Chapter 4-
Discipleship and the Cross
Mar 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of
man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief
priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mar 8:32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter
took him, and began to rebuke him.
Mar 8:33 But when he had turned about and looked on
his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him
with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mar 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same
shall save it.
Mar 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mar 8:37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?
Mar 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me
and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the
Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels.
Bonhoeffer- 'Jesus
must therefore make it clear beyond all doubt that the "must" of
suffering applies to his disciples no less than to himself. Just as Christ is
Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a
disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord's suffering and rejections and
crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefor
submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross.
Surprisingly enough,
when Jesus begins to unfold this inescapable truth to his disciples, he once
more sets them free to choose or reject him. "If any man would come after
me," he says. For it is not a matter of course, not even among the disciples.
Nobody can be forced, nobody can even be expected to come. He says rather
"If any man" is prepared to spurn all other offers which come his way
in order to follow him. Once again, everything is left for the individual to
decide.'
My thoughts- So why are we taught that to suffer is to be
avoided at all costs? Why are we 'programmed' to believe suffering is something
awful? We are taught this. As babies and little children we are being taught to
shun all suffering. We are instead taught to indulge all our desires and whims
so we don't even begin to take on the tiniest of sufferings. It's not this way all over the world. There
are 'third world' countries where people are raised in a culture of nothing but
suffering and children learn very young that this is their lot in life and they
learn to make the best of it all.
Jesus taught the
disciples that he would suffer, he would be rebuked, he would be put to death
and the reaction… Peter began to rebuke Jesus.
The disciples could not imagine their beloved Messiah being caused to
suffer, being rebuked, being rejected and ultimately being put to death! No way! They didn’t want that to happen! But
Jesus turned around and REBUKED Peter- calling Peter, Satan. Telling Peter that he didn't want the things
of God, but the things of men. Isn't
that the case for ALL of us?! Jesus continued and told them - 'Whosoever will
come AFTER me- le him DENY HIMSELF, take up his CROSS, and FOLLOW me. Whosoever will SAVE his life SHALL LOSE IT;
but whosoever shall LOSE his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall
SAVE it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the WHOLE WORLD, and
lose his own soul?'
What do we make of
this? Seriously, what do we make of those words of our SAVIOR'S?
Are we, like Peter
wanting to tell Jesus He is wrong? Do we want to tell Jesus, NO, You shouldn't
suffer Jesus, and NO, we shouldn't suffer either, Jesus. No one should suffer,
and surely no one who believes you, no one who follows you the Messiah, should
be put to death!
IF we act like
Peter, if we believe like Peter, then we are acting under the power of SATAN!
And Jesus will say to us, just like He said to Peter, 'Get thee behind me,
Satan.'
We can follow the
corrupt ways of mankind and especially of the materialistic views of our day
and age and we will be disciples of Satan. Or we can follow Christ, but we have
to DENY ourselves, we have to PICK UP our CROSS!
We aren't forced,
never forced, we must choose our path. We must choose who we will follow.
If we imagine that
we can get by in this world without following either God or Satan, think again.
When you choose to look to yourself you are not looking to your Creator and
most certainly not your Savior. And when
we do not look to God there is only one other place to look- Satan. Satan loves when you choose to follow your
own path because he know that by your rejecting God you are accepting him.
More tomorrow by the
GRACE of GOD! Please LORD, help us to LEARN the truth of DISCIPLESHIP and in
learning, believe and follow as YOU want us to follow YOU.
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