“JESUS OFFERS A HARD KNOCK LIFE”
The Life Jesus Offers
April 26, 2015
Cornerstone Community Church
Little Orphan Annie made her debut in the cartoons of American newspapers in 1924. The strip took its name from a poem written in 1885. By 1937 it was the No. 1 cartoon strip in the country. The Broadway play “Annie” came out in 1977, and in 1982 that play became a movie, a new version of which just came out in 2014. And if you’ve seen the play or the movie, then you’re familiar with the song titled “It’s A Hard Knock Life.” It’s sung by Annie and her friends in the orphanage; here are some of the words: “It’s a hard knock life for us; it’s a hard knock life for us … No one’s there when your dreams at night are creepy. No one cares if you grow or if you shrink. No one dries when your eyes get wet and weepy … Oh, empty belly life! Rotten smelly life! Full of sorrow life! No tomorrow life! It’s a hard knock life!”
We’re in a series from the Gospel of Mark called “The Life Jesus Offers,” and we’ve discovered that Jesus offers us quite an incredible life. He offers us the adventure of a lifetime. He offers to clean us up and give us a fresh start. He offers answers to our prayers. He offers eternal life. He offers to make us well. But you might remember that in the first week of this series we made this particular point very clear; here’s how we said it – the life Jesus offers is incredibly hard, unimaginably good and completely true.
For most of this series we’ve focused on the last two of those three statements. We’ve seen many ways in which the life Jesus offers is unimaginably good, and we’ve also highlighted that the life Jesus offers is based on truth, such as the truth of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. But that’s not the whole picture, and I think we all already know that quite well. Yes, the life Jesus offers is the best life we could live. But the whole truth is this – the life Jesus offers is in many ways a hard knock life.
Now I hope that doesn’t scare you or turn you off, because there’s more to the story. Yes, Jesus tells us, it’s a hard knock life. But if you hang in there, if you are determined to endure the bumps and the bruises, you can be sure that the story of your life has a happy ending. Do you ever watch the Hallmark Channel on TV? My wife and I are a little embarrassed to admit this, but from time to time we really enjoy watching a movie that was made specifically for the Hallmark Channel. And the reason is this – we know the story will always have a happy ending. Sure, you can criticize the movies for being formulaic and schmaltzy. You pretty much know how the movie is going to end five minutes in. But sometimes, that’s OK. Sometimes we just want to sit down and watch a story that we know with 100% certainty is going to end happy.
And here’s what Jesus tells us as his followers. Yes, it’s a hard knock life. Yes, there are going to be bumps and bruises and disappointment and heartache and pain. But that’s not how the story of my life or your life will end. If we follow Jesus, we can know with 100% certainty that the end of our story will be a happy one.
That, by the way, is a message the first readers of the Gospel of Mark very much needed to hear. You might remember that Mark’s first readers were Christians living in Rome, many of whom were hiding out in the catacombs deep underneath the streets of the city. They were in the middle of a period of extreme persecution at the hands of the Emperor Nero, who had made them the scapegoats for a fire that had burned much of Rome. Under Nero many Christians had been dressed up in animal skins and thrown in to the wild animals to be torn apart and eaten. Other Christians had been covered in tar and set on fire to light the streets of Rome at night. So they were well aware that the life of a follower of Jesus is a hard knock life. But reading Mark’s Gospel helped them understand that there was more to the story, that the story had a happy ending, for Jesus and for them. Yes, there would be pain and hardship. But in the end, if they remained faithful to their Lord, it would be more than worth it.
The passage we’re studying this morning is found in Mark 8. There’s a lot packed into this chapter. It begins with Jesus feeding 4000 men a full meal with only a few loaves of bread and a handful of small fish; it’s the second feeding miracle Jesus performs. As the chapter continues Mark tells how Jesus miraculously restores sight to a blind man by spitting on the man’s eyes. Then we come to a couple of events that show us Peter at his best and at his worst. Bible scholars tell us that Mark’s Gospel is based largely on what Peter told Mark. So you might think you’d only read positive things about Peter in this Gospel, but in fact Mark’s Gospel is probably harder on Peter than the other three Gospels are.
