…Mark 8:34-36 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. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
This is the crux. This is the dividing line. Will you go your own way, or the way of Christ?
Why do you follow Jesus? For fame and fortune? Certainly not for the fame and fortune of Bill Gates, but for at least your share of the fame and fortune, right? If you say you’re not in it for fame and fortune, how quickly would you give up your share of fame and fortune? Remember, Jesus demanded that man with great possessions give up everything to follow Jesus. The man went away sad. Superficially, he wanted to inherit eternal life, because, who doesn’t want eternal life? All the religions of the world claim to offer eternal life. They know that’s what people want. But the man really didn’t want to go about life in God’s way. He didn’t want eternal life that went through the cross.
The cross shows us a magnitude of mercy unlike anything else. *** But God’s mercy makes a great demand of us. And God has that right. And his grace suffices for that demand.
Jesus requires that every person who follows him, deny himself, take up his cross of daily sufferings, and follow Jesus. Where? Wherever Jesus goes. If Jesus walks through the valley of the shadow of death, you go. Only the grace of God can produce such a life. But it feels bad sometimes, doesn’t it? It doesn’t feel like those who walk with Jesus ought to suffer such hardship in this life. And it’s easy to join with that man of great possessions and say “why that?” Why do I need to give up this? Why do I need to suffer that? Did it really have to be this severe? Why such great sufferings for Job, a man who was blameless and upright, who feared God and turned away from evil?
And we make it worse on ourselves by comparing.
Comparing our life to the world is the exact opposite of what we need to do, which is fix our eyes on Christ, who is presently in glory. Christ endured the suffering, the rejection, the death, and now resides in glory. This is our pattern too. Talk about a perspective shift. Turning your eyes to the world is like putting on a pair of grimy glasses that aren’t your prescription – it’ll make everything look bad. But looking at Christ is true sight. Only by Christ can we see anything clearly…
