Have you heard someone say: “We’re going out. Are you coming?” In Mark 8:34 Jesus challenges you to follow him — and outlines the cost of doing so.
Come after Jesus. Follow Jesus as he travels to Jerusalem. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Although the destination is not explicitly named until Mark 10:32–34, Mark seems to be describing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 16 describes the three major feasts at which the Israelites were to gather at the place the Lord would choose: Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles. The feast to which Jesus is described as traveling to is the Feast of Passover. Don’t overlook the corporate aspect of the trip. The Passover was a feast looking back at God delivering his people. And it was observed by the people going up. God’s people are consistently described as going up to Jerusalem. The mountain is where God meets with his people: Eden Ezekiel 28:13–14, Ararat, Sinai, Jerusalem. Don’t overlook the corporate aspect of your life as a Christian. You need the rest of the body of Christ as you follow Jesus. Follow the Savior on this journey. He begins it with an invitation.
What makes this journey unique is that you are called to follow Jesus, the Christ. This is the Savior whom Peter has just confessed to be the Christ. Jesus is on his way to the cross. This is a Passover observance, but not just any Passover. This is the Passover to end all Passovers, the one at which the Messiah will be offered as the great Passover lamb. The speaker is the glorious Son of Man. Jesus’ self-designation looks back to the clouds of Daniel 7. You do not repeat Christ’s work, but you are united with him in his sufferings and death as well as in the glory to which he has ascended.
What do you do to accompany Jesus on this journey? Deny, take up, and follow. Deny yourself. This is not denying yourself certain things. People may give up something for Lent. Some Christians treat certain substances as evil — as though sin lies in things, rather than in our hearts. Too often this kind of denial turns into an effort at self-righteousness. Rather, Jesus calls you to deny yourself. Lose your life by saving it. Behind Jesus words lie Psalm 49, a wisdom Psalm, parallel to the Book of Proverbs. The later part of the Psalm reflects on the one who is rich — but without wisdom. (Wisdom in this kind of setting involves a right understanding of God and of your relationship with him.) Trust in self and in riches leads to destruction. The Psalm also points out the impossibility of giving a payment or a ransom for a life. Save your life by losing it! Autosoterism, efforts to save yourself, fail. Jesus invites, even commands you to surrender yourself to him. Replace the centrality of self with a willingness to submit, regardless of the cost, to God. Only in that surrender is the ultimate deliverance. Fight the tendency to serve God–with qualifications.
Jesus sharpens the point — Take up your cross! Your cross is not the trials of life, or tiresome people. You are united with Christ in his suffering and death. Grasp the powerful language Jesus uses. (Think of a noose tied to a tree or hung from a pickup truck.) But Jesus is not just using the image for shock value. And he is certainly not using it as a means of intimidation or an expression of hatred. Being subject to crucifixion in the first century meant that you were less than. Roman citizens were not subject to that form of punishment — it was reserved for barbarians and slaves. Jesus, the God-man, was willing to be less than in order to bear the penalty for your sin and be your Savior. Though the Passover journey is a corporate one, notice that here Jesus addresses the individual. There is no just coming along for the ride on this. Everyone is summoned to take up his cross. Jesus is speaking to you. You are summoned to die to sin and to self. You are involved in a radical commitment, and Jesus tells you to count the cost. In some corners of American Christianity, even some Reformed circles, that concept gets lost in the idea of the church achieving earthly dominion, sometimes regardless of the cost to biblical standards.
“Jesus announces as an absolutely requisite, ‘life-saving’ condition of discipleship: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’ (Luke 9:23–24; cf. Matt.10 :38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 14:27). Cross-bearing is a comprehensive description of kingdom-discipleship, as the qualification ‘daily’ makes explicit. In response to the disciples’ request for prominent kingdom status — kingdom ‘dominion,’ if you will — the only promise Jesus has for them (and us), this side of his return, is the ‘fellowship of sharing in his sufferings’ (cf. Phil. 3:10): ‘You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with’ (Mark 10:37, 39). John has got it just right: until Jesus comes again, the presence of the kingdom is bracketed by the realities of ‘suffering’ and ‘endurance’ (Rev. 1:9; cf. 3:11; 22:7, 12. 20).”
Richard B. Gaffin Jr, Word and Spirit, page 716
Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus in this sinful generation. You live in a world that is fallen, a world that has rebelled against its rightful Lord. And consistent following of Jesus can be very unpopular. You may met scorn from teachers, ridicule from classmates and “friends.” You may dismissed as sel-righteous or hypocritical. But be willing to confess Jesus’ name. Be willing to follow him. Follow Jesus in glory. Jesus puts the consequences in the negative. Denying him today means that he will deny you when he returns in glory. He paints the picture, not only mentioning his coming, but the presence of a heavenly army of glorious angels. In that day the saddest words will be, “I never knew you, depart from me.” But the implication, made explicit in Matthew, is that Jesus will confess, openly and publicly, before his Father in that glorious day, that we sinners belong to him. We are those for whom he died, whose forgiveness he purchased, whom he has enabled to glorify and serve him in this wicked generation. That glory was anticipated in the Transfiguration, it became true of Christ in his resurrection, but it still looks forward to its fullness in the last day.
Jesus invites you on a journey. Yes, it leads to Jerusalem, and you are called to take up your cross. But it also leads beyond the cross to glory. And the choice you make today can have implications for all eternity. Jesus summons you to trust him and to follow him.