Here’s what happens. As the disciples are following Jesus around the northern part of Israel Jesus asks them a question: “Who do people say that I am?” To which they replied, “Well, some say you’re John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others say you’re one of the prophets.” So Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers: “You are the Messiah.” (Mark 8:29) And that was the right answer. And you might remember that in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus commends Peter for this answer and makes a big deal about it. But not here; not in Mark’s Gospel, which is based on Peter’s recollection of events. Here there’s no pat on the head, no “atta boy.” Instead the story just keeps moving along. And what happens next is something you would think Peter would rather forget. Here’s what we read:
Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter: “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mark 8:31-33)
How would you like it if someone said to you, “Get behind me Satan”? You’d probably be offended, wouldn’t you? Those are pretty harsh words. So imagine if Jesus himself said that to you – how would you feel then? Think about this – just moments before Peter gets the right answer to the biggest question people in Israel were asking: “Who is Jesus?” Peter says, “Jesus is the Messiah,” and he was right. But then Jesus gives the disciples a “heads up.” He lets them in on how things are going to go down. He’s going to suffer; he’s going to be rejected by the elders; he’s going to be put to death. And then, three days after his death, he’s going to rise again. And Peter apparently misses the whole “happy ending” thing about the resurrection and gets quite upset about this news that the Messiah is going to suffer and be killed. So he pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus! This, of course, is consistent with everything we know about Peter from the Gospels – Peter has no unexpressed thoughts. Have you ever known anyone like that? I’m at the other extreme – I’ll think about something for hours, even days, before I say anything because I want to be sure I say it just right. But Peter is the type who just blurts out whatever he’s thinking and whatever he’s feeling. And in this instance, he happens to get it completely wrong, and Jesus calls him on it.
But to be fair to Peter, in some ways he’s only saying what we’re all thinking. Peter is thinking, “Wait, if you’re the Messiah, then bad things shouldn’t happen to you! It should be smooth sailing.” And here’s what Peter is probably also thinking: “And it should be smooth sailing for us.”
We’ve thought that, haven’t we? We’ve thought, “Lord, shouldn’t following you make life easier? Shouldn’t we get a bit of a free pass from pain and hard knocks if we are doing what you called us to do?” That only seems fair, doesn’t it? I mean, why would anyone want to follow Jesus if all he offers us is a hard knock life?
But that’s not the end of the chapter, much less the end of the story. And this next sentence is quite interesting; notice what Mark says: “Then Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said …” (Mark 8:34) Mark wants us to understand that these next words of Jesus weren’t just meant for the disciples’ ears; Jesus wanted everyone who was considering becoming one of his followers to hear this. These next words aren’t just for the insider; these are for all of us. And here’s what Jesus says:
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. (Mark 8:34-38)
Now there are some hard words in there for us, some hard thoughts to swallow. But before we talk about those, let’s not miss the big picture. Let’s not miss the happy ending. The big picture Jesus was trying to paint for the disciples about his own life was this: “I’m going to suffer, be rejected and be killed, but only three days later I’m going to rise from the dead!” And all Peter and the guys heard was, “I’m going to suffer and die.” They let Jesus’ description of his hard knock life obscure the fact that he was going to come back to life. They let the hard beginning eclipse the happy ending. And we sometimes do the same when we read these words of Jesus. We get discouraged by the challenge to deny ourselves and to take up our cross, because that just sounds so hard and so unappealing. But we miss the happy ending. We miss that Jesus is telling us about the happy ending. And how does the story end? With Jesus coming in his Father’s glory and with his holy angels to rescue us and to usher us into eternity! This is the “happily ever after” moment at the end of the Hallmark movies, at the end of the Disney movies, at the end of the fairy tales. Only it’s not a fairy tale – this is really how our story ends, with eternal life and glory and happiness and peace.
But yes, it is true – for we who follow Jesus, before the happy ending, it’s a hard knock life. And this isn’t the only place Jesus tells us that. In John’s Gospel Jesus says this: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) That word “trouble” is translated in other contexts in the New Testament with the word “tribulation.” In this world, Jesus told us, we will have tribulation. Being a Christian does not exempt us from trouble and hardship and pain.
