St. Mark 8:34-9:1
Context: Christ has told his disciples about his coming passion. Peter rejected it; and Christ widened the coming persecution to include Himself. He had done this in his greatest homily saying “Blessed are you, when people revile you, and persecute you, and shall say terrible things about you falsely, for my sake.”
Today I am going to walk us through Christ’s words, focusing on this idea of suffering for Christ’s sake.
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
- St. Mark 2:14; “As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.” This is the beginning of every great story. It can be yours!
- Come after me? Let’s start with the reward!
- Deny yourself. Kenosis. Necessary. Christ did it for us. We give up all our evil and everything attached to it. Which means everything.
- Matthew 19:21; “Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
- Follow Him. There are many trends and people we can follow. Only one will lead to salvation.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
- By “save his life”, he means hold on to the life of the old man.
- Think of a marriage – what happens to the marriage of a man who holds onto his old ways after he is married?
- We are saved by our relationship with Christ; this should take priority over everything; doesn’t mean “go to the monastery” unless you are truly blessed… but it does mean that the way we spend our money, the way we spend our time, the way we order our homes should all be consistent with the Gospel.
- St. Nikolai V. points out the loving mercy in this; if we are martyred not just for Christ, but for the sake of the Good News, we will be saved.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Could the Lord be more clear? There is nothing more important than the state of our soul. The world is fallen and will be remade – the state your soul is the key to inheriting the blessings of this new world.
- There is no Faustian bargain you can make that that will give you something that will make up for the loss of your soul. Not comfort, not a better paycheck, not happy family members.
- Christ preached this over and over again. Here is one of the most challenging ways he put it; (St. Luke 14:26-30) Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, even more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple. And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his cross and follow me. But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if he has enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise he might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh! See that fellow there?’ they would mock. ‘He started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!’
- G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
