politics. Name the subject, but you go on and on to these girls until your daughter suddenly pulls you out of the room to tell that she’s “just going to die,” unless you quit embarrassing her in front of them. That’s what Peter did in verse 32. He pulled Jesus aside and “rebuked” Him. He said He was just going to die if Jesus didn’t stop talking about dying.

         Peter was firmly behind the Messiah. He was completely committed to following a God-sent leader who would take charge of the nation, drive out their Roman overlords and set up the kingdom of God on earth. He was more than ready for Jesus to be out front with a program like that. But a program of suffering and humiliation and death? No, Peter had to pull Jesus back if he headed in that direction.

         It’s the most embarrassing and difficult thing about Jesus Christ. From the beginning, people who heard the Gospel had trouble with it. What kind of God dies? What kind of Savior is executed like a criminal? It makes no sense. It’s stupid. People scoffed, made jokes. The earliest artistic portrayal of Christ on the Cross was a satirical cartoon. A man with an ass’s head hangs crucified and the inscription below reads, “Alexamenos worships his god.” Dying like a criminal is not what a god does.

         People have been ashamed of Jesus’ death ever since. The German poet Goethe said the Cross is “the most repulsive thing under the sun.” Nietzsche wrote that Christianity is a religion of weakness, the faith of slaves. Mark Twain mocked the idea that God would make a world, not get it right, and then have to kill Himself to set it straight. Over and over, strong, smart individuals are unable to get behind a Man whose whole plan was to die.

         Jesus did not want Peter shamed, but he wanted Peter to be where he belonged. So in just four verses we see Peter move from star pupil to remedial student. He stepped out in front of Jesus to correct what he thought was his Teacher’s error. But Jesus put Peter back in his place in verse 33 with those harsh and terrible words, “Get behind me, Satan!”

         It seems like a total dismissal. When you and I put something or someone “behind” us, we’re leaving for good. You put a failed business venture or a relationship that went sour behind you and move on. You want to leave your “ex” behind, be done with him or her and go forward. But as they walked along the road, Jesus didn’t mean to leave Peter behind. He just wanted Peter to walk in the right place, behind, following.

         He called Peter “Satan” to show him from just where his thinking was coming. A Christ without suffering is no Christ, no Messiah, no Savior at all. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness? What were the temptations? Quit going hungry, make stones out of bread. Quit suffering rejection and unpopularity, do a miracle that will make everyone believe. Quit walking the road that led to the Cross and instead follow Satan on a road that leads to being king immediately.

         Satan’s temptations for us often come as ways to avoid suffering. Why not cheat a little rather than do the hard work of study needed to pass a test? How about a little lie to avoid the embarrassment of admitting a mistake? What about instant gratification of desire instead of all the trouble to maintain a relationship with another person? And why not a painless medically assisted exit from life instead of suffering through the last stages of terminal illness?

         Jesus said there is something devilish, something evil in the attitude that wants to avoid pain and suffering at all costs. That’s why He named Peter “Satan” for that brief moment and told him to get behind. The way to escape from evil, to flee from the devil, is to get behind Jesus and follow Him no matter how painful it might be.

         This past week, Joanna and I went up to the mountains. We went fishing and went for a hike. Walking through the fir trees in the crisp air of high altitude brought back memories of my first hikes in the Scouts, long hard treks up slopes in southern California. A line of boys behind our leader would come to a fork. One path would go up and the other would slant down. “Why can’t we go that way?” I’d ask. Why the rough trail going up and not the easy trail going down? It seems so obvious now. The easy way didn’t go anywhere. It would only lead back the way we came, just send us in a circle. The real path was the hard path and we needed to keep following our leader.

         The same is true with Jesus. That place behind wasn’t just for Peter. With verse 34, Jesus said “Get behind” to anyone and everyone who wants to be His disciple. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me.” To get behind and follow Jesus on His road means to embrace and accept and carry the load of pain and suffering that comes with it.

         You can’t follow Jesus, you can’t really be behind Jesus, without a cross. Some of those Boy Scout hikes were long trips of several days. The only way to make it on a journey like that was to fill a backpack with food and water, a tent, a sleeping bag and dry clothes. Then sling it on your back and follow the leader who was carrying his own pack. You couldn’t go without a pack. A Christian can’t follow Jesus without a cross.

         People occasionally ask me why I wear a cross around my neck these days. Here’s the reason. I need a constant reminder that following Jesus means carrying a cross. Of course Jesus wasn’t talking about jewelry. This piece of silver or the other little bit of olive wood I wear on a leather string is not the true cross He wants me to carry. But the symbolic little cross helps me remember the other one is always there, the bigger one that Jesus asked me to pick up and lug along behind Him.

