March 4, 2012 - You are NOT Forsaken

Mark 8:31-8

³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For 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. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those 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.”

            O Peter is at it again, trying to show that he knows better than Jesus.  Jesus declares to the disciples that He will be killed and rise again and Peter takes him aside and rebukes him, as if Jesus was some unruly child who need to be taken away from the people and chastised for his words.  Rebuking is not some gentle thing as if Peter is saying “Jesus, I’m not quite sure you know what you are saying.  I think you need to simmer down a bit.”  No, it is far harsher it is a “Jesus, You Idiot!  What are you talking about!  This is not the right message, you are not going to die, now stop talking like this now before I get really angry!”  Could you even imagine having the gall to do that to Jesus?  To take him aside and treat Him in such a manner?  I mean, I can get Peter being confused and horrified at the thought of his beloved teacher dying in such a manner, but to treat him in such a disrespectful manner astounds me. 

            Why does he do it?  He does it because he does not see the end result of Jesus’ actions, he doesn’t see the necessary sacrifice and the mission of God.  Peter doesn’t want that kind of pain and suffering, especially for someone that he cares about and respects so greatly.

  How many of us have found out that a family member or a friend has gotten some horrendous news about a terminal illness, has fought them when they did not want to go through the treatments anymore, who had accepted the idea of death or have even wished for it?  It is hard to imagine losing someone we love, and not much easier when they talk about a willingness to die.  So here we have Peter hearing his mentor and friend say that he was going to search out death, which goes even beyond accepting it.  But Peter did not see the big picture, he did not see the lives that would be changed and the promise of everlasting life that would be granted with Christ’s sacrifice, all that he saw was his discomfort and pain.

            Being a Christian is not easy.  The feel good messages that say that all we have to do is believe and pray in order to have a carefree and easy life is a lie.  For one, our lives are filled with compassion for others, not self centeredness.  It can be hard to have compassion, because we begin to take the pain of others onto ourselves.  We are called to service, and it is hard to give up working for our own desires and working for the needs of others.  It is hard to carry the cross of our faith, but it is rewarding.  Not with ease of life, but with purpose and a fullness of life.  We may lose some of the ease of life that Peter is hoping for, but we gain so much more instead.  We gain the support of the community, we gain the hope that comes with the promises of God, and we gain our purpose.  We need not be ashamed to embrace Jesus Christ and His teachings, no matter how much they may differ from our society.  When we are ashamed, when we hide the light that God has given us, that light is dimmed and Christ is not seen.  But when we act unashamed, when we let that light go forth with our words and our actions, God is seen and heard and felt and the light burns brightly.  Even in the darkest of moments, God’s light can permeate and be seen, and it may warm us in the coldest of nights.

            Life does not always make sense.  Innocents suffer, the wicked get wealthy, and those that we love and care about are taken from us.  It can appear as though God is not present, or just plain doesn’t understand our problems.  Yet God does understand, for God took it upon himself to suffer and to die for us.  Despite Peter’s protests, Jesus does go to the cross, he is beaten and mocked and stripped and hung up on the cross for all to see and jeer and he dies.  He took upon Himself all the punishment that the world could dish out and all the pain and humiliation that the world could give.  It got to the point that Jesus cries out “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”  Imagine feeling forsaken by God, feeling as though God had completely cut you off and left you alone to dry up and shrink into nothingness.  That level of emotion is foreign to many of us.  We may feel forgotten or distant, but its not often that we feel as though God willingly works against us.  Yet that is Christ’s words on the cross.  But those words are not without hope.  Today’s psalm is Psalm 22, and you may have noticed that it does not begin with verse one, but with verse 23.  Today’s reading is full of joy and celebration for all of God’s works.  But the very first verse on the psalm is not so joyful.  Instead the psalm begins with the very words Jesus speaks on the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” Even when we feel forsaken, that God has turned His back on us and worked against us, there is hope because we know that God would never do such a thing.  We have a God who has been there for our ancestors and is here for us today.  Yes, times do get hard, but you know what?  God has been through those times as well.  Jesus experienced loss in his life, of friends and family.  Jesus knew the pain and humiliation of being bullied and mocked.  Christ knows the pain of being imprisoned, of being tortured, or being executed.  God, in the person of Jesus Christ, took upon Himself all of the torment that the world could dish out upon him in order to save us and in order to experience our lives, to know our pain and our sorrow and our trials.  When we are in the darkest points of our lives, God is there beside us, mourning alongside us, feeling our pain alongside us, and letting us know that we are not alone, we are not forsaken, but rather we are loved by our Creator and that He knows what we are going through and He can take all the yelling and the cursing that we can possibly lay upon Him, because God has had those experiences and loves and cares for us.

            Peter is not bad or stupid for wanting to help Jesus avoid those sufferings and those pains.  He merely could not see the full picture.  He could not see that God needed to experience those pains and those humiliations in order to be closer to us and to lower himself, in order that all could be found worth of God’s kingdom.   He could not see the fullness of God’s plan, much like we cannot see that plan.  Luckily for Peter and for us, not knowing the plan doesn’t mean that we will die.

We are not Romeo drinking poison due to not knowing that Juliet is only faking being dead.  Instead, we are all granted eternal life, all give hope and a purpose in our lives, and all called children by God and cared for by Him, even though we are clueless at times.  We have a God who loves us so much that He took the pain of the world upon Him in order to draw us closer to Him.  There is absolutely no shame in that, let us not be ashamed but instead rejoice in the light of God and take solace in his promises.  Amen.