But here’s what I want us to see this morning – the hard knocks Jesus warns us about in Mark 8 are different from the normal hard knocks of life. And by “normal” hard knocks, I’m talking about those things that happen to all of us, whether we’re Christian or atheist, male or female, American or Australian. We all get sick. We all get stuck in traffic. We all have long days at work. We’re all misunderstood and underappreciated.
But that’s not what Jesus is talking about when he tells us this: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) You see, most suffering is because of things that happen to us, things we don’t choose. We don’t choose to get cancer. We don’t choose to have our car stolen. Most of the hard things we experience in life are things we wouldn’t choose and didn’t choose.
But notice what Jesus says to all of us who want to be his disciple. What is it we “must” do? We must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. Let’s start with that first thought – deny yourself. Have you ever had someone deny you? Guys, you bought some flowers for your wife and brought them home to her. You told her how pretty she looked. You wrapped your arms around her waist and gave her a sweet kiss on her head. And before you even asked, she denied you: “Not tonight, honey, I have a headache.” You understood, but it still stung a little, didn’t it.
But Jesus isn’t talking about being denied; he’s talking about choosing denial. And let’s not miss the purpose of choosing denial. It’s not denial for denial’s sake. It’s not being a martyr. Jesus reminds us of the point in the next verse when he says “but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Jesus says, “If you want to follow me, there are going to be times when you’re going to have to choose to deny yourself in order to serve me and to spread the gospel.”
Then look at that second phrase – “take up your cross.” Have you ever heard someone say something like this: “My job is so miserable. I work so hard and I don’t get paid near enough. But I guess that’s just my cross to bear.” Or maybe someone has said something like this: “I’ve had this problem with my knees for years; but that’s my cross to bear.” And we understand what they’re saying. They’re telling us that, like all of us, they’ve got some hard things in their lives. But the point I’m making is this – that’s not what Jesus meant when you told us that we need to choose to take up our cross and follow him. In other words, not every hard thing in our lives is a “cross to bear.”
And here’s something else “to take up your cross” doesn’t mean – it doesn’t mean to wear a cross as a piece of jewelry. Mind you, if you wear a cross as a statement to the world that you follow Jesus, I think that’s terrific; it’s just not what this verse means. There was a soldier stuck in a foxhole in the middle of a bombardment. As he tried to dig the hole a little deeper to gain himself a bit more protection, he struck something hard and metallic. When he dug it out he discovered it was a cross. A few minutes later, while the shelling continued, the chaplain came stumbling into his foxhole. The soldier looked at him, showed him the cross and said, “I’m so glad you’re here. Can you show me how to work this thing?”
So obviously to “take up your cross” doesn’t mean to wear a cross as a sort of lucky charm. So what does it mean? The imagery is pretty clear and pretty gruesome. When the Romans crucified someone in those days, the criminal was made to take up and carry the cross-beam to the site of the crucifixion, where it would then be attached to the vertical beam that would be set into the ground. To “take up your cross” means to choose to be willing to die for the sake of Jesus and for the sake of the gospel.
Now we live in a time and place where we aren’t forced to make that choice, the choice between following Jesus and staying alive. But throughout history, and in many places in the world today, that’s exactly what’s been at stake.
Have you ever heard the phrase “we’ll cook his goose”? That phrase originally referred to a Christian reformer named John Hus, whose last name in the Czech language means “goose.” In the early 1400s Hus became a popular preacher in Prague, but he angered the church leaders by preaching that salvation was only through Jesus, and not the church, and by preaching that the Bible should be read by every person and not just by the priests. He was put on trial and told to recant his teachings, but he refused. And so he was sentenced to die. They tied him to a stake and just before lighting him on fire gave him one more chance to say he was wrong. He refused, and said this: “Lord Jesus, it is for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray thee to have mercy on my enemies.” John Hus was burned to death in 1415, sixteen years before Joan of Arc was herself put to death. And one hundred years later a man named Martin Luther was inspired by Hus to pursue his reforms of the church.