         I can’t possibly tell you what your particular cross looks like. Sometimes I have trouble recognizing or accepting my own. For early Christians like Peter it could mean a cross as literal and ugly and painful as Jesus’ own. Legend has it Peter asked to hang upside down on his cross because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the same poster as his Lord was.

         Not everyone is called to die a painful and humiliating death in order to follow Jesus. But we’re all called to carry a cross. In verse 35 Jesus explained a little of what that looks like, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Carrying a cross means getting behind Jesus in such a way that we live for His sake, and not for our own sake.

         Carrying a cross begins with denying yourself. It starts with putting your own needs and wants and comfort in the back, and putting Jesus and His way of living for others in the front. It means getting behind a Teacher who has tough things to tell us and who carries a cross on His back, rather than merely following a buddy who does nice things for us and leads us down easy paths.

         Mark Novak was our conference superintendent. In June he was elected as the executive minister for Covenant ordered ministry. He has become the supervisor and leader for all our pastors, directing the process of credentialing, care and discipline for over 1,600 of us. In many regards it looks like a step up, a move out front.

         But I know Mark a little. He didn’t want the job. He has a beautiful home on the water in Washington. He loves to fish and ride his long board in the surf. His children and grandchildren are all within few miles. But his new position means moving. Mark and his wife have to leave the quiet beauty of the North Pacific and the joys of family behind and serve for probably ten years in the hectic dirt and noise of Chicago. Right now in transition he’s living in a friend’s basement apartment as he begins his new work.

         For Mark, his new job is a step back from where he’d like to be. Yet Mark believes Jesus called him there. He called him to get behind and take up a cross shaped like the expressways of Chicago and a Skype connection to his grandkids. He did it for Jesus’ sake. He did it for the sake of his fellow pastors. That’s what a cross looks like.

         I know a Christian lawyer who could have been a judge but thought his work for non-profits was where Jesus had put him. I’ve known professors at little Christian colleges who could have made more money doing almost anything else, but they walk behind Jesus as they walk into their classrooms each day. I know a Christian family letting a person with no job live with them a few months because they believe it’s what Jesus would do.

         You do it caring for foster children or for a parent or spouse with dementia. You do it going out for Bible study instead of an evening of television or Facebook. You do it by funding this church or a child in Africa instead of owning a newer car. Whenever you or I manage to forget about what’s good for us and do something that’s good for Jesus’ sake, for the sake of His good news of grace and forgiveness, that’s when we pick up our cross and carry it a little further down the road behind Jesus.

         Getting behind Jesus means getting out from under the economic idea that we all just need to look after our own interests. It means leaving behind the politics that everyone should just vote and work in a way that benefits himself or herself. That’s not Jesus’ economy. That’s not Jesus’ politics.

         Verse 35 turns our policies and theories upside down and backwards. What you try to save you will lose and what you lose for Jesus you will save. In verses 36 and 37 Jesus pushes that on to point out where the real profit and loss lies. “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Indeed, what can a man give in return for his life?”

         The incredible and glorious mystery is that we will gain when we get behind. When we leave behind some money, some comfort, even friends or family, when we leave them behind in order to get behind Jesus, we are on the profitable road, the road of life. It’s the grand and great paradox of our faith, of spiritual reality. When you get ahead you are getting behind. But when you get behind you get ahead, if you get behind Jesus.

         Jesus spoke the last verse of our text to warn Peter and to warn to us all. “Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” If we’re not wiling to get behind Jesus, then He won’t be able to stand behind us. If we’re ashamed to be behind, to carry a cross, to lose ourselves for His sake, then He will be ashamed of us. But there’s no need for that.

         Linda told us about trying to stick together with her daughter in a New York city crowd. If she walked ahead, she couldn’t tell if Alison was there behind. But when she dropped back, she could keep her eyes on Alison up front.

         If we try to walk in front of Jesus, like Peter did for a bit, we’re going to lose sight of Him and His way for us. But if we’ll drop back, let ourselves get behind, then He will always be in sight, leading us forward, leading us through the confusion and the conflicts and the temptations that surround us. If you are behind Jesus, if you take last place for Him, if you give up your spot in the front, then you will always be able to see Him. You’ll see Him out there in front of you, leading you toward true and eternal life.

         Amen.

         Valley Covenant Church
         Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
         Copyright © 2012 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj