If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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.
Mark 8:34b, 35
By Rev. Canon Val Kenyon
Have you ever noticed that the idea of “finding oneself” is seen as an increasingly important part of our development as human beings, a valuable use of our time and of our resources?
This idea of finding oneself is of course not an entirely new idea, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle, or “To thine own self be true.” Shakespeare.
Of course, this ‘finding oneself’ can get out of hand, developing into an exaggerated self-involvement yet in general the idea of self-awareness and self-development is something that has wide acceptance in our time.
Perhaps I am too much a child of this age, but this makes sense to me, for surely recognizing and developing potential in ourselves, God-given potential, and gifts, seems reasonable and a good way to live our lives. So how do we make sense of Jesus’ words to us: “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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.”
Do we find ourselves only to deny ourselves?
Shortly before Jesus’ pronouncement of these words to the crowds, Peter has offered several comments on Jesus’ identity and ministry. The first, “You are the Christ” was accepted by Jesus, together with a sidenote to keep that to themselves. The second, Peter rebuked Christ, contradicting Jesus’ forecast of his death and resurrection. Jesus responded to this second comment with a startling “Get behind me Satan!”
So, in one moment Peter has correctly described Jesus’ identity, and in the next he is being called Satan’s mouthpiece!
How is it that this disciple who has walked with Jesus for more than a year now does still not have a clear picture of exactly who this Jesus is?
Presumably part of the problem is that Peter has fixed in his mind a picture of the actions and characteristics of a Messiah and Jesus is going off script. Messiahs (at least according to Peter’s idea of a Messiah), are not weak, they do not suffer, they are not rejected by the religious leaders of the day, but embraced, aren’t they?
But Peter has gotten distracted by ‘human things’ (i.e. power, influence, externals of all kinds), and Jesus needed to shift his understanding to the divine way of understanding God’s plan and God’s kingdom.
It couldn’t be clearer here that understanding the divine, is a process containing moments that we are in sync with what we are hearing, and other moments where we crash up against new ideas, asking us to wrestle with them for a while, or perhaps to just hold and appreciate the mystery of them for a while.
As we hear Jesus’ call to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow, we see it all as part of the development of a growing understanding of what it is to be disciples of Jesus. We bring what we know of ourselves, offering it to Jesus, knowing that sometimes like Peter we will “get it” and other times, it will be quite beyond us; all while highlighting for us places where we have yet to grow and develop. These verses remind us to always be taking our current understandings and offering them up to God knowing that we have always much to learn.
While this shaping of our understanding happens in many places in our lives, it is a special focus when in an EfM weekly gathering. Perhaps this is something you or your parish would like to explore?
To learn more, you are always welcome to reach out to either Libi Clifford, the Diocese of Huron EfM Coordinator or me Val Kenyon at EFM@huron.anglican.ca.
Rev. Canon Dr. Val Kenyon is EFM Animator in Huron.