Second Sunday of Lent

‘If any want to be my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’.

A few years ago a diocese in the South of England decided to appoint a public relations officer to try to spruce up its public image. They appointed a man who had had a career in advertising. The first thing he said was the Diocese had to scrap its traditional coat of arms in favour of a brand new eye-catching Logo. I’ve no idea what he came up with but I guess it was probably something along the lines of a rainbow with the words ‘Smile Jesus loves you’ emblazoned on it - you know something of that weighty character. Anyhow when the matter was discussed at the Synod or the Bishop’s meeting or whatever the question arose: What is wrong with the Coat of Arms? ‘It has a cross on it’ came the reply, ‘And a cross is not a very good selling point’. Someone stood up and said this: ‘If you remove the cross from Christianity we shall have nothing worth giving away never mind worth selling.’ And that is the main point of the Gospel reading for today.

The centrality of the cross to the Christian faith and for the Christian life. You cannot understand Jesus apart from the cross. You cannot fully live the Christian life without the cross. As you know this year we are reading through the Gospel of Mark at the Sunday Eucharist. And although all the four Gospels tell the story of the cross for Jesus and for his followers – yet for Mark the cross shapes the story. This passage is part of a turning point in Mark’s Gospel. He has taken eight chapters to demonstrate that Jesus truly is the Son of God. The voice of God at Jesus Baptism had declared him as such. The Demons were subject to him and with power and authority he spoke the Word and healed the sick. Indeed just before this very passage that we read this morning there is that important moment when Peter realises just who Jesus is:–  That Jesus is The Messiah, The Son of God and he declares him to be so. 

‘You are the Messiah’; says Peter to Jesus.

Now Jesus is going to show just what kind of a Messiah he is. Not a Messiah on a white charger triumphing gloriously. But a Messiah on a cross dying ignobly. No wonder then that Peter took Jesus aside and tried to reason with him.  

‘You can’t mean it, surely’, we can hear Peter saying to Jesus. ‘Surely not!  How can a Messiah be put to death on a cross?  What will that achieve?’ You can almost hear Peter remonstrating with Jesus –‘Let’s take the cross out of it’. ‘The cross isn’t a very good selling point.’  

As St Mark’s Gospel has shown that Jesus is indeed the Son of God so Mark has also shown that the cross is integral to identity and to his destiny. I am sure that many of you will know the famous Holman Hunt painting entitled The Light of the World with an extremely pre-Raphaelite Jesus standing at the doorway with a lantern in his hand. Well, Holman Hunt painted another less known picture of Jesus, this one is called: ‘The Shadow of the Cross’. It depicts Jesus as a  young  boy working in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. He’s standing at the carpenter’s bench but he is stretching out his arms as you would if you are having a stretch at the end of a strenuous task or if you’re tired. The sun is shining through the window and on the wall behind Jesus it casts a shadow of Jesus’ arms outstretched -  in the shape of the cross. The Shadow of the Cross had always been  Jesus' destiny. You cannot properly appreciate Jesus apart from the cross. But Jesus himself takes it a stage further. The shadow of the cross isn’t just for him.  It casts its shadow upon all who would follow him. You cannot properly understand the Christian life without the cross.

‘If any want to be followers of mine let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’. The cross is for us and for all who would follow Jesus: and it is the cross of self-denial. The shape of the cross gives us a clue. The cross is the ‘I’ crossed out. It is ‘Number 1’ crossed out. And that is very difficult for us.

I once came across a book called ‘The Selfish Gene’ The point of the book as far as I can remember was that we humans rose to the top of the evolutionary ladder because we are genetically programmed to look after ourselves at the expense of all other species. Now that is a bit blunt it seems to me and doesn’t take into account all the selfless and self giving altruism that we  see in human living at its best. But the present world financial crisis which is causing so much anxiety, heartache and suffering to so many is an example of the damage that unbridled human selfishness can cause.

The former chairman of RBS seems to be having real problems in denying himself of his already over-generous pension. The default position for most of us is to allow the selfish gene free range in our lives. Jesus challenges that and calls us to a new and better way of living as his followers. And we ought not to soft-sell Christianity and Christian discipleship by trying to air-brush the cross from it. But it is hard, and can only be achieved with the help of his grace.

Jesus isn’t only our example of how to live he is also our enabler – through his Spirit. That is why our common life together in the Church is so vital for our Christian discipleship. You see we are called together to live out our Christian vocation to follow Christ together in a community. We are different; we are individuals with our own hopes and aspirations, our own fears and concerns, our own views on life, our own way of living our lives, our own expectations of ourselves and of each other. But different though we all are we are called together in a community.

For any community to work and to be a community demands that it’s individual members surrender something for the sake of others and for the common good. Everybody has to deny themselves at some point. That is what Jesus is asking of us all the time. When we gather to celebrate the Eucharist we recall Jesus’ cross and we feed on his life poured out upon that cross so that we can become more like him. And it’s not just for the benefit of this community, but so that we can demonstrate to the world the new and better way of living and of being human that Jesus calls us to.

That way,  the cross of self-denial will lead to resurrection and new life for us,  for the Church,  and for the world,  as it did for Jesus. Many of the ills of society can be put down to the selfish gene being allowed free reign in people’s lives. So often just recently through this financial crisis I have heard people saying: ‘We have got to find a different way of living our lives’. Jesus shows that way to us: ‘If any want to be